In this second episode of a three-part deep dive, Anne and Victoria outline two actionable sequences for upleveling rhythmic arranging with your students. You might be surprised about what we consider “level 2” for arranging with your students, and it puts a lot less pressure on the teacher than you probably think.

Anne shares how to take the song Apple Tree and continue along the arranging spectrum, giving students more opportunities to express their creativity and musical fluency with quarter notes and eighth notes. Students have the opportunity to explore new avenues of music making as well as collaboration through this activity. Victoria shares “Obwasimisa,” a passing game from the Akan people in Ghana that reinforces steady beat. This is a great activity for older beginners, as Victoria highlights ways for students to make decisions in a way that practices this foundational skill.

In today’s conclusion of our three-part deep dive, Anne and Victoria share two cumulative experiences that will incorporate all of the skills we have talked about thus far. These three episodes have truly built on one another to show how you can start small, add the simplest layer and guide students toward independent musicianship skills.

Anne shares how to take the different layers we’ve discussed with the song Apple Tree and how it can become a performance piece highlighting student choice. Victoria shares the ultimate Tideo mashup with rhythmic building blocks that inspire and incorporate students’ independent music-ing skills.

In today’s episode, we’re continuing on the arranging conversation, this time diving into all things melodic arranging. We start the episode with a conversation about why this might feel challenging to both you as the teacher-facilitator, as well as your students, and what makes melodic arranging a bit of a different animal than rhythmic arranging. (If you haven’t listened to the three part series on rhythmic arranging, now would be a good time to do so!)

Anne shares an activity for Peas Porridge Hot that starts as a simple rhythmic ostinato and can be expanded to provide a simple drone for barred instruments. She also shares how to take other simple text suggestions from students to create a simple layered ostinato.

Victoria shares another early elementary activity with Star Light Star Bright and vocal exploration. She shows that young students can still create and compose with these patterns, even if they don’t necessarily have the formal vocabulary or experience (yet!) to name melodic concepts.

In today’s part 2 of a three part series, Anne & Victoria talk about the next level of melodic arranging, in a way that allows for student agency and voice (pun intended). This episode is focused on models of melodic arranging that start specifically with singing and then allow for opportunities to expand to barred instruments or beyond.

Anne shares a way to take the same song and activity from last week and add another ostinato based on student speech to the arrangement of Peas Porridge Hot. This can be done first with the voice and a limited, prescribed toneset and then moved to the barred instruments. Victoria shares a similar activity that can be paired with popular music for older beginners. Her use of movement, student choice, composition, as well as repertoire selection serve as carrots for those older kids. We also discuss canons and rounds, as well as the difference between exploratory and curricular based goals in the music classroom.

In the conclusion of today’s three part melodic arranging discussion, Anne & Victoria round out the ideas we’ve explored throughout the past couple of episodes. We open the episode with a discussion about what it really means to arrange, vs. having a melodic arrangement and how student choice and action is a big part of both. Victoria shares a sequence for introducing partner songs to students in an AB structured passing game, “El Florón.” She provides the partner song for the B section, but provides melodic building blocks for students to compose and therefore arrange the partner song for the A section.

Anne shares some thoughts on how to expand melodic arrangements both vertically and horizontally by adding layers and asking students to make decisions on form.