Song Dotting

For example, using the song, London Bridge: (Sing and follow the dots)

 

Below are descriptions of two approaches that can be used depending upon the context in which the study takes place.

When a song is well known to the students and they have had opportunities to coordinate moving with the rhythm of the song or pattern, the students tap the pattern or song on their hands with their fingers.

• "Listen to your finger sing the song (or pattern)."

• "While your finger sings the song (or pattern), listen to the words in your inner hearing (in you head)."

• "Now tap the words (rhythm) across the paper just as you would read, going from left to right."

• "Let’s practice having your marker sing the song (or pattern), but leave the cap on”.

• “Take the cap off your marker and be ready for the song. Have your marker and your voice sing the song."

• "Can you sing (or hear) the song as you read the dots?"

Exploring Song Dots as the Initial Experience

When a song is well known to the students and they have had opportunities to coordinate moving with the rhythm of the song or pattern, (using the song Scotland’s Burning for example) write the following on the board: sing and follow the song dots.

Begin with a statement such as the following:

"Hmmm! This says that this series of dots is Scotland's Burning." "How could that be?" Let students come to the board and explain their understanding of what the dots might represent. Depending on the age of the students and their experience, it could take many tries and much discussion before the students come up with the ideas that each dot represents one syllable of the song. For as long as time permits, let the students contemplate, experiment, and discuss this puzzle. The ideal would be to have the students discover the meaning on their own.

• To build on students abilities to hear and move to the individual sounds of a pattern of music

• To provide a means of writing down what one hears that combines auditory, kinesthetic, and visual modes

• To provide a first step toward notating music in a formal way

• To let students notate the individual sounds of a pattern simultaneously with performance of the pattern.1 (p. 99)

• They can find the dots for particular places, words, or phrases in the song. Circle those places. (For example using London Bridge, students might find and circle the dots for each “falling down” phrase.)

• Dotting can be effectively combined with antiphonning by alternating dotting and singing between the leader and the responders.1 (p. 99

• Song dots can be made into noteheads. Stems and flags can be added to the noteheads to make a formal representation of the musical sound.

• When learning to play instruments that require wind to play, song dotting can set the stage for students to learn about, perform, and practice the act of tonguing. This process is discussed in depth in Recorder EdVentures. 2 (p. 18)