Recorders

The Story of a Magical Recorder Lesson I love to teach Recorder! The sound doesn’t bother me at all!! If truth be known, I lie awake at night dreaming up cool things I can do with my 4th graders and I can’t wait to see them! I love when my students “get it” and I can see the light in their eyes go off!  The more they struggle, the more excited I get because I know that just around the corner a magical moment is about to happen. Let me tell you about one special class. This class of 4th grade Recorder students wanted to learn how to play the opening phrase of the Hallelujah Chorus. As I wrote it on the SMARTBoard, they copied it on their paper. Something about writing down the notes clears up so many musical cobwebs! They were very proud of their musical score. They played it for each other on their recorders. Next, they took the score and learned to play it on the glockenspiels. Working in pairs, one student pointed to each note and the other student played.The Super-Duper Challenge One student had to play it on the recorder while the other played it on the glock. It was exciting to watch them work through how to start together… and STAY together. When we finally went to the score on the SMARTBoard, we could talk about phrases and breaths.  They were comfortable enough with the notes that they could offer insightful suggestions to make the piece more musical. I think I learned the most during this lesson! Writing the notes down on the staff, playing what they wrote, transferring it to the keyboard, working in teams to play a duet, and finally adding the nuances, made for a fun lesson resulting in authentic learning. It truly was a magical moment!