Posted on June 10, 2008 by Eric Steiner in - Creative Expression/Improvisation
This game is designed to get kids comfortable with making things up on their instruments as an introduction to improvisation, and also helps establish good listening and rhythm habits.
Students sit in a circle. The first student creates a short ostinato rhythmic pattern, either by clapping, tapping, drumming on the wood of the instrument, making a sound with their mouths, or any other manner of creating sound including combinations of the above ideas.
The next student enters a bar or two later with their own pattern, followed by the next student a couple of bars later, etc., etc. Once all of the students are in, they should then drop out one at a time, starting with the first student.
This is basically a drum circle kind of idea, but uses the instruments and bodies to create the rhythmic patterns. It can also be done with actual notes on the instrument and could explore sounds such as col legno and ponticello. The teacher could either give the students a group of pitches to choose from (notes of a particular scale or chord for example), or let them choose at will.