Sally's Sea of Songs

Free Banjo Project & Spoons Project Lessons

From Nothing to Something

I can't wait for an opportunity to travel! This museum looks so interesting!

The National Museum of African American Music is now open in Music City - Nashville, Tennessee. The mission of the museum is to educate the world, preserve the legacy, and celebrate the central role African Americans play in creating the American soundtrack.

The museum includes galleries showcasing the evolution of African American music traditions, religious experience, the Great Migration and the blues, the Harlem Renaissance, the Civil Rights Movement, and Urban Renewal. The Museum Without Walls features in-person and online programs with artists and music industry insiders.

As a Quaver teacher for many years, I learned of the partnership between QuaverEd (also located in Nashville) and the NMAAM when the Spoons Project and the Banjo Project were added to my account. My students LOVED the Spoons Project and Lucius "Spoonman" Talley last spring! I was thrilled to see that these lessons are freely available to all via the education page on the NMAAM website.

The lesson series is titled From Nothing To Something (FN2S).

The QuaverEd lessons can be found here: http://www.quavermusic.com/fn2s

How I Used the Spoons Project

My teaching schedule had me seeing the same class for an entire week, then rotating on to the next class on a 5-week rotation. This project was the perfect fit for my 5 lesson schedule, and I was even able to complete most of the activities in only 4 days when we had a short week. Because of time, I was not able to complete every one of the activities. There is a lot of material for us to choose from! Here is what I did.

Lesson 1: Spoons Project Lesson 1-Overview

Screen 2: I displayed and we read the project objectives. Click on that green arrow and check out the Listen to the Spoons link. This is an audio example with discussion or writing prompts. We watched the performance example on that page.
Screen 3: Listen to animated Spoonman Talley talk about the Essential Question. Allow the students to answer his question.
I went on to Screen 5 and we met Mr. Talley, then skipped to Screen 7 and watched How to Play Spoons video. At this point, my students were so ready to get to playing!
I passed out the spoons and allowed them some time to experiment. We did some echo patterns using some of Spoonman Talley's examples. Then, I asked them to play a different pattern from me, to improvise.
Finally, we skipped over to Screen 12 and we played our spoons to several of the tracks.

Lesson 2: Spoons Project Lesson 2-How to Play Spoons

Screen 2: Review the Essential Question
Screen 3: Watch the How To Play Spoons Part 2 video (3 min)
Screen 4: Spoonman Talley describes how spoons, bones, and drums developed as instruments. Click on the Compare button to compare the three.
Pass out the spoons and practice similar to lesson 1. Try some different patterns or tapping on different body parts to get different sounds.
Screen 11: Improvise to some of the audio tracks as a group, then allow solo opportunities.

Stay Tuned!

The next part in this series where I share more lessons and the best places to get spoons!

Hello! Welcome!

Greetings are a common social norm whenever we are out in public or invite people into our homes. Greeting songs serve the same purposes in our music classrooms - to make our students feel welcome and to set the tone for the day. Here is one of my favorites, Hello Everybody!

One cool thing about being a music teacher is that we get to see every student in our building. They are our students year after year. We watch them grow and develop long-term relationships.

One challenging thing about being a music teacher is that we get to teach every student in the building. How to remember all those names!

Name games!

Name game chants and name game songs are certainly the solution to the problem of learning and remembering hundreds of names! Because getting through the whole class will take some time, it is often best to keep it simple and focus on the names rather than the game. Simple chants are quick and fun.

Establishing clear rules and procedures which can be consistently and lovingly enforced is of the utmost importance in classroom management! Rules help guide students and teachers towards appropriate behaviors, while procedures tell us HOW we should do the things that we do. Setting my music classroom rules to music has been one of my favorite back-to-school ideas!

Hey there music friends! The total eclipse of the sun will occur on Monday, August 21, 2017. I am fortunate to live in the path of totality, so excitement is building in my city. After participating in several brainstorming sessions in music teacher Facebook groups, I came up with some total eclipse lyrics to the tune of Sally Go 'Round The Sun to use with my students this week. You can find the original song here: http://kodaly.hnu.edu/song.cfm?id=552

There are several ways you could present this song, depending on the age of your students, and the amount of time that you would like to spend.

Movement Partners

Students begin with a partner, one is the sun and the other is the moon. Crouch down to begin. Phrase 1: Sun stands up with hands outstretched. Phrase 2: Moon stands up. Phrase 3: Moon moves to stand in front of sun. Sun should keep hands outstretched so they are visible, as the corona will still be visible during totality of the eclipse. Phrase 4: Moon moves to stand beside sun.

Circle "Dance"

Sun & Moon partners stand in a single circle to begin. Phrase 1: Suns step 2 steps to center, then back to the circle. Phrase 2: Moons begin to walk in a circle around their sun partner. Phrase 3: Moons finish their circle and stand in front of suns. Phrase 4: Moons move back to their spot.

At this point, you might repeat the dance. Or, you might consider singing the original version of Sally Go Round the Sun as the "B" section, while students grab hands and walk clockwise around the circle.

Instrument Option

This is the perfect song to begin resting tone accompaniments for your younger students. Just get out your tone bells and pass out all of the D's to a small group of students. These children can play on the steady beat, while the others sing and move. If you don't have tone bells, you could certainly use your Orff instruments, playing either the resting tone or a D-A bordun.

Free Resource

Here is a little PowerPoint that you can use if you would like to do with your students this song all week. Total Eclipse Piggyback Song - Sally Go 'Round the Sun Free PowerPoint

Let me know how you use this in your classroom!