Ideas For Boomwhackers®

Breaking Apart Boomwhacker® Music

Submitted by Tami Mangusso, Aurora, Colorado

Idea posted 2003-10-09

I always break the music into phrases (four to eight bars). I then label each phrase with colors, numbers, or letters. I divide the students into groups and assign them their color, number, or letter.

Here's how it works with the song "Singin' In The Rain" from Boom Boom! - Popular Movie And TV Songs. I will use colors.

Group 1 (Red): will play pattern 1 in the accompaniment. They will play pattern 1 every time it appears.
Group 2 (Blue): will play pattern 2 in the accompaniment.
Group 3 (Orange): will play pattern 3 in the accompaniment.
Group 4 (Brown): will play measures 3-10 and measures 19-26.
Group 5 (Green): will play measures 11-18 and measures 27-33.
Group 4 & Group 5: will play measures 34 & 35 together.

I usually write the music on chart paper or poster board. I write the letter names in the appropriate color for each phrase.

We also have a rotation for who gets to play which tubes. I put my students into eight teams, this helps me to keep track of who got to play on what tube or instrument. I have an Orff poster, rhythm instrument poster, and Boomwhacker® poster. On a Boomwhacker® day I display the Boomwhacker® poster. The poster tells them what tube they will play for the day. If there is a song where a certain note only appears once or twice, then I let some play two tubes.