Continuing from Pt 1, here are more ideas.
Overtone Singing
Children are capable of singing overtones, especially like ‘sirens’ in the beginning, and as their sense of frequency perception grows, they are able to produce specific harmonics (most successfully from the age of 10 years and up). They also respond in unique ways to hearing overtone singing from another person, which can greatly enhance all future perception of tone.
Music Boxes
These are specially created boxes with several ‘props’ inside. These props (not necessarily musically oriented) somehow make sounds when played or manipulated. The children create story lines to go with the props.
See examples of the work of Moniek Darge.
Games
1) Each child gets the chance to conduct with the entire body. This can be done in pairs, where the other child makes sound according to the conducting. Then the whole group joins in.
2) Each child takes turns being the ventriloquist and the ‘dummy’. The ‘dummies’ open their mouths accordingly, as well as act out the part with extra body movement.
3) ‘Echo’ game- one child makes a sound, others add echoes one by one, building up ‘chords’. After everyone has added their echo, the next one in the circle starts his/her own sound.
Sound painting
Developed by Walter Thompson, this is a universal system of gestures to indicate improvised music (with vocals or instruments). It is especially popular with the 9-12 age group. They also are eager to take turns being the conductor, after they learn the gestures (which are not difficult to learn).
Soundpainting system of universal gestures
Sound Massage Healing
Overtone singing directly into body areas, organs, spine, feet, etc. Child should feel sensations like gentle electric current when the frequency matches the body part, similar to acupuncture.
Overtone Analyzer Software
Children are able to watch their voices in ribbons of color on the screen, and so they learn to adjust their voices to create the patterns they wish.
CommentI hold a license/ certificate in the Czech Republic for practicing music therapy for children, although I am not currently working in this field (at least not yet). I have lots of ideas. If you are in this profession, or moving towards it, you might find some of them potentially useful.
The general idea is to present activities that are easily assimilated by children, using games or instruments that anyone can pick up and start playing with almost no training involved. There are no threatening situations. It’s all in the name of joyous exploration, which could result in catharsis for growing minds.
Kazoo orchestra
Easy for all children, as you only need to hum. Can be made with combs and rolling papers. Pitch is not important. Encourage improvisation. Depending on the age group, they can be steered toward listening to each other and blending the sound with harmony and rhythm.
Vegetable orchestra
What could be more fun than creating instruments from vegetables and composing with them? Fruits are not covered here, but they certainly could be.
Hand Symphony
Children create musical styles, such as dance, hip hop and Latin with many different ways of making sounds with the hands.
Extended body percussion techniques
‘Call and Answer’ game- one child creates a short rhythm and next child answers it with new short simple rhythm, which may complement the previous one. This can be done individually at first, where the previous child stops and the next one continues. After going around the circle, then everyone can join simultaneously. Simple rhythms can be learned and built upon, as demonstrated in this video.
Harmonic Whirlies
Plastic hoses bring out the lower harmonic series when swung around at different speeds. It’s fairly easy to obtain them, but they are also available as complete tuned sets from Sarah Hopkins (Australia) for use in music therapy.
‘Declamatory’ choir (without pitch)
This is easy for all children, as it does not depend on skillful pitch reproduction. It is more like speech, with exaggerated inflections. When greatly slowed down, speech takes on the characteristics of more discernible pitch.
Perfect pitch for children
If children are not born with this gift, they can still develop it more easily than adults, while their sense of hearing/ listening is still flexible. For example, they are given sheets of blank white ‘keys’ of a piano. They listen to each pitch as given from a real piano (as well tuned as possible, of course, or use a digital source). They use whatever source of color they want (crayons, paint, pastels, etc) to color the keys the way they perceive them. There are no right or wrong answers for the colors. They also describe the pitches in terms of tactile things (i.e. wood, velvet, metal, sandpaper, etc.). This tends to be an ideal calming down activity when the children are a tad rambunctious.
Musical Game
Each child picks a slip of paper from a box with a color name. Each color will appear twice. They walk around and sing the color (blind-folded), and search for their partner with the same color. The blind-fold serves to allow them greater listening focus, and it’s also fun for kids, who usually don’t mind bumping into people or things. (Guide them if necessary to prevent injury!)
******Stay tuned for Part 2.
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