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Wednesday, August 14, 2019

Another game to spice up your rehearsal



Games are serious.  A seemingly simple game can tell you a lot:  whether or not students are learning, which students need help, which students are leaders, which students need friends.  I saw the 'Random Instrument' game on Jimmy Fallon and thought it would be perfect for a fun orchestra class activity.  This game helps identify specific musical skills in a fun way.

Can students figure out basic instruments?
Can students use their ears to figure out a basic tune?
Do students understand pitch?
Do students understand how to adjust pitch?
Can students recognize in tune/out of tune notes?
Can students hear and recognize simple tunes?

Here's a few clips from Jimmy Fallon's show so you can see how the game works:









The plan for class:  divide the class into teams.  Collect a variety of instruments.  Have teams take turns sending someone up to choose a tune and an instrument.  That person tries to perform the tune while their team guesses.  Teams get points for calling out the collect tune.

Instruments I've collected for the game:
Toy accordian
Mini-violin
Otamotone
Xylophone
Boomwhackers
String Bass
Ukulele

Tunes everyone should know:
Twinkle
Mary Had a Little Lamb
Row Row Row your Boat
Itsy Bitsy Spider
Are you Sleeping
Star Wars
Happy Birthday
Wild - any tune
Bingo
Yankie Doodle
Head Shoulders


One fun way to do this is to use www.WheelDecide.com to create spinners.  I made one wheel for my instruments and one for the tunes.  Students get to 'spin' the wheel to determine their fate.




https://wheeldecide.com/index.php?c1=Accordian&c2=Mini-violin&c3=Guitar&c4=Otamotone&c5=Xylophone&c6=Boomwhackers&c7=String+Bass&c8=Ukulele&t=INSTRUMENTS&time=5

https://wheeldecide.com/index.php?c1=Twinkle+Twinkle&c2=Mary+Had+a+Little+Lamb&c3=Row+Row+Row+Your+Boat&c4=Itsy+Bitsy+Spider&c5=Are+You+Sleeping%3F&c6=Star+Wars&c7=Happy+Birthday&c8=You+decide+-+name+that+tune&c9=BINGO&c10=Yankie+Doodle&c11=Head%2C+shoulders%2C+knees+and+toes&t=TUNES&time=5

2 comments:

  1. Hey Angie! this game looks hilarious! I have a question for you but could not find the post in which you posted a response. I am thinking about giving practice assignments BUT not having students turn in practice logs. I think I recall you posting something about you giving an assignment and then have students do a playing "check" every couple of weeks. I am I correct in thinking this? If so, how do you structure this? TIA!

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  2. Sorry I couldn't get my comment to post earlier....here's the post about playing tests: https://orchestrateacher.blogspot.com/2016/08/how-to-do-playing-tests.html

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