Submitted by Gretchen, Missouri
Idea posted March 30, 2004
A fun game we've done in beginning band, but which I have also played with junior high and high school band, is Echo Playing. I may have gotten this idea or a form of this idea from the MusicK8.com List - I don't take complete credit for it.
I start out with just the first three notes of the scale and play them on a loud instrument (baritone for me, as opposed to a flute, which might not be so loud). I play the notes in increasingly harder order (i.e. 1-2-3, 3-2-1, 1-3-2, etc.). I then add the fourth note of the scale and do the same thing with the order. I worked up to five notes with my beginners, junior high, and high school students, although the beginners picked it up faster.
Then I had the students, one at a time, create a melody using only those five notes. (I also had them try it with three and four notes.) The rest of the class had to echo the student's creation, and then we went on to the next person. It was a quick under-five note melody that either wonderful or not so wonderful, was over quickly. I didn't have any people too shy to try, even in beginning band. I did this game at the beginning of the year, even before the students had learned to read music completely. (They hadn't had recorders.) Percussion could try playing on the bells or piano, or they could do rhythm. The students enjoyed this, and it helps builds their listening skills.