Mary Knysh

www.rhythmicconnections.com

1 2 Let’s All Play ~ Pathways to Learning and Teaching

Forum für Schulmusik, Bern 4.2019

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Clíodhna Ní Aodáin

Representing the

Music for People Organization

www.musicforpeople.org

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Why is creative play so important?

Harvard neuroscientists in Boston, MA have determined that there are four ways to actually build a better brain throughout your life through “neuroplasticity” the growth of the connectors between left and right hemispheres of the brain.

The four elements that have the most important effect are ~

• Making music
• Movement
• Creative Play (returning to childlike attitude of play, imagination)
• Numinous Experience (those experiences in which our sense of self is absorbed into something bigger than we are)

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Nueroplasticity ~ How do we change our brain?

The four key components that have the most important impact are:

Making Music

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Movement

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Creative

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Numinous Experience

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Great video on the powerful effect of music on our brains! Click here

Exploring Mindfulness Through Music

Mindfulness is a special kind of attention characterized by attitudes of openness, curiosity, and acceptance. We notice our thoughts, feelings, physical sensations, and sense perceptions as we're having them in the present moment. Mindfulness is paying extra-ordinary attention to ordinary experiences. Making spontaneous authentic music can bring one to a mindset of being totally focused and 'in the zone' and this can be considered an active state of ‘mindfulness.’ Mindfulness is a chance to snap out of negative thinking and mindsets, push the reset button and have a fresh start. RELEASE! We begin with an attitude of ~

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OPENNESS CURIOSITY ACCEPTANCE

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Music for People Philosophy

Mindfulness Through Music

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OPENNESS CURIOSITY ACCEPTANCE

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One Quality sound

Authentic sound

Release to Awe and Wonder

Silence is your friend

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There are no Wrong Notes

Sing What You Play/

Play What You Sing

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Return to a child like attitude of wonder & play! (support video)

THE CREATIVE PROCESS OF TRANSFORMATION

Tapping Into Our Inspiring World, Inside of Us and Outside of Us

TRANSFORM

Values

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Why is this important? These strategies will help to:

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• 5 to 7 minutes of engaged opening for each class - beginning of class suite of student
• Provide important brain breaks for learners 10:2 to every ten minutes of input the brain seeks 2 minutes of recovery time
• Redirect students and provide them with tools to become an integral and vital part of the solution to the classroom management problem
• Keep in mind that these strategies are designed for you and also for other teachers in your building
• Moves your work into other classrooms
• Creates a daily experience that is joyful, childlike, productive, and rooted in creativity (beautiful days)
• Make beautiful children! (Cheryl Lavender quote)
• Think of yourselves as secret agents planting responsibility, respect, creativity and individual worth into otherwise overly planned environments

Welcome Ritual for Primary

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1. Breath to Boom!

2. Rumble to Freeze

3. Heartbeat Rhythm / Hello Hello Song

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Breath to Boom

• Students take a deep, relaxed breath as they raise both hands all the way up and catch a star (for younger students)
• Students slide their voices from high to low as their hands come slowly down (pull the star down for younger students)
• When they reach their laps, students shout, “Boom!”
• Repeat this until the class “Booms!” exactly together
• Change “Boom!” from a loud sound to a very soft one
• Hold out the “m” sound of “Boom” as you play a slow steady heartbeat together
• “How long and softly can you hum the ‘m’ sound while you play?”

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Link to support video: https://youtu.be/BW_VIICxMFM

Bringing the Energy Down

Babble to Freeze! Can the group stop together? Making STOP fun and engaging! Student leaders!

• Students put hands on legs and say PREPARE
• Take a breath and bring hands up in from of heart and say READY or the fun Italian version “Pronto!”
• First time: Leader says GO and all wiggle their fingers as fast as they can go until the leader says 1 2 3 4 FREEZE! Or STOP!
• Second Time: Add vocal sounds that track the fast moving fingers (great for articulation fun)
• Third Time: Move wiggling fingers UP and DOWN and babbling vocal sounds follow the movement of the fingers (Pitch exploration and vocal warm ups)

Rumble to Freeze!

Students learn the Hello Hello Song which features greetings from many cultures, then students create their own unique version of the song which they eventually lead themselves along with the warm up sequence which they also take over leadership of.

Hello Hello Song ~ A Classroom Portrait in Song

Lyrics:

Hello hello Buenos dias Bon jour Guten tag

Hello hello Konichiwa Selamat pagi Ciao ciao

Around the world each and every day

we greet each other, smile and say… …”

CHANT THE FOLLOWING:

Hello hello...that is English Buenos dias..,that is Spanish

Bonjour…that is French Guten tag…that is German

Hello Hello…that is English Konichiwa…that’s Japanese

Selamat pagi..,Indonesian Ciao ciao...that’s Italian

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Hello Hello Song ~ A Classroom Portrait in Song

Welcome Ritual for Upper Grades

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1. Breath to Boom

2. Rumble Firecracker

3. Musical Home Rhythm

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Create a Classroom Theme Song! Great for Upper Grades!

Don’t Worry Be Happy!

This is a great song for students to create their own verses to and very fun to sing!

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I used the sound shapes to conduct this song and I added the Music Rounds to the sound shapes to create the chords

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C:C E G Dm:D F A F:F A C

Legs Shoulders Head

Progression for song (reggae feel) step tap/tap

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| C | C | Dm | Dm | F | F | (repeat throughout song)

Exploring a World of Musical Styles ~ AFRICA

AFRICA: Explore these the drum syllables introduced by the African drummer, Baba Alatunji, he used GOON (middle of the drum) GO-­‐DO (edge of drum, movement from the elbow) PAH (edge of the drum, action from the wrist, very snappy) AFRICAN SHIKO PATTERN (Nigeria) - Sing & Play Parts

“Play What You Sing” move your song to the Orff instruments set up in amadinda style pentatonic C D E G A C : (it is truly a stunning transition to move from drums playing these rhythms to melodic instruments playing these rhythms)

Make it Your Own: Each time I introduce a cultural rhythmic pattern, I like to invite students to use these new influences to create their own music-­‐ so I make sure to allow some time for this to happen, for me this is an essential piece of the creative process-­‐

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Exploring a World of Musical Styles ~ AFRICA

Drum Circle Leader’s Toolbox

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The Six Basic facilitator skills include:

• Stop cut ~ Step Pulse and SAY | Four Three Two One || Stop!
• Call to groove ~ Step Pulse and SAY | One – two – Let’s all – play | IN!
• Continue to play ~ Roll hands in front of the body.
• Rumble ~ The leader wiggles or waves hands in front of the body to indicate that players should play as fast and loose as possible (i.e. rumble).
• Volume up and down ~ The leader uses body language, arms extended in front of the body with one hand facing up representing the base (silence) and the other hand on top of this moves up and down to represent a raising and lowering of volume.
• Sculpt ~ The leader selects a section of the circle or a set of individuals using a variety of indicators including body language, vocal, and visual aids.

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Support video 1: stop cut, call to groove, stepping pulse https://youtu.be/NxOiXPhD22s

Support video 2: volume, sculpting, rumble, continue to play https://youtu.be/X1Pjy-ZfM9M

A Day in the Forest ~ Story, Movement, Music, Visual Art

Integrating the Art Forms

Gabrielle Roth- The WAVE her concept of the five rhythms - flowing, staccato, chaos, lyrical, stillness

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“A DAY IN THE FOREST” sound and movement story

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Movers in the middle of the circle follow the storyline of the animals - daybreak, morning, storm, rainbow, night fall

Daybreak: animals are asleep on the ground, roll from side to side then slowly creep forward, then crawl and then stand

Morning: animals play hide and seek in the forest

Storm: wild winds swirl, rain pours and blows, thunder and lightning, animals run and hide,

Rainbow: as the storm clears away, a beautiful rainbow appears, animals venture back out

Night: animals go back home and go to sleep, stars return, night falls

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The group moved into ensembles and created their own version of A DAY IN THE FOREST according to the groups above.

Rhythmic Interventions for Daily Transition Points

Attention Greetings Focus Bringing the Energy Down Bringing the Energy Up Celebrating Successes Collaborations Creativity and Risk Taking Making Student Groups

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Strategies for Listening

• Double your silence
• Support the quietest member
• Tala ~ creating space for individual expressive (solo)
• Imitation ~ acknowledgment
• Breathe and movement

Listen ~ Silence is Your Friend

• How do you listen?
• To respond or…..
• To understand?

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Connect

• Heartbeat ~ Body Drumming Song (support video 1) (support video 2)
• Loop of creativity ~ inward/outward (support video)
• Sing what you play (voice is genius ) (support video)
• Play what you sing ~ Sing What you Play (The game of Opposites) Around the circle each person either sings a phrase and people play it back or they play a phrase and people sing it back
• Imitation across the circle (find a person ~ find a common pattern)
• One sound composition ~ each student offers one sound to the composition snd it is done when everyone has been heard

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Communicate

• Musical conversations (support video)
• Play me how you feel ~ tell me a story on your instrument
• Call and Response ~ we hear how you feel and acknowledge it
• Creating Space with TALA (hand counting) (support video)
• Double Your Silence ~ creating space for others to be heard

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Collaborate/Create

• Moving Drum Circles in Melody (support video)
• Listening/ Imitation: sculpt two or three players and invite rest of group to listen to these parts and imitate (join) one of them- now leave this part, but see how it adds to your expressive language (support video 2)
• Use song frameworks that can be adapted with student’s ideas ~ Hello Hello Song, Nothing Song, Down by the Bay, Iko Iko, etc

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Clapping Techniques ~

• Use three clapping variations to begin with, then invite group to create

Star Cup Side

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Movement to Sound ~ Sound to Movement

Dance Conducting

• Dance Conducting ~ the conductor creates a composition through body movements

FEET ~ drums HIPS ~ metals (strings) HANDS ~ shakers (winds) HEAD ~ woods (xylophones)

Sound to Movement Conducting

• Instrument Conductors ~ one drummer, one metal, one shaker, one wood

FEET ~ drums HIPS ~ metals (strings) HANDS ~ shakers (winds) HEAD ~ woods (xylophones)

Mirroring Process

• Duo teams pick one person to lead, other shadows the movement (trade leader role)

Share Leadership ~ Movement follows sound / Sound follows the movement

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Inspire

• Improvising with Instruments & Voice & Movement (support video)
• Seed Rhythm ~ One player’s idea (seed) is imitated by the group, then a new community rhythm merges and grows
• Spontaneously Harvesting Participant’s ideas (go with the flow)

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MfP Techniques

Musicianship / Attitude

• Warmup
• Oooh, Yeah, Fire Energy
• Textures & Timbres: Articulation, Vowels, Staccato

Musical Conversation

• Babbling
• Imitation: Play Back in Your Way, Voice is Genius, Sing Like an Instrument

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MfP Techniques

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Focus Melody

• One Quality Sound
• Sah
• Create Melodies: One Quality Sound after another
• Solo Drone
• Call and Echo - Call and Response
• Sing What You Play, Play What You Sing
• Expressive solo ~ tell a story in sound

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MfP Basics: One Quality Sound

Breath to One Quality Sound

• ONE QUALITY sound :Top of the breath/ Release breath and own and hold that sound
• ONE QUALITY chord ensembles around the room: facilitator invites groups of four around the room to stand in their own circle and conduct themselves to take a breath together and release the breath at the same moment so they remain true to their unique “personal note” creating a “one quality chord”
• Call/Response- SUSTAIN a note (create a textural chord layer in the moment for solos later on)

Reflect GLP Reflection Process

G: Grateful L: Learned P: Putting Into Practice

Activity Reflection Process ~ GLP brain based reflection walk, students pair up and walk for three minutes sharing three reflection points from their experience

Grateful ~ share something you are grateful for

Learned ~ share something you learned in the rhythmic activity about yourself or the group

Put into Practice ~ students share how they might be able to put into practice what they just learned.

Related Links

Music For People: www.musicforpeople.org

Mary Knysh ~ Rhythmic Connections: www.rhythmicconnections.com

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Brain Research & Music Articles of Interest

Shelly Snow research article on the power of 7 minutes of vocal toning: http://rdcu.be/uYEA

Entrainment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5v5eBf2KwF8

Victor Wooten: The Music Lesson Ted Talks Music as Language

Brain research links including: Numinous, creative play, music, movement

The brain on improv: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MkRJG510CKo

Building the musical muscle: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bTE0MRRXNzs

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Titles and People worth exploring

Don Campbell ~ Institute of Music and Healing (his work on music making,m particularly the powerful impact of the human voice is really inspiring) He wrote The Mozart Effect - here is a link to his books https://www.mozarteffect.com/

Eric Jensen ~ Teaching with the Brain in Mind (a terrific resource to understand better how kids learn and how best to provide an optimal learning environment for them https://www.jensenlearning.com/what-is-brain-based-research/

Gabrielle Roth ~ the WAVE 5 rhythms https://www.5rhythms.com/gabrielle-roths-5rhythms/

Barry Green ~ The Inner Game of Music, Bringing Music to Life http://theinnergame.com/inner-game-books/inner-game-of-music/

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Resource Materials

For “Return to Child” MfP book and more information ~

Check out Music for People

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Mary Knysh ~

Rhythmic Connections

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Workshop special: all Mary Knysh PDF books

$20 USD

Email Mary for special price

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