ORFFESTRATION LESSON PLAN

 

 

Merry Go Round of Life

Japan- Joe Hisaishi

3-5th Grade

 

Primary Outcome: Students will be able to play and perform Merry Go Round of life on Orff instruments and singing to understand the ¾ time signature better

 

Secondary Outcome: Students will show correct technique, musicality, learn about form, and improvisation (e.g., form, composition, technique)

 

Materials/Media: I will show a video of the music and some slides with shots of the movie, as well as have presentation slides to show form and other things. Printed out pictures of what I used to represent the sections in the music.

 

Background of the Song: This piece of music is from the Studio Ghibli movie called “Howls Moving Castle”. It is one of my favorite movies of all time and I think it is one of the reasons I fell in love with music in the first place. I first heard this song when I was very young and have always loved it. The piece is one of the most well-known pieces in the Studio Ghibli collection. It was one of the first songs I ever heard that was in ¾ and I wanted to share that with the students.

 

THE SONG

• Model song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMGetv40FkI

• Display visual

 

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ACCOMPANIMENT

• Teach bordun

  • Students mirror the bass bar bordun, it is in three so I want the students to have a strong sense of the three, so we are going to stomp on the downbeat to emulate the bass bar bordun, while tapping the 1-2-3 on their laps alternating hands to get that feeling in their heads sooner. Instructor sings the pattern so the students can hear the piece in context of the bordun, so I will sing M-M-S-S, so they can hear it and understand it a little better

  • Students sing the bordun pattern on solfège. Which is M-S, so while stomping and clapping we will have the students start that.

 

• Teach harmonic/pitched and unpitched instrument parts-

  • Starting with body percussion that we had established in the bordun, we will continue with the stomping on every down beat while clapping every quarter note

  • I will then teach the students the melody by tapping on alternating thigh the rhythm of the melody with the sticking technique on their laps

 

• • I will then start putting students onto instruments, starting with the bass bars

  • While they are still feeling that beat on the one of every measure and hearing the M-S and showing them how it is connected to each other, I will have student start playing

  • I have the students tapping alternating thighs to emulate the sticking pattern for the melody and I will move that student onto the soprano xylophone and teach them the part. While up there I will show them the pattern on the xylophone

  • Next I will move to the glockenspiel and bring up a student to do that instrument by translating the stomps into the chords they will be playing, showing them which chords to stick and when since the other parts are repeating

  • I will do the same with the alto xylophone and bring up a student to do that instrument by translating the stomps into the chords they will be playing, showing them, which chords to stick and when since the other parts are repeating

  • I will have students already clapping the three beats per measure I will have one or more continue clapping and one move onto a wood block

  • For the finger cymbals, I will bring a student and demonstrate what they are supposed to do again translating the foot stomps into it, but showing them its only every three measures instead of every foot stomp

  • For the windchimes Ill have the student be a part of clapping for until we repeat so they know that is their cue to do the windchimes

  • I will sing the vocal line the first time we repeat through the three sections and then have students join me on the second time through it

  • I will stop them all from playing and put the form visual up on the screen and show them that is what we will be following, ask them for volunteer for the improvisation part as

 

CONTRASTING SECTION(S)

• So for each section I wanted it to have a slightly different feel so for the first repeat is is going to be instruments only with no improvisation. The second time instruments with improvisation, then a third time with everyone including the vocals.

• What I did was have the piece repeat three times and on the 2nd time I will have some of the students improvise. It’s a three time repeat to again keep that 3 in mind. However, I also want there to be a chance for it to repeat multiple times past the three so multiple students will have chance to improvise.

• I wanted each time to feel different so the students would be able to tell the difference between them. And be able to easily pick them out as A-B-C and if we repeat we could move around the form with the printed out pictures. So we could do A-A-A, B-C-B-A, etc. I want the students to have the chance to move around and create their own version of the piece.

 

FORM:

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