The Boston Symphony Orchestra Education Advisory Committee

The Boston Symphony Orchestra Education Advisory Committee and
" S n a z z y Snare" welcome you to the world of percussion. We hope as you
use the materials in the packet that you and your students become excited
about using percussion to enhance activities across the curriculum. We hope
that you will build upon the sample activities and ideas and that “Snazzy
Snare” becomes a permanent member of your classroom.
Myran Parker-Brass
Boston Symphony Orchestra
Education Department
Carol Nicolucci
Newton Public Schools
Sandra Nicolucci
Wellesley Public Schools
Carlton Doctor
Newton Public Schools
Edith Roebuck
Chelsea Public Schools
Maurice Downey
Framingham Public Schools
Susan Smith
Melrose Public Schools
Henry Kearsley
Visual Artist
Retired Teacher
Murphy Lewis
Boston Public Schools
1
ARTS EDUCATION STANDARDS
This packet has been designed with the following information from the
National Standards for Arts Education and the Massachusetts Arts Curriculum
Frameworks as a guide:
National Standards
Massachusetts Arts Frameworks
CORE CONCEPT: Performing, creating and responding
to the arts is the fundamental process in which humans
engage. Every student should know and be able to do
the following:
CORE CONCEPT: Learning in, through and about
the arts develops understanding of the creative process
appreciation of the importance of creative work
Standard 1: Sing alone ad with others, a varied repertoire
of music.
Strand I: Creating and Performing
Lifelong learners:
LS 1. Use the arts to express ideas, feelings and
beliefs
LS 2. Acquire and apply the essential skills of
each art form.
Standard 2: Perform on instruments, alone and with others
a varied repertoire of music.
Standard 3: Improvise melodies, variations and
accompaniments.
Standard 4: Compose and arrange music within specified
guidelines.
Standard 5: Read and notate music
Strand II: Thinking and Responding
Lifelong learners:
LS 3. Communicate how they use imaginative and
reflective thinking during all phases of
creating and performing.
LS 4. Respond analytically and critically to thier
own work and that of others.
Standard 6: Listen, analyze and describe music
Standard 7: Evaluate music and music performances
Standard 8: Understand relationships between music,
the other arts, and disciplines outside the arts.
Standard 9: Understand music in relation to history and
culture.
Strand III. Connecting and Contributing
Lifelong learners:
LS 5. Make connections between the arts and other
disciplines.
LS 6. Investigate the cultural and historical
contexts of the arts.
LS 7. Explore the relationship between arts, media
and technology.
LS 8. Contribute to the community’s cultural and
artistic life.
Source for background materials:
Diagram Group. 1976. Musical Instruments of the World, An
Illustrated Encyclopedia. New York: Fax on File
Explore pitched and non-pitched percussion instruments
Have students invent a new percussion instrument and present it to class with
directions on how to use-instruments can range from one sound to multiple
pitches.
Have students develop sound effects using percussion instruments for a short story
or poem, e.g., "The Snowy Day" by Ezra Keats
Explore the history of percussion instruments
Explore all the different ways you can play percussion instruments
Have students create a mural using percussion instruments
Discuss how people have adapted everyday objects and their bodies as percussion
instruments
Trace percussion instruments across cultures-playing, decoration, have students
make instruments thinking about their culture, what would they do to make this
instrument “beautiful”
Have students recreate the percussion sounds they hear visually-this can lead to
inventive notation
Translate abstract paintings into percussion sounds
Make own painting and interpret with sound - this could lead to art exhibit
Use clips from videos showing - making of steel drums
- creating a native drum
Create a card game using description of percussion instruments
11
POETRY AND PERCUSSION
Poetry and percussion instruments provide the creative teacher with hours of fun, interesting
and imaginative classroom activities. The following “shapes” for poems offer numerous avenues
for exploring and writing poetry in combination with percussion instruments, for percussion
sounds can be selected to accompany each creatively written poem.
The haiku is a three-line, unrhymed Japanese poetry form composed of five syllables in
the first line, seven in the second, and five in the third. Here is an example:
February
The bus breezed by me
splashing mud and icy slush
that stuck to my coat.
The tanka is another Japanese form of poetry, similar to the haiku, only it is longer. It is
five lines, and it does not rhyme. The first line has five syllables; the second, seven; the third,
five; the fourth, seven; and the fifth, seven. Here is an example:
Thunderstorm
The weirdly colored
Silent dark oppressive sky
Threatening to storm
Softly groans, grumbles, then cracks
And it gives its flashing grin.
Rhyme, rhythm and number of syllables are not important to this form of poetry.
Following the line-by-line directions, students can create a poem in the shape of a diamond:
Line 1: Noun
Line 2: Two adjectives describing the noun
Line 3: Three participles ( -ed, -ing)
Line 4: Four nouns, or a phrase about the noun
Line 5: Three participles that begin to show a change in the subject
Line 6: Two adjectives which continue the idea of change
Line 7: Noun, the opposite of the subject (the noun in Line 1)
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In a who-what-when-where-why poem, each line answers one of these questions:
1. Who is the subject?
2. What is he/she/it/they doing?
3. When does the action take place?
4. Where does the action take place?
6. Why does the action take place?
Here is an example:
Migration
A cloud of dark, swift birds
Flying against the wind
Sweeping across the sky
Because the wind keeps getting colder
When the leaves blow off the trees.
A contrast poem has two parts. Each part shows a different side of a subject. To create a
contrast poem, students are to think of a person, a thing, or an idea. They are to choose two
different ways of looking at the subject or choose two different ways of describing it. They can
use the subject as the title of their poem. Here is an example:
Bock Concert
Amplify the words and music
for thousands of fans
Every second must be filled
with sound.
Hours later, everyone is gone
My footsteps echo
through the empty hall.
A cinquain is a five-line poem. Each line follows a rule. Here is how to write each line:
Line 1: A word for the subject of the poem
Line 2: Two words that describe it
Line 3: Three words that show action
Line 4: Four words that show feeling
Line 5: The subject word again, or a synonym for it.
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Here is an example:
Clock
Time keeper
Turning, reaching hands
Fat, ugly-faced reminder
Timer
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PICTURE BOOK PERCUSSION
Picture books certainly lend themselves to percussion dramatization. The following annotated
bibliography represents a sampling of possibilities to link literature and percussion music.
Alexander, Lloyd. 1992. The Fortune Tellers. New York: Dutton Children’s Books.
A young carpenter hears that a fortune-teller has come to the next town. He immediately
sets off to learn of his future. After promising predictions from the old man seer, the young man’s
fate takes a turn that offers much wise and witty fun for the reader.
Brown, Craig. 1992. City Sounds. New York: Greenwillow Books.
Farmer Brown comes to the city to pick up an important package. As he hurries to the post
office, he hears many city sounds: trucks, fire engines, jackhammers, and train whistles, among
other things. He hears a surprising noise which gets his important package home.
'
Bunting, Eve. 1987. Ghost's Hour, SpookHour,
New.
York: Clarion Books, Ticknor &
Fields: A Houghton Mifflin Company,
Readers’ hearts will jiggle along with Jake’s and Buff’s as they confront that scary time.. .
“Ghost’s Hour, Spook’s Hour.” The world of night is filled with scary things, especially scary
sounds. What is that Woooo outside the window?
Duff, Maggie. 1978. Rum Pum Pum. New York: MacMillan Publishing Co., Inc.
A lively retold Indian folktale in which Blackbird’s preparing to make war on the King who
has stolen his wife. Beating on his walnut drum, rum pum pum, rum pum pum, he marches
down the road with Cat, Stick, River and Ants to the palace. How Blackbird and his friends get
their revenge makes a story packed with surprises.
Emberley, Barbara and Emberley, Ed. 1967. Drummer Hoff. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey:
Prentice-Hall, Inc.
An adaptation of a folk verse all about the building of a cannon. Corporal Farrell brings the
barrel, Sergeant Chowder brings the powder. General Border gives the order-but it’s Drummer
Hoff who fires the cannon off and explodes the whole rhyme into a glorious burst of color.
Lester, Julius. 1989. How Many Spots Does a Leopard Have? And Other Tales .
New
York: Scholastic, Inc.
Acts of vanity, trickery, quiet courage and fraternal loyalty enrich this collection of vivid
African and Jewish folktales, retold by a master storyteller.
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ADDITION4
RESOURCES
Diagram Group. 1976. Musical Instruments of the World, An Illustrated Encyclopedia.
New York: Fax on File
.
Bramer, Mary. 1978. The Desperation Day Book, New York. Scholastic Book Services, a
division of Scholastic Magazines, Inc.
Macmillan. 1994. Music and You Resource Book, New York: Macmillan/McGraw-Hill
School Publishing Company
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We would like to thank the following people for their special contributions to
this curriculum packet:
Creation of "Snazzy Snare"
Henry Kearsley
Visual Artist
Boston Symphony Orchestra Education Advisory Committee
Layout for cover and poster:
Richard Chiarella
Boston Symphony Orchestra
Graphic Designs
Layout for curriculum packet:
Eleanor McGourty
Boston Symphony Orchestra
Program Department