Singing with Jeanette Eggett

Last week I got to watch Jeanette Eggett in action. She did some really great things with singing that I wanted to share with all of you teachers. (Like Gayle, she also didn't know I was going to record ahead, but gave me permission to share.)

Old Man Winter: The students learned the song by itself first. Once they knew the song, Jeanette introduced an ostinato while the students sung the melody. She took the opportunity to teach music vocabulary with this experience, such as harmony, melody, and ostinato, and round.

Here are the students singing in a round by themselves.

After singing the song, she taught her students an ostinato (different than the one they sung) on the recorders. I took a video of her procedure for passing out recorders, but didn't post it here. Let me know if that is something you'd like to see, and I can send it your way. Here are the students playing the ostinato on their recorders while Jeanette sings Old Man Winter.

Jeanette used the same song with younger grades, but she brought in some different teaching ideas. Here she has the students move up and down with the melody/pitch using their bodies.

At the end of her lesson for the younger grades, Jeanette used Old Man Winter for listening and movement. She played music on her recorder and asked her students to listen and respond. If it was unfamiliar music, students matched their hands to the music. When they heard Old Man Winter they were to freeze. Once they had that down, the repeated the process moving and dancing with scarves.

I also just had to include this. Mrs. Eggett sings "Hello, Music Students" at the beginning of each class. They respond "Hello, Mrs. Eggett." It's all sung on sol and mi, and provides a fabulous reference point for teaching pitch or rhythm to lower grades, or to use to ask students as a melodic framework to ask questions about learning and have students respond while singing. Used in the question and answer format, it also provides a structure for students to improvise and create. 

In this video clip, Jeanette used it for vocal play. Simple, fun, and adorable.

Vocal play is one of the steps to in tune singing. Check out how Jeanette uses vocal play in this clip to lead to pitch matching, in tune singing, and audiating (the students hear the notes in their heads).