Boomwhacker Aftermath

So, with the experience of the Boomwhacker party resonating in my head all night, I awoke to several new ideas. Most of these are not Boomwhacker ideas, but what the hey - I thought I'd share...

My clients have developmental and psychiatric diagnoses, so many of the things that I saw last night were not things my clients can access easily. The chants, the songs, and the organization skills were valuable, so I will use them (with LOTS of adaptations) with my students.

Now, on to my ideas.

With the upcoming Halloween event arriving, I suggest using the Boomwhackers in minor keys. A and C, E and B, D and F are all minor tonalities that can be used as the format for "spooky" songs using the Diatonic set. I often use the exact same songs that I use during the rest of the year on Halloween, but I change all of my major tonalities to minor tonalities. The change of mode increases the eeriness of the music and really makes me think about my melodies and pitches as well. It's a great exercise - try it sometime. Any song can be "mode-ified." It makes for some strange sounding melodies, but it is fun for a music theory nerd like myself. Don't forget Lydian, Lochrian, and the other modes...


Boomwhackers Faster Than the Speed of Sound (well, maybe not, but we'll try...)


My kids are fascinated by speed. They seem to think that faster is better and often refuse to slow down. We sit in a circle and pass the sound around the circle. If you are fortunate enough to have a plethora of Boomwhackers, you can arrange them into a melody or phrase. (For example, each kid has one Boomwhacker and sit in the following order: C - C - G - G - A - A- G.) Challenge the students to play the notes in the correct order as well as to identify the song phrase. Once the clients have done both tasks, speed up the playing around the circle until they can play as fast as they can.


Gonna Carve a Pumpkin to Match My Mood

Emotion recognition is often not something that my clients come by naturally. They do not seem to realize that other people have emotions or that emotions are part of relationships. I am constantly trying to develop interventions that challenge them to evaluate their emotions and the emotions of others. This idea started last year right after Halloween, and I am looking forward to trying it out this next week.

Every student receives a pumpkin blank and velcroed facial features. We sing the song, and they place the features that they want on the pumpkin. I ask them to tell me what mood they were making. We then sing the song again, using the modal changes that I talked about in the first idea, identifying if the music sounds like the emotion. This is often a difficult concept for my students, but they can choose the mode that sounds best to them (There are no wrong answers).


Interested in more ideas?


Let me know...