Songs to Start the Music Lesson
There are so many ways we can open the music lesson so students are immersed in a musical environment right away. The way we open the music room sets the tone for the rest of the class. Specifically, we want to open class in a way that is in alignment with our goals for the physical space, the emotional space, the social space, and the musical space.
Greeting students at the door with a song is one of the simplest ways to build positive classroom management practices right away. Let’s look at some specific options for entrance songs in elementary general music.
Singing Entrance Songs:
A song at the beginning of the lesson could be anything students know, enjoy, and can sing! This is the most common way to start a music class, and for good reason. When we have consistency in our opening routine and what we expect from students, we’re setting a foundation for the rest of the learning experience.
There are truly endless possibilities, depending on your lesson objectives for the particular class.
Here are just a few options to get started:
Recorded Music:
Other times, we might choose to walk in with pre-recorded music. As students walk in, they can perform a body percussion pattern of their choice, or imitate your pattern.
What do your students want to walk in to? This is a great time to use student preference with song material, especially for upper grades.
If you’re looking for a few songs to get started, here are some options. Each of these songs are used to teach musical concepts inside The Planning Binder, either in the 2021 - 2022 curriculum or the 2020 - 2021 curriculum.
Body Percussion:
Body percussion is another fabulous way to get students in the door, especially with older students.
Here are some options for using body percussion. Early experiences might be during our first weeks and months at a new school, or earlier in the year when students are working on reviewing musical concepts. Later experiences can happen if students are already comfortable making musical choices in this way, and are ready for more partwork independence.
Early experiences:
The teacher creates a four-beat body percussion pattern by stepping the beat and clapping a repeating rhythmic pattern. Students copy the pattern as they walk into class.
The teacher creates a four-beat body percussion pattern by stepping the beat and clapping a repeating rhythmic pattern. Students change something about it (like the rhythm or the body percussion levels) as they walk into class.
Later experiences:
The teacher creates a four-beat body percussion pattern by stepping the beat and clapping a repeating rhythmic pattern. Students copy the pattern as they walk into class. Once they’re in their places, students turn to a shoulder partner and create their own four-beat variation of the pattern. Student groups take turns teaching their patterns to the class as time allows.
Students can create their own unique four-beat pattern outside the room and use it to walk in the class. Encourage students to use stepping and clapping, and then to add more body percussion layers as they’re comfortable. One challenge here is that students will likely be doing a different pattern than their neighbor, which will require more partwork independence.
Students create their own four-beat pattern outside the room and use it to walk in the class. When students are in their places, choose two body percussion
Listening Entrance Songs:
We might also choose for students to interact with a new song as they enter the music room. The listening selection you use will depend on your curriculum needs, but this is another musical place where there is lots of potential for variety based on your own goals for your students.
For a piece that’s intended to be a listening selection, it’s not necessary for students to know the song. However, it is helpful to have them physically do something as they listen. The exact way students enter will be dependent upon the listening selection’s purpose and why you chose it. Here are some options:
Students might follow your motions to show the melodic contour, they might move their feet in a specific pattern (like sliding, stepping out and stepping together, moving and stopping, etc.), they might do a body percussion pattern, or they might mime the instruments they hear playing. There are many options!
Entering to a song intended to be used for a listening experience is not necessarily common in the normal teaching routine.
Field recordings of known folk songs:
We might find a field recording of other songs students are singing in class. Here are a few possibilities, sourced from Smithsonian Folkways:
Unknown songs to provide a musical context:
Do You Know What it Means to Miss New Orleans
Students can walk in the room to this recording of Louis Armstrong, and connect it to the known work, Great Big House in New Orleans.
Son de Ejutla - Son from Oaxaca
This is a recording from Smithsonian Folkways of a Oaxacan marimba ensemble. It’s played with multiple musicians on a single instrument, and we can hear the layers of sound the ensemble creates through different registers. More information about music in Oaxaca and other areas of Mexico can be found at Smithsonian Folkways.
Students can walk into the room to this recording, and connect it to the other piece with a connection to Oaxaca, “Bate Bate Chocolate.”
This is a recording from Smithsonian Folkways. The leading singer in this recording is Madam Aba Wansema. The group is made of mostly women, and they’re accompanied by an ampaa (hand drum), asow (a sheet of metal, played to keep time in the ensemble), danka (a rattle - what we might refer to in classrooms as a shekere).
Students can connect this listening experience to the Akan exercise song, “Kye Kye Kule.” There is a of diversity in music from Ghana! More information can be found at Smithsonian Folkways.
Choosing an Entrance Song:
There are a few general guidelines we can follow when choosing an entrance song. In most cases, the entrance song should be:
A song students can fully participate in (whether singing independently, doing rhythmic work like body percussion, or moving with an element of the song)
A song students like!
A song that meets your curricular goals for the lesson
Within those parameters, there are many ways we can start the music class with music!
