Orff Level III — Recorder Pedagogy
July 22, 2024
Under the Dark (text by Marchette Chute)
Objective: introduce my 4th-6th grade class to alto recorder for the first time!
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Open with a moving chordal drone in 3/4: C+G to Bb+F.
Students move around the room, experimenting with levels and weight in their movement.
Now they are trees and bushes: non-locomotor, but with the beat in their bodies somewhere.
Half of students are explorers lost in the woods: locomotor. Hum song twice while they move. Then switch groups and hum twice again.
Show visual of text:
Under the dark is a star
Under the star is a tree
Under the tree is a blanket
And under the blanket is me
Have a few volunteers read text out loud, then read it myself in rhythm.
Have them read it with me twice. Add chest-patting to the rhythm. Speech to whisper, then speech to “think,” then speech to “doot doot doot…”
Take out alto recorders!
Prep C fingering. Play C to the rhythm of the poem. Second chance.
Prep D fingering. Play D to the rhythm of the poem. Second chance.
Improv on poem text on C and D. Second chance: end on C.
Prep E fingering. Play E to the rhythm of the poem. Second chance.
Improv on poem text on C, D, and E. Second chance: end on C.
Teach them the melody.
Line by line, ask them to figure out the pitches! If that doesn’t work, just teach them.
Put it together in phrases, then play the whole thing a couple times.
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I’ll teach a full arrangement for this piece a bit later in the semester before reintroducing the alto recorder melody. For a B section, we have options: creative movement based on our opening activity, spoken building bricks, or recorder improvisation based on building bricks. I’ll see where we’re at musically at that point before deciding.
