Revision of scientific facts
General brainstorm Body rhythms Song. Time piece. An improvised piece based on the idea of time and the clock. Click here for a full explanation.
place large sheets or rolls of paper on the floor and ask students to write down any words they can think of relating to the start of the universe. Ask them to decorate or colour their words if they wish. While doing this the group facilitators should improvise music on the same theme. This should help the students to get ideas and also establish the facilitators as a group with their own skills. It will also introduce the concept of improvisation.
We can make music without having instruments to play. Our bodies can be used as instruments.
How many different sounds can you make using your body? Hand claps. Foot stamps. Slapping thighs. Sounds with the voice (not singing). Tapping your cheeks while changing the shape of your mouth.
Introduce one or two ideas on the first day.
We can also use movement to give rhythm. eg. Stamp 1234, alternating L and R feet. With hands, clap the offbeats. Try jumping as high as you can on the first beat of the bar instead of stamping.
Step a 6/8 rhythm ie. RLR LRL and then clap the rhythm of Humpty Dumpty over it.
Once you feel comfortable doing different things with feet and hands at the same time, start working out more complicated rhythms, using different parts of the body. How fast can you go without losing rhythm?Try playing the same rhythm as slowly as possible and then as fast as possible. Try speeding up and slowing down without actually stopping. Try using your voice at the same time as your hands and feet.
The possibilities are endless, and if you are working in a group you can start to build up interesting poly-rhythms, even if the individual rhythms are simple.
Beware the Law of Gravity. All the group songs can be performed as rounds. Click here for an mp3 of the song performed as a round. Go to the 'scores' page to download pdf and Sibelius scores.
Writing
Ask the group to imagine they are present at the beginning of the universe and to write either a short sketch (possible characters: time, light, gravity, heat, hydrogen, helium) or a short narration that can be acted out by members of the group. Conversation between Time and Light from St Andrew's School, Oxford. Click here for pdf.
Visual Art
Ask the group to draw pictures of the first moments of the universe using the words they collectively came up with in the main group activity with colour and design. These can be used then or later as visual scores from which students can produce improvised soundscapes.
Music
Ask the group to think how they can replicate the sounds of the start of the universe. Is the big bang a single sound or does it build up from a low hum? Is the arrival of time a steady pulse? Can we produce rhythms and chants from the words you thought of in the large group activity?
Revision of scientific facts
General brainstorm Body rhythms Song.
place large sheets or rolls of paper on the floor and ask students to draw group or individual pictures of the solar system. Ask them to decorate with words if they wish. While doing this the group facilitators should improvise music on the same theme.
Introduce a new rhythm from the ideas above
Young Archie All the group songs can be performed as rounds. Click here for an mp3 of Young Archie performed as a round
Writing
Read and discuss the first half of the poem The First Men on Mercury by Edwin Morgan. How do you think the poem ends? Discuss attitudes to the idea of another language. Write a poem or dialogue by the inhabitants of another planet who are looking at the earth
Words and rhythm
Ask the group to think of the names of stars and constellations, add a few more. What ideas do we get from these names? Do they have certain colours, shapes or emotions connected with them? Can you make short songs using the rhythms of the words? Introduce the idea of a student conducting the group.
Music
Think of the elements that make up the solar system, the names of the gases and basic metals etc. Using rhythm and repetition as a basis can we create a pulse which is basis for a piece of music or a rap? This can be done using a loop pedal and voice amplification or by getting the group to create the loops and rhythms with their own voices. Here is an example of a rap by Year 6 at St Andrew's School, Oxford. Click here for mp3
Revision of scientific facts
General brainstorm Song.
place large sheets or rolls of paper on the floor and ask students to draw group or individual pictures depicting the emergence of bacteria, the emergence of first life on earth from the sea and the appearance of a green planet.
Writing
Imagine you're a bunch of bacteria. You've just come out of the sea onto a beach and are wondering whether to make this your new home or to go back into the water. Each of you has a particular human characteristic. Sketch of First Smelly Life on Earth by Year 6 at St Andrew's School, Oxford. Click here for pdf.
Words and rhythm
Using basic musical instruments, improvise sounds to reflect the beginning of life on earth. What words would be appropriate? How can you use conduction to bring in different elelments in your music?
Music
Continue to make rhythms and raps from the story of life beginning on earth. This can be done using a loop pedal and voice amplification or by getting the group to create the loops and rhythms with their own voices. Bacteria rap using voices and rhythms only. Click here to download mp3 file (4.5mb)
Revision of scientific facts. To remind the students of the brief time that humans have been on earth, it is useful to compare us with dinosaurs: they were the dominant species for 100m years, whereas homo sapiens has been a dominant species for 200,000 years.
General brainstorm Song.
Get students to write down three or four things that they feel humanity has been really good at and then three or four that we do really badly.
Writing
Mini council of all beings. Each students chooses to be a different form of being, this can include lakes and mountains etc as well as animals. Each student then makes notes, sketches of poems about what they would like to tell humans about the world as it is today. Dolphin Poem Click here for jpeg.
Rhythm and music
How can we use music and improvisation to express extinction and the rebirth of life, the development of a new species and the enormous diversity of life on earth today? Explore these ideas using words (animals species), rhythm and music on simple instruments. How can we use conduction to control and make alterations to an improvisation? Music
Continue to make rhythms and raps from the story of life on earth. Use the ideas that came up in the general brainstorm session about the positive and negative aspects of human existence. This can be done using a loop pedal and voice amplification or by getting the group to create the loops and rhythms with their own voices.
Click here for more information on basic conduction and the signals that can be used.