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One, Two…. Who Knew It Would Be This Easy!

So, you’d like to use handchimes in the general music classroom or children’s choir rehearsal but you’re not quite sure where to start? We have the solution for you!

Start slowly – choose a folk song which you can teach by rote and has a melody that can be harmonized with two chords. Once the text and melody are learnt, add handchimes in by having your students accompany their singing with chords.

Do this by distributing one handchime to each student and separate the students by chords having the students holding the common pitch stand in the center. Practice each chord separately. Then point to group one or two and practice ringing as indicated.

A chord chart indicating the chord by pitch name or color displayed by projector may also be used. Simply point to the chord at the appropriate time. This is a great way to begin teaching eye-hand coordination. Consider putting Malmark’s colored bands on the handchimes to make chord recognition easier.

Begin to practice singing the song along with the chords indicating which chord is to be rung with the text. If you don’t have enough handchimes to go around add some non-pitched percussion for added rhythm. In no time, you’ll have music in a snap – of the wrist that is!

Here are some recommended folk songs from the ChimeWorks website that use two chords:

O, Music, Sweet Music

Rocky Mountain

Six Little Ducks

Skip To My Lou

Recorder and Handchimes Together

Look no further for lesson plans using recorder and handchimes! As music educators, we try to engage as many students as possible in our classroom with hands-on music making. Adding handchimes and non-pitched percussion with recorders is a sure-fire way to heat things up!

With ChimeWorks’ chordal lesson plans, students will learn to harmonize the melodies they sing by ringing the accompanying chords on handchimes. Non-pitched percussion can be improvised to add more rhythmic interest. You might consider doubling the melody on recorder by assigning it to some of your more accomplished students.

Do you have favorite recorder melodies? Consider adding basic chords to the score and have some of your students join in with handchimes. The handchimes will add a rich, harmonic accompaniment that will serve as an in-tune foundation for your little pipers! Consider sharing your successful lesson plans with others by submitting them here.

Here are some ChimeWorks lesson plans that will surely create some pipe dreams:

Old MacDonald Had a Farm

Tallis Canon

Kum-bah-yah

Michael, Row the Boat Ashore

VBS – Sing, Ring and Rejoice!

Summer is almost here and as a musician that may mean your annual VBS responsibilities are right around the corner. As you study the music, text and gestures that go along with the songs of this year’s curriculum, don’t forget about the traditional songs that have been carried through generations and better yet, don’t forget your handchimes.

If your Worship style is more traditional, children will most likely welcome the change of the more contemporary and upbeat songs that are included in most VBS packages. Having the opportunity to sing along with the rock-like soundtracks and put their best foot forward with the accompanying moves will certainly add delight to each day.

It is my experience that the older children (Grades 3 – 6) excel at the packaged music programs of VBS. The younger children struggled a bit as the melodies were sometimes outside their singing range, rhythms were a little difficult and some of the text was too complicated to catch by rote and memorize quickly. I found that I would still use the curricular music with the younger children for rhythmic and movement activities but went back to the traditional songs of my own childhood as a supplement for singing and ringing.

Using the more traditional Bible songs helped me be a more effective teacher during that special week of summer for several reasons. I could pick and choose appropriate songs for the age with which I was working controlling the pitch range, the amount of text and the message. While any onlooker would think that I was just teaching songs of Christian life, I actually had a captured audience of music-makers who learned all about matching pitch, breath control, phrasing and most importantly, were able to combine their bodies, minds, spirits and voices to sing and rejoice! as eloquently taught by Helen Kemp.

Adding handchimes into the mix for the older children took it all to a new level. While the traditional Bible songs are familiar to some and not as challenging, adding percussion, handchimes and Orff-style instruments opened a whole new world to the children who are not actively involved my choir program and was a great recruitment tool. The children welcomed the opportunity to make music by an alternate method in addition to singing. The accessible chords and ostinati taught accompanied our songs and carried them to a higher level musically and spiritually.

Consider using some of the following lesson plans from ChimeWorks in your VBS classroom this summer as you train our future church leaders to sing, ring and rejoice!

LP00006 Amazing Grace

LP00007 Amazing Grace

LP00010 Simple Gifts

LP00012 Kum-Bah-Yah

LP00031 Kum-Bah-Yah

LP00038 For Health and Strength

LP00041 Peace Like a River

LP00046 Tallis Canon

LP00064 Michael, Row the Boat Ashore

LP00095 Good and Joyous

LP00097 Alleluia Round

LP00098 Jubilate Round

Ode to Music

Children will remember the songs that we teach them throughout their lives. Be it a catchy tune, silly lyrics or an engaging movement, the music that we teach will impact our students in different ways but the end results are the same – lifelong memories.

As teachers of music, we hope to instill an appreciation, love or passion for music into our students. We do this best by actively involving them in the music-making process allowing them to be creative as they go and encouraging them to connect their experiences to the world around them. We also know that music will stimulate the intellectual, emotional, spiritual and social growth of our students affecting their lives in so many ways.

We balance our choice of lessons and repertoire to broaden our students – classical, folk, world and nonsense songs fill our teaching space – all to provide our students with a varying wealth of repertoire. Along with our singing, we introduce drums and other percussion, recorders, Orff instruments, ukuleles, Boomwhackers®, KidsPlay® bells and handchimes all in effort for our students to find their voice. In the end, our hope is for well-rounded young musicians leading to accomplished adults who are kinder, gentler and welcoming.

How often do we stop and sing about it? Music, that is. As we close the school year, we have an opportunity to sum up all that we offer with songs that praise our beloved art. Words that express how wonderful music is that our students will remember for a lifetime.

Share the joy of music with some of the following ChimeWorks lesson plans that will allow your students to sing and ring about it!

Merrily, Merrily Greet The Morn (LP00053)

Music Alone Shall Live (LP00043)

O Music, Sweet Music (LP00021)

Sing Together (LP00055)

Viva La Musica (LP00065)

Welcome Ev’ry Guest (LP00072)

O, How Lovely (LP00066)

Adaptable Lesson Plans for KidsPlay® Bells, Boomwhackers® and More!

The ChimeWorks^TM library of lesson plans is not just for those who use handchimes! While these lesson plans have been developed as an ever-growing resource for those who have access to handchime sets in the classroom and rehearsal, they are easily adaptable to be used with KidsPlay^® bells, Orff-style instruments, Boomwhackers^®, handbells and other pitched percussion instruments. You can even double a melody with recorders!

In fact, the lesson plans using Icons and Chords have been developed using a system incorporating colors so that users of KidsPlay Bells and Boomwhackers will now have a new dimension of resources available to them. Handchime owners can purchase colored bands here to wrap around the chime tube to give your students another feature in the learning process of becoming music literate.

In these lesson plans, we use a second component (shapes, pitch names, etc.) for those who suffer from color vision deficiency along with the Chroma-note^® colors so that every child can be engaged in learning, developing eye-hand coordination and ultimately, music literacy.

Who are these lesson plans written for?

Music Education teachers who want to energize their classrooms and concert stages by increasing music literacy, creativity and collaboration.

Choir Directors who want to create meaningful rehearsals by implementing music reading, rhythm and exploration into their choral rehearsals leading to greater participation.

Music therapists who desire more resources in teaching non-music readers and giving them profound experiences.

Home Education leaders who are looking for resources with which to create musical experiences for smaller groups and will accommodate your educational needs at any level.

Are you one of these leaders? Here’s what’s in the store for you – lesson plans using:

Icons

Icons are non-traditional symbols used to notate music. They allow students to quickly “read” music without the worry of not knowing standard musical notation. They also allow students to quickly express themselves at an early-learner stage with known symbols rather than struggling with music notation. The use of icons develops eye-hand coordination rapidly allowing students to quickly adapt to numbers, pitch names, solfege and then standard music notation.

The ChimeWorks lesson plans use a standardized group of icons combining shapes and colors. The shapes have been adapted loosely from those used in shape-note singing.

Since icons are used with non-music readers, they can be utilized with younger children. These same children may not yet be literate and understand how to track from left to right. We suggest that great success will be met when the icon chart is presented through a computer-generated slideshow presentation or interactive whiteboard so that the teacher may point to each shape tracking for the students in tempo and rhythm.

Once the students master the melody using icons, they may continue with the Chroma-note score. Several methods may be used to achieve success in helping the students to associate their handchime or other instrument with the appropriate pitch. Older students may meet success by just having the location of the pitch on the staff on the note designation label which is standard on all brands of handchimes and may be able to move quickly to the handchime score which is in standard music notation.

Chords

Students may quickly harmonize the songs which they sing by using chords. The ChimeWorks chordal lesson plans using two to seven chords are adaptable to lower and upper elementary school students alike.

Each lesson plan includes the melody and text of each song with chords indicated over the melody. For older students, the text of the first verse is presented with chord names and associated colors over the text. The students may sing the text and chime the associated chords as they progress through the text. For younger children, a chord chart with associated colors is included which may be displayed through a computer-generated slideshow presentation or interactive whiteboard so that the teacher may point to the appropriate chord while singing tracking tempo and rhythm.

Ostinati

Harmonize your songs with ostinati patterns. All the ChimeWorks ostinati lesson plans are easy to teach by rote. Each lesson plan includes the melody and text of each song along with a series of patterns that can be taught on any number of pitched instruments. Distribute non-pitched percussion too and have your students improvising rhythms in no time. This is creative music-making at its best!

Share your Success

Earn some extra cash! How many countless hours have you spent writing lessons? Submit your successful lesson plans for possible inclusion in the ChimeWorks lesson plan library and earn 40% royalty on each lesson plan sold! Read more here.

Log on to www.chimeworks.com for a free two-week trial period and three free lesson plans today!