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Pudong Grade 3: Ballin’ Beats

April 18, 2018

Pudong Grade 3: Ballin’ Beats

Students in 3(1) have been dribbling through Music class! Sounds strange? Read on and you will understand.

Rhythm is one of the foundational pieces of music education. Rhythm is all about the “beat” of the music and the duration of sounds. Understanding rhythm comes from understanding the pieces that make up the beat: the long and short notes. Interacting with music is essential to brain development, so learning the elements of music is crucial to learning and growing brains!

In class, the Grade 3 students worked to understand the rhythm of two pop songs: ‘Beauty in the World’ by Macy Gray and ‘Fireflies’ by Owl City. After the students finished dissecting the rhythm in the songs (the science part of music), they worked to ‘feel’ the rhythm in the music (the art part of music). Once the students could both dissect and feel the music, they were able to “play” the rhythm of the songs…using basketballs! They broke each song down into whole notes, half notes, quarter notes, eighth notes, sixteenth notes, and quarter rests. They also learned about repeat signs and musical bridges.

Although dribbling took a lot of ball-handling skills, the students quickly found success in keeping the beat with the ball. They had to keep in mind physical coordination with the basketball, mental dissection of the music, and the artistic challenge of ‘feeling the music’ to be completely successful in this rhythm study. Next, the students will take what they know about rhythm to produce their own musical compositions!

(Written by Melanie Cherry Pictures by Melanie Cherry)