Hot Cross BunsA song to sing and learn from

Hot Cross BunsHot Cross Buns

Hot cross buns.

Hot cross buns.

One a pen-ny, two a pen-ny

Hot cross buns.

The MusicThe Music

These beats have no words and no ‘sound’ we are having a rest – “SA”

How many sounds are there on this beat?

What we need to know What we need to know about the music.about the music.

Firstly the music is written in the treble staff - the lines and spaces for the higher sounds. Secondly the music’s pulse is organized into groups of four 4. The Time signature at the beginning of the music tells us this.

There are three Rhythmic elements and three Melodic elements.

Let’s work on the rhythm first. We need to learn the symbols for ‘ta’ ‘ti-ti’ and ‘sa’ in the music. Students should be able to point to or identify the beat in the music and also keep a steady beat first. Then we can work on the rhythm. Always teach only one element at a time and then practice reading, writing and using it.

Teaching the rhythmTeaching the rhythm

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?

= ‘ta’ this symbol has a name – it is called a ‘crotchet’ but when we seeit we say ‘ta’

What can you hear on the last beat of the line? We can feel the beat but there is no sound. We are taking a rest from singing.

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?

= ‘ta’

= ‘sa’

How many sounds can How many sounds can you hear on each you hear on each

beat?beat?

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?

? ? ? ?

If we repeat the first line again we have the whole song!

When we have two even sounds per beat we use ‘ti-ti’

The MusicThe Music

So we now know ‘ta’, So we now know ‘ta’, ‘sa’ and ‘ti-ti’‘sa’ and ‘ti-ti’

= ‘ta’

=‘sa’

= ‘ti-ti’

Can you read this?

So we now know ‘ta’, So we now know ‘ta’, ‘sa’ and ‘ti-ti’‘sa’ and ‘ti-ti’

= ‘ta’

=‘sa’

= ‘ti-ti’

= ‘two-oo’

= ‘three-ee-ee’

= ‘ti-ka-ti-ka’

= ‘ti, ti-ka’

= ‘ti-ka, ti’

Rhythm equal to a beat Rhythm longer than a beat

= ‘fou-ou-ou-our’

= ta+i ‘ta-i’ usually followed by ‘ti’

Now get to and Now get to and practice!practice!

= ta, ti-ka-ti-ka, ti-ti, ta

= ti-ti, ti-ti-ka, ti-ka ti, ta

= ta-i, ti, ti-ti, ti-ti

= two-oo, ti-ti, ta

What about the What about the melody?melody?

Music notation is a very unique language or ‘code’ and as such we need to teach it slowly and a ‘word’ at a time. You may remember from another Lecture, that we should give students experiences in the vertical plane initially,and invite them to respond and ‘match’ the direction of the pitch with Movement. We also need to keep the language consistent –using the words“High” and “Low” rather than ‘up’ and down’.

Once students can identify the direction and move in response to what they are hearing, they may be ready to move to the staff notation. At firstit is good to use songs that only have two notes in them Soh and Mi, but at higher grades you might begin where we are here – with steps movingHigher and pitches staying the same. When ever possible, you shouldaim to have the staff notation of the songs you are singing.

The MusicThe Music

We can see that the melody is stepping down.

Here the melody is staying the same

Now it has steppedHigher

And now it is stepping downagain.

The sol-fa toolThe sol-fa tool Solfege is a great way to teach pitch as the syllables enable the

students to focus on the sound the notes are making. The vowel sounds assist in the pitch discrimination. You may well be familiar with the ‘scale’ of solfa from the movie ‘The sound of Music’ and that is because that is exactly what they used. Here is the solfa in the ‘key’ of C – it begins on ‘C’ and ends on ‘C’.

doh remi fa soh lah

tidoh

Using dotsUsing dots Initially students may use ‘dots’ to show the the direction

or placement of the melody.

The Music House –the The Music House –the staff where the notes staff where the notes

‘live’‘live’

When ‘mi’ is on a line, ‘re’ will be in the space under it. ‘Doh’ is a ‘copycat’ and always lives one line lower.In fact ‘Soh’, ‘Mi’ and ‘Doh’ either all live ON lines or IN spaces.

mire

doh

mire

doh