Gallina Music | Ideas for Teaching Music

Musical Classroom

The following ideas may be used to facilitate music instruction.

Choral Singing

One of the easiest ways to teach 2 part choral singing is by using Partner Songs! A classic partner song has everyone singing melody number one, everyone singing melody number two, and then the third time, dividing into 2 parts singing both melodies together. Since all the singers will then be conversant with both melodies, they should find it much easier to maintain their parts when asked to divide into harmony. If you have a combination of very strong singers and ones that aren’t quite as confident, be sure to divide the parts up in a way that places your strong singers on both parts. Teaching these melodies in unison also provides excellent opportunities to fine tune intonation, dynamics and singing with expression.

Enjoy this complimentary PDF, Why partner songs. It provides a wealth of reasons and ideas of how to utilize these versatile chorals.

Why Partner Songs.pdf

There are a host of partner songs and collections on our website. Click these links to view more partner songs or partner song collections.

Using PD [ Part Dominant mp3s] to assist in part singing

PDs or Part Dominant mp3s are the recorded rehearsal tracks of each individual part for a choral piece. For instance, an SATB would have a separate rehearsal track for each of the voices [soprano, alto, tenor, and bass] so the singers can practice their specific melody or harmony parts. In most instances the others voices are muted on the track along with the Part Dominant voice. It provides a wonderful opportunity to assist choral directors in teaching and practicing the voice parts with their students. All of our Complete Choral Kits include PD mp3s as part of the Kit.

Click Here to see our Complete Choral Kits >

Incorporating music into Cross Curricular learning

Story Theater provides an excellent opportunity for you to incorporate other areas that can be found throughout the curriculum into your music program. There are a wealth of musical plays that address topics such as science and ecology [“The Green Team Machine”,] history [“The Castaways” “Johnny Appleseed” “United We Stand”], reading and literature [“Sing Me a Story”, ] “Shake it Up with Shakespeare”] character education “Bebop with Aesop”, “Let’s Pass it On”] etc. Once you’ve chosen a musical that corresponds to a topic being taught by classroom teachers, assign speaking parts and either teach the songs to all the students, or play the music for the students as a listening lesson. Be sure to encourage children to read their lines with expression and if appropriate, use gestures as well. For your classroom performance, have each student recite their part interspersed with the musical selections. Children can choose to dress up in costumes, or not and obviously no additional scenery, props or staging is required. It is a wonderful way for students to experience theatre in a safe and simple way.

View are a multitude of cross curricular musicals on our website >

Sing and Learn Series

“Our Sing and Learn” series is comprised of cross curricular subjects taught in an entertaining musical format. Dino Soaring, Singin’ in the Rainforest, Oceans of Fun and Sing and Play About the USA, all are collections of songs with simple rhyming scripts for performances. These collections contain puzzles, crosswords, fast fact sheets and supplemental materials that can be shared with the classroom teachers or distributed to the students as a do at home or classroom activity. The short linking script also provides a wonderful opportunity to stage these as easy but effective full-fledged productions.

To view, read about, and listen to the selections in our “Sing and Learn” series click here >

Teaching and Utilizing Rhythm and Movement in your classroom

Teaching rhythm and movement to your students can be both a fun and educational experience. Many collections have musical games where all the directions are contained within the lyrics of the song or just require very simple explanation by the teacher. This is a wonderful time saver and also an excellent way to save your voice! Simply ask the students to be good listeners and listen to the words of the song. They will then know just what to do. Songs from collections such as “Strike Up the Rhythm Band”, and “The Rhythm Band Strikes Again”, have many games that teach rhythms, dynamics, etc through clapping, tapping, playing rhythm instruments and don’t require being in a group setting. Movement games such as “The Color Game” and “Hand Jivin” from “Rhythm, Rhyme and Move in Time” are great fun for students and work perfectly in remote or virtual classrooms.” A Hip Hop , a Skip and a Jump” has a host of these activities for the younger grades.

Click here to view and listen to many movement and rhythm suggestions >

Adding Simple Choreography

You can add interest to your choral performances by choosing selections that have simple hand motions, signing, or choreography. Many chorals come with movement suggestions and if you are comfortable teaching the choreography, wonderful! If not, there are many videos on “YouTube” that have choral groups performing choreography that you can use as a guide. This is very adaptable to virtual teaching. We have several on our website , including “Mambo Italiano”, “Funga Alafia”, “Vela Sikubone”, etc. Musicals such as "Off Their Rockers" centers around dance though the ages and provides wonderful ideas for adding choreography to your play. You can find excellent examples on YouTube for additional ideas.

For these chorals and many others, click here >

Preview or purchase Off Their Rockers at JW Pepper >

Preview or purchase off Their Rockers Stantons >

Let’s Have a Dance Party!

A wonderful way to end each class would be to have a 3-5 minute dance party. You could choose music selections from suggestions the students recommend [have a grab bag and choose a different selection each day that you have cued up in advance] or you can select from a wealth of great dance tunes. If using songs suggested by the students, be sure that you have previewed them in advance for appropriate content! It is a great way to end your classes in an energetic and inspiring way without worrying about getting them too energized!

Here are a few suggestions:

1. Shake Your Groove Thing - Peaches and Herb

2.Do Your Thing - Basement Jaxx

3. Conga - Gloria Estefan and the Miami Sound Machine

4. Livin’ in America - James Brown

5. September, from Trolls - Justin Timberlake and Anna Kendrick

6. Rock and Roll Music - The Beatles

7. It’s Still Rock n Roll to Me - Billy Joel

8. Lovely Day, from The Secret Life of Pets 2 - Lunch Money Lewis

9. Happy - Pharrell Williams

10. Can’t Stop the Feeling, Trolls 2 - Anna Kendrick, Justin Timberlake

11. Get On Your Feet - Gloria Estefan and the Miami Sound Machine

12. Don’t You Worry ‘Bout a Thing - Tori Kelly

13. Hip to Be Square - Huey Lewis and the News

14. The Heart of Rock n Roll- Huey Lewis and the News

15. Uptown Funk - Bruno Mars

If you need more suggestions email us at:

michaelandjillgallina@gmail.com

Gifts and Giveaways!

Gifts and Giveaways!

Jill and Michael Gallina Music

Musical Classroom

The following ideas may be used to facilitate music instruction.

Musical Classroom The following ideas may be used to facilitate music instruction.

Musical Classroom

The following ideas may be used to facilitate music instruction.