New song posted online. Thanks to the children of Church Langton Primary School for singing for the recording, in a closed room, with large glass doors, on a very, very hot day!
There are also a word sheet, a vocal score and an audio backing track.
The song is copyright, but if you want to use it in a non profit making situation, please feel free, but do acknowledge the copyright, Alan Kirkland 2012
Below are 11 sheets for playing the Can Can, on boomwhackers, or other single note instruments. The first eight sheets allow a group to play the tune. If you print off the final three sheets you can substitute these with the tune sheets for the the C5 (long red) , D5 (orange) and E5 (yellow) boomwhackers to perform the can can with a few harmony notes added in.
Can Can A5 Purple; Can Can B5 Pink; Can Can C5 Red Long; Can Can D5 Orange; Can Can E5 Yellow; Can Can F5 Light Green; Can Can G5 Dk Green; Can Can C6 Red short; Can Can C5 Harmony version; Can Can D5 Harmony version_; Can Can E5 Harmony version
Below are 8 sheets, which should enable a group using the diatonic set of boomwhackers (8 note set, C to C), to play twinkle twinkle little star. The scores/sheets use numbers, so you don’t need any knowledge of conventional notation. Each player simply plays the yellow numbers and keeps silent for the black numbers. If the players of all eight notes do that correctly, starting and finishing together and maintaining the same speed throughout, then all the parts should fit together, like a musical jigsaw, to produce twinkle twinkle twinkle.
Twinkle for long red boomwhacker C Twinkle for orange boomwhacker D Twinkle for yellow boomwhacker E Twinkle for light green boomwhacker F Twinkle for dark green boomwhacker G Twinkle for purple boomwhackerA Twinkle for dark pink boomwhacker B Twinkle for short red boomwhacker C
Had a go this morning with a group that I run, at the haka in the video I’ve posted. I decided to get all the children to play both rhythms at the same time, which is something I’ve never done before. I did simplify it slightly. For the second rhythm (on the video the bottles play 3 sounds followed by 1 sound) I got them to play two hits rather than three (missing out the middle of the three), followed by one hit, as originally shown. (You need to have seen the video for this to make any sense at all!!!). The two bottle hits coincide exactly with the 3rd and 4th stick hits. For those who are familiar with musical language, the bottles play two bars of 4; the first bar they rest for two beats and then play on beats 3 and 4, and in the second bar they play once on beat number 3. It worked well. Sometimes it just makes life easier if you go with what works!
I’ve just uploaded the first video in what I hope to be a long running project, providing ideas for music activities.
They’re aimed at primary school teachers, but may also work outside of schools with a range of age groups.
I do have another suggestion for making the rhythmic haka (in the video) more difficult. There is a section in the video where I play two rhythms at the same time, to demonstrate how they should sound together. The idea in the video though is that there should be two groups in the performance, one group playing one rhythm and the other group playing the second rhythm. If you are working with a group where you think they could be pushed a bit further, then each person could be given a bottle and a stick to play both rhythms at the same time! I play the bottle against my shoulder in the video, so that it’s in shot on the video, but if you are asking your group members to play both rhythms at the same time, they could tap their bottle against the stick.
At the beginning of next week, I’m hoping to post the first of many videos, aimed mainly at primary school teachers, although they may be useful to other groups as well.
The idea is that some will be explanations of how to perform particular performance pieces, using junk instruments, or standard school percussion instruments, including boomwhackers. Other videos may be tips on techniques for teaching particular aspects of music to particular age groups.
Also I’ve just signed up to Twitter, @toetappingmusic, and will use it to inform when new videos are posted, as well as occasional info on workshops and products.
Here is a performance, using boomwhackers, of one of the pieces from the Toob Trax DVD. If you want to look at a teaching extract from the DVD, have a look at Toob Trax Taster, an earlier post.
This last week has seen the launch of Toob Trax, which is a DVD and CD resource which teaches 5 performance pieces using boomwhackers.
There is a promo video on the Toe Tapping Music website, but I’ve also just added an extract from the DVD to youtube It’s probably easier to see what it is, rather than explain it!
It’s a fantastic feeling to make music with others. Whether it’s singing, clapping or playing an instrument, when everyone is working together it feels great. When I work in schools, the children perform pieces which, I’ve worked through hundreds of times before, and yet it still sends a shiver down my spine when you sense that feeling of success going through the group!
toetappingmusic 