Duration

10 mins

Activity
Divide students into groups of 3 or 4. Each group must have at least one pitched instrument and one unpitched instrument.

Rationale
This activity needs the students to take on different roles working together, hence it necessitates group work. They are to learn how to collaborate in forming a small ensemble. This is to further emphasize that music could be broken down into these components, but work together as a whole. Using just a single pitch focuses the students' attention on just the rhythm alone; hence they would not get distracted by pitch. Getting the students to come with their own motif (as opposed to coming up with a group motif) forces each student to be creative, rather than passively depending on others for ideas.

Each group is to identify the roles of each member in the group with respect to melody, harmony, rhythm. They are then required individually to come up with a rhythmic motif (only using a single pitch) for a 4/4 bar based on their roles.

Duration
15 mins

Activity
Gather class together. As a class, get everybody to tap on a steady pulse, in 4/4 time. Choose a tempo that is comfortable for all.

Rationale

This step is to ensure that all students have a secure sense of pulse for the whole activity, and for the teacher to seek out those students who need more help. This activity allows the students to "improvise rhythmic and melodic phrases of music individually within a group setting" (GMP Syllabus). The structure here lets them differentiate clearly when the improvisation happens, and when it does not. The empty pulse bars gives the students a chance to reestablish their pulse should they lose it during the improvisation. This step advances the previous slightly by introducing the element of pitch. It gets more challenging to keep in time as the periods between solos are now lessened.

After pulse has been steadily established, invite each group to perform their motifs (one by one) call it a group solo - for 4 bars while the others maintain the pulse. Maintain a separation of at least 2 empty pulse bars between each group solo.

While they keep pulse, announce that the students can now incorporate the use of two pitches into the motifs they came up with earlier. Get the groups to perform their solos as earlier, but now lessen the separation time between groups.

(Cont'd)

While they keep pulse, announce that students holding on to the melodic role can now play whatever they like, while the rest maintain their roles. Introduce the gesture for tutti playing to them. Get them to play alternating between tutti and group solos. (The teacher, at his or her discretion, may opt to get two or more groups to solo concurrently.) Aim for a continuous performance without any separations between tuttis and solos.

This step of the improvisation introduces the element of melody, that it can coexist happily with the rest of the elements. It also introduces the concept of tutti playing vs solo playing. The difficulty is again raised by trying to achieve a seamless performance from tutti to solo, and back again.