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Candy Bar Composition

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Directions:

Provide students with a grid - can have an 8 boxes (for 16 beat patterns) or a 4 boxes (for 8 beat patterns) or 2 boxes (for 4 beat patterns). Students choose which candy building block to place in each square in the boxes provided. They should be able to speak the pattern and pat the pattern before playing the pattern. Students could play these patterns on unpitched percussion, boomwhackers, drums, or barred instruments in a pentatonic scale.

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If done individually, ask them to partner with another student and share their pattern. If work was done as partners, ask two groups of partners to join together and share. If done in small groups, guide students as a whole class and facilitate as they share what they created.

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From here you could keep it there. Or allow for students to create complimentary ostinatos and create more than one layer of rhythms using the building blocks. Or using their ears to find areas that need more rests and where to place other rhythms to ‘fit’ the piece. This depends on many factors: time, space, instruments available, and where your kids are in the learning process and what they can handle. Simple is just as good as complex when done well and with understanding of being able to speak rhythms and perform them correctly.

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Other Candy Rhythm Options:

Laffy Taffy, Jolly ranchers - titi titi

Mars, Twix, Crunch, Nerds - ta rest

Snickers, SweetTarts, Kit Kat, Twizzlers, Air Heads, Pop Rocks - ta ta

Milky Way, Baby Ruth, candy corn, caramel, M&Ms, bottle caps, tootsie rolls - titi ta

Life Savers, Gobstoppers - ta titi

Three Musketeers - Ti-tika ta

Sourpatch kids - Tika-ti ta

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Candy Bar Rhythms

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Candy Bar Rhythms

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Create your own

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Create your own pattern.

Choose four building blocks

Write the rhythm and words in each block above.

4-beat rhythm Student Name _______________________________

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Create your own pattern.

Choose four building blocks

Write the rhythm and words in each block above.

8-beat rhythm Student Name _______________________________

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Create your own pattern.

Choose four building blocks

Write the rhythm and words in each block above.

16-beat rhythm Student Name _______________________________

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PART I: Fill in all 8 squares with building block rhythms

PART II: Fill in the first four squares

Repeat the pattern you wrote from the first four blocks

Part I: Create an ostinato that is 8 building blocks in length.

Part II: Create an ostinato that is 4 building blocks in length. Write this same ostinato a second time in the last 4 blocks.

**Be sure to check that rhythms are complementary**

Complementary rhythms Student Name __________________________