Lesson 1 Melodies Move Up and Down

Early experiences with melodies moving upward and downward can be really fun for young children because you can introduce instruments and integrate movement into these types of activities.

Here is a favorite that just simply teaches that music can move upward and downward.  It is on old children's song called The Bear Went Over the Mountain.  If you don't know the song you can find a lot of versions on YouTube.  I like this one the best because the video shows the bear going up and then the bear going down.  That is exactly what we are teaching today.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHfkcGSlRcA

Now that you know the song here is the arrangement I did with my kids.  We sang the song and then we walked up the mountain on our instruments and then sang the second part and walked down the mountain.  We used small xylophones and turned them sideways so as we played we were actually going upward and downward on the instrument.  If you use a piano you have to explain that upward moves from low to high and downward moves from high to low. With bar type of instruments it helps to remember that large is low and small is high.  So the kids can organize bells from low to high.  It you want to play around with the water glasses use glasses that are all the same and help the children to see that the amount of water changes the pitches from low to high.

See below for other ways to create melody instruments if you do not own one that the children can play.

Creating Melody Instruments:  Check out these sites:

WATER GLASSES: This site has instructions for creating a "xylophone" out of glasses filled with water.  This would be fun to do and I wouldn't worry at all about creating the perfect scale.  The point to the lesson would be that you are creating a set of pitches that go from low to high. 
http://www.storytimesongs.com/instruments.html

MAKE A SET OF TUBULAR BELLS
http://www.sugardoodle.net/joomla/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3287&Itemid=5

HERE IS A SET OF TUBULAR BELLS PUT TOGETHER AS A XYLOPHONE
http://www.motherearthnews.com/do-it-yourself/homemade-xylophone-zmaz81ndzraw.aspx#axzz2NEArGVwd

Here is a easy way to put your bells together as a xylophone:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZjAXR-jwviM