Rhythm Composing and Extension Activities

I think one of the things that I’m “known for” is composing activities because I have a bunch. Composing activities are a great way to let students be creative, with parameters, as well as let them practice rhythms and rhythmic writing. But there is more to composing than writing down rhythms! Here are some rhythm composing activities and extension activities you can do with them (or any rhythm composing activity).

Rhythm Composing

I start with rhythm because we tend to tune into to faster. It’s easy to pick some words to put rhythm to or find a short poem to write in rhythm. Examples below:

Sequence their compositions

1. The first time, let them just write and practice the rhythm they write. Perfect for cut and paste activities.
2. Have the pattern end with something that feels more like an ending (something with a quarter note instead of eighteenth notes).
3. Have students repeat words instead of only using each word one time.
4. Ask for more consistent patterns.
5. Extend the length of the composition past 8 beats.

Rhythm Extension

Borrowing from our Orff friends, the next logical steps are body percussion and to move it instruments. (Remember that I am not an Orff-er so if you have Orff training, you will definitely know better than me!)

• Put a specific body percussion to each word. This is much simpler when students are only using a few words instead.
• Put the rhythm onto a percussion instrument or on an Orff instrument.

Make it Melodic

Have students assign a pitch to each word. There are a few ways you can do this.

• Boomwhackers/Sound bellows/Etc – Easy to assign a color to each word. Students can color code their compositions. Using solfege they can write it on the staff.
• If you are in recorders, have students assign a known note to each word and write it on the staff.
• If you are feeling really ambitious and have worked with chords, have students write a chord progression to play on ukuleles!

Arrange It

Add elements to create longer pieces. This can truly be built to help students

• Add student written ostinato
• Have students pick a few patterns to play and the order to play them.
• Do a “home pattern” and have students play their own to create a very long class rondo
• Include the instrumental parts, have some parts be only instrumental or body percussion.
• Add and remove instruments to create an arrangement.

Resources

Looking for help getting started? Check out my composing files here.

I hope this has given you some ideas to make a 1 and done print activity turn into a multi-use tool!