Primary students love to get their hands on instruments and make a joyful noise.    Keep the stress of “playing correctly” out of that joyful noise by  occasionally including improvisation.    Red, Orange, Yellow, Brown has features that make improvising easy.

ONE   Its pentatonic  (that means the tune stays on  do/re/mi/so/la)!   Set up a xylophone with only those notes, and anything played will harmonize with the tune.  Its a little music magic with a long mathematical explanation.

TWO Its short and simple.   Sing (or listen during Covid) the verse,   hum the verse,  then sing/listen again.   During the “hum”,  students in front of an instrument may play any note, in any rhythm.   When the words begin again, they stop.

Add a little movement and melody mapping with everyone using their hands to follow the notes up and down  (or use hand signs).

For tips and classroom instrument rules check out the information at      About  —–   timbre/instruments.            For Covid time, students touch only the mallets (student owned pencils!)   and only one xylophone is needed per class.  Detailed ideas on how-to are found in the song material included.

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