Lessons 3 Melodies Move Up and Down

If you purchased the glockenspiels or boomwhackers or if you have a piano, you can find lots of  additional songs to play on the 8 note scale.  Every melody moves upward and downward so playing any of these helps the children to see this concept.

Songs that you already know are easy to play because you know the rhythm and speed of the notes from singing the songs so you just need to know which notes to play.  You can adapt these for the xylophones, piano, boomwhackers, etc. Since the C scale has a low C and also a high C, the low C is written simply as C while the high C becomes C'.

To play "Mary Had a Little Lamb" do the following:

1. Begin with your mallet on E.
2. Play the following note progression: E-D-C-D-E-E-E, D-D-D, E-G-G, E-D-C-D-E-E-E-E-D-D-E-D-C.

To play "Three Blind Mice" do the following:

1. Begin with your mallet on E.
2. Play the following note progression: E-D-C, E-D-C, G-F-F-E, G-F-F-E, G-C'-C'-B-A-B-C'-G-G, G-C'-C'-C'-B-A-B-C'-G-G, G-G-C'-C'-B-A-B-'C-G-G-G, F-E-D-C

To play "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" do the following:

     1.  Begin with your mallet on low C.
     2.  Play the following note progression:  C-C-G-G-A-A-G, F-F-E-E-D-D-C, G-G-F-F-E-E-D, G-G-F-F-E-E-D, C-C-G-G-A-A-G, F-F-E-E-D-D-C

To play "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" do the following:

    1.  Begin with your mallet on low C.
    2.  Play the following note progression:  C-C-C-D-E, E-D-E-F-G, C'-C'-C'-G-G-G-E-E-E-C-C-C, G-F-E-D-C

To play "Hot Cross Buns" do the following:

    1.  Begin with your mallet on E.
    2.  Play the following note progression: E-D-C, E-D-C, C-C-C-C-D-D-D-D, E-D-C

To play "London Bridge" do the following:

    1.  Begin with your mallet on G.
    2.  Play the following note progression: G-A-G-F-E-F-G, D-E-F, E-F-G,G-A-G-F-E-F-G, D-G-E-C


FYI:  This website has some Christmas songs for 8 notes:
http://www.kalimbamagic.com/newsletters/newsletter6.05/newsletter6.05_assets/Christmas_8Note.pdf

Lesson 4 Melodies Move Up and Down

The following worksheets are for the songs London Bridge, Mary Had a Little Lamb, Twinkle Twinkle, and Hot Cross Buns.

The children have learned how to play them but we want them to see and understand visually how the upward and downward music is written.  The worksheet will also reinforce the rhythms that they learned in the rhythm lesson.

It is their job to now write the names of the notes in the correct boxes and then

1.  Sing the song and point along with a finger to each note as you sing it.
2.  Play the songs on a melody instrument using the worksheet as a guide.