Music & Drama Lesson #1 - Upper Elementary
WARMING UP & Using Your Instrument
INTROS 2:00-2:05 (5 min)
Finding our your musical tastes.
“I’ve loads of fund things to do in the next hour. But I have a problem I need your help with. If people start talking, I freeze up. It’s the strangest thing. I freeze with one hand in the air and the only way to get me unfrozen is for everyone in the room to be quiet and raise one hand in the air too. Have you ever heard of anything so strange?
I’ll show you. Why don’t you 5 right here start talking to one another and see what happens.
I’ve been to the doctor about it, and they say there’s nothing they can do. So will you all help me out? I’d love to come back again, but if I have to raise my hand a lot, it’s bad for my back, and the doctors won’t let me return.
Okay, now that you understand my disability, and you’re going to be quiet, let’s get started.
VOCAL WARM UPS 2:05-2:30 (25 min)
Warm up exercises for singers and speakers. Singing is a bit like sports.
How many of you have ever pulled a muscle? What kind of warm ups do you do for sports? (Listen to some examples)
Our voice is like a muscle too. Singers, who want to protect and strengthen their voice do warm ups too. That’s what we’re going to learn about today.
1. Vocal Sigh – opens up your instrument. Can’t sing well if you’re all tight or tense. A “sigh” Clears out the cobwebs. Helps you relax. Take a deep breath and let it out with a sigh. Try a few times.
Now we make it bigger with your body: You are like a giant rag doll, or marionette puppet on strings. Reach to the ceiling, let it out the air and you slowly SLOWLY collapse from the top of your head & neck, then shoulders & back, then waist.
Try it a few times.
Teach how the diaphragm works and let students put hands on their waists and feel it move when they say:
“HA!” loudly.
3xs by groups: “HA! HA! HA!”
point out: low register of your voice, not in your throats. Like a football team says, “BREAK!”
2. HA!
“When I cross my hand over each other in front of myself, like giant scissors, then you all say “HA!” Pay close attention. Like I’m the conductor and you are my orchestra. Only say it when I cross my hands.”
(trick them by sometimes not crossing hands)
3. Humming
“Who can hum? Do you know how? Put lips together lightly, but keep teeth apart inside. When you hum, sometimes it tickles your lips. Try it.
Now, When I cross my hands in front side to side, you hum. And when I bring them back across you stop. Let’s see how that works.
Break class into 6 groups. Let each group try either HA, or HMmmm. See which group is the best “orchestra”
4. Snake – breath control
“This time we’ll make a different motion for the snake sound. When I put my hands above my head, take a deep breath. Let’s practice….Okay. Let the air out.
Now next time, you take a deep breath and I’ll start making my hand in a wavy motion like this….you do the snake sound until all your air is gone. Let’s see who can last the longest.
2:30-2:40 (10 min)
REVIEW hand motions. If they make a mistake, sit down.
(vocal sigh: hands up and drop)
Try as a “warm up orchestra” divide into 4 groups, show how to “cut off”
If it goes well, then next time we can learn a couple of other funny ones:
5. Dog Pant – also for diaphram & breath control together (try it)
6. Glissando – eliminating the break between your chest and head voice (try it)
Next time we can review these and add them to our “warm up orchestra”
2:40-2:55 (15 min)
MIRRORS:
Acting exercise for observation & concentration. Every acting class teaches it. We’ll just do a little today. Follow me (short trial). We’re going to do it along with a song and see how good you are at paying attention to the details.
SONG: Getting to Know You.
Has anyone ever been in a new setting where you didn’t know anyone?
Has anyone ever been in a setting where others are speaking a different language and you didn’t understand what was going on?
Do you know what a musical is? If you’ve ever seen one on TV or movies? Which one?
If you’ve ever seen a musical on stage stand up. Which one?
Has anyone ever heard of the musical “The King and I?”
Has anyone ever seen it?
1860’s story set in Thailand, musical in 1951 over 1200 performances!
movie in 1956, animated in 1999, rated #4 musical in 2005, toured in Asia in 2007. This is a version sung by James Taylor to his kids in 1991.
First Listen, while you follow me. Then we’ll try it in pairs. Next time we’ll try singing it together.
HIGHLIGHTS: What did you learn? 2:55
New words:
Diaphragm
Register
Head Voice
Chest Voice
Glissando
Break
Acting exercise: observation & concentration
Instrumental Interlude
From Wikipedia: The King and I is a musical by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, with a script based on the book Anna and the King of Siam by Margaret Landon. The plot comes from the story written by Anna Leonowens, who became school teacher to the children of King Mongkut of Siam in the early 1860s. Leonowens' story was autobiographical except that its objective accuracy is questionable. In Thailand, the possession of anything related to Anna and the King of Siam or The King and I is illegal, because of the historical inaccuracies about the King of Siam. It then became a movie and starred Deborah Kerr and Yul Brynner. [1] [2].
The musical opened on Broadway in 1951 and was the fourth hit out of five collaborations for the team of Rodgers and Hammerstein. It ran for 1,246 performances, winning the Tony Award for Best Musical, among other awards. It spawned numerous revivals, a popular 1956 film version and a 1999 animated version.
In 2005 the musical was rated fourth in a BBC Radio 2 listener poll of "The Nation's Number One Essential Musicals”
2007 Asia tour
The musical made its Asia premiere in Shenzhen, China, on April 25, 2007. The tour continued to Hangzhou, China, as well as to Seoul, Kuala Lumpur and Singapore.
INTROS 2:00-2:05 (5 min)
Finding our your musical tastes.
“I’ve loads of fund things to do in the next hour. But I have a problem I need your help with. If people start talking, I freeze up. It’s the strangest thing. I freeze with one hand in the air and the only way to get me unfrozen is for everyone in the room to be quiet and raise one hand in the air too. Have you ever heard of anything so strange?
I’ll show you. Why don’t you 5 right here start talking to one another and see what happens.
I’ve been to the doctor about it, and they say there’s nothing they can do. So will you all help me out? I’d love to come back again, but if I have to raise my hand a lot, it’s bad for my back, and the doctors won’t let me return.
Okay, now that you understand my disability, and you’re going to be quiet, let’s get started.
VOCAL WARM UPS 2:05-2:30 (25 min)
Warm up exercises for singers and speakers. Singing is a bit like sports.
How many of you have ever pulled a muscle? What kind of warm ups do you do for sports? (Listen to some examples)
Our voice is like a muscle too. Singers, who want to protect and strengthen their voice do warm ups too. That’s what we’re going to learn about today.
1. Vocal Sigh – opens up your instrument. Can’t sing well if you’re all tight or tense. A “sigh” Clears out the cobwebs. Helps you relax. Take a deep breath and let it out with a sigh. Try a few times.
Now we make it bigger with your body: You are like a giant rag doll, or marionette puppet on strings. Reach to the ceiling, let it out the air and you slowly SLOWLY collapse from the top of your head & neck, then shoulders & back, then waist.
Try it a few times.
Teach how the diaphragm works and let students put hands on their waists and feel it move when they say:
“HA!” loudly.
3xs by groups: “HA! HA! HA!”
point out: low register of your voice, not in your throats. Like a football team says, “BREAK!”
2. HA!
“When I cross my hand over each other in front of myself, like giant scissors, then you all say “HA!” Pay close attention. Like I’m the conductor and you are my orchestra. Only say it when I cross my hands.”
(trick them by sometimes not crossing hands)
3. Humming
“Who can hum? Do you know how? Put lips together lightly, but keep teeth apart inside. When you hum, sometimes it tickles your lips. Try it.
Now, When I cross my hands in front side to side, you hum. And when I bring them back across you stop. Let’s see how that works.
Break class into 6 groups. Let each group try either HA, or HMmmm. See which group is the best “orchestra”
4. Snake – breath control
“This time we’ll make a different motion for the snake sound. When I put my hands above my head, take a deep breath. Let’s practice….Okay. Let the air out.
Now next time, you take a deep breath and I’ll start making my hand in a wavy motion like this….you do the snake sound until all your air is gone. Let’s see who can last the longest.
2:30-2:40 (10 min)
REVIEW hand motions. If they make a mistake, sit down.
(vocal sigh: hands up and drop)
Try as a “warm up orchestra” divide into 4 groups, show how to “cut off”
If it goes well, then next time we can learn a couple of other funny ones:
5. Dog Pant – also for diaphram & breath control together (try it)
6. Glissando – eliminating the break between your chest and head voice (try it)
Next time we can review these and add them to our “warm up orchestra”
2:40-2:55 (15 min)
MIRRORS:
Acting exercise for observation & concentration. Every acting class teaches it. We’ll just do a little today. Follow me (short trial). We’re going to do it along with a song and see how good you are at paying attention to the details.
SONG: Getting to Know You.
Has anyone ever been in a new setting where you didn’t know anyone?
Has anyone ever been in a setting where others are speaking a different language and you didn’t understand what was going on?
Do you know what a musical is? If you’ve ever seen one on TV or movies? Which one?
If you’ve ever seen a musical on stage stand up. Which one?
Has anyone ever heard of the musical “The King and I?”
Has anyone ever seen it?
1860’s story set in Thailand, musical in 1951 over 1200 performances!
movie in 1956, animated in 1999, rated #4 musical in 2005, toured in Asia in 2007. This is a version sung by James Taylor to his kids in 1991.
First Listen, while you follow me. Then we’ll try it in pairs. Next time we’ll try singing it together.
HIGHLIGHTS: What did you learn? 2:55
New words:
Diaphragm
Register
Head Voice
Chest Voice
Glissando
Break
Acting exercise: observation & concentration
Instrumental Interlude
From Wikipedia: The King and I is a musical by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, with a script based on the book Anna and the King of Siam by Margaret Landon. The plot comes from the story written by Anna Leonowens, who became school teacher to the children of King Mongkut of Siam in the early 1860s. Leonowens' story was autobiographical except that its objective accuracy is questionable. In Thailand, the possession of anything related to Anna and the King of Siam or The King and I is illegal, because of the historical inaccuracies about the King of Siam. It then became a movie and starred Deborah Kerr and Yul Brynner. [1] [2].
The musical opened on Broadway in 1951 and was the fourth hit out of five collaborations for the team of Rodgers and Hammerstein. It ran for 1,246 performances, winning the Tony Award for Best Musical, among other awards. It spawned numerous revivals, a popular 1956 film version and a 1999 animated version.
In 2005 the musical was rated fourth in a BBC Radio 2 listener poll of "The Nation's Number One Essential Musicals”
2007 Asia tour
The musical made its Asia premiere in Shenzhen, China, on April 25, 2007. The tour continued to Hangzhou, China, as well as to Seoul, Kuala Lumpur and Singapore.
posted by K!Mberly at
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