CHAPTER 2: SPEECH & METER

● Duple, Compound Duple, and Triple

● Unmetered Speech
● Putting Speech to Rhythm
● Putting Rhythm to Speech
● Layered Ostinato

Homework Lab:
During this time each morning you will have time to review your homework. Share it
with classmates and gather feedback. See the board for further directions.

Coffee with Keetman:

This will be our daily time to discuss the readings, ask questions, and occasionally try
out some of the examples that Keetman provides in Elementaria.

Opening Song

Alabama Gal
Recording from: New England Dancing Masters: Chimes of Dunkirk

1. Come through in a hurry exploration

Come through in a hurry Alabama Gal
Come through in a hurry 3. I’ll show you how, how Alabama Gal
Alabama Gal 4. Ain’t I rock candy Alabama Gal
2. I don’t know how, how

● Begin with temple block movement

o Explore locomotor and non-locomotor movement

o Walk while temple block plays beat (quarter note)
o Freeze when stopped
o If it changes match your feet.
▪ Subdivisions become jogging or skip/gallop
▪ Longer notes become stretches
o Add drum as non-locomotor
● Add change of direction or body facing
● Find a partner
 o Choose one standing locomotor action that can move quickly
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▪
Practice with temple block
▪
When you hear the teacher sing Alabama Gal verse 1 show your
locomotor movement
● Try it beginning and ending in different places
● Try it beginning and ending in the same place.
o Choose a standing non-locomotor movement with a partner
▪ When you hear the teacher sing Alabama Gal verse 2 show your
non locomotor movement
● Move into a long way set. For verse 1 only the head group shares their locomotor
movement going down the set and back to the top. Verse 2, every pair does their non
locomotor movement.
● Finish learning the song through echo imitation.
● Try verse 3 movement is the head pair shares locomotor movement and goes all the
way down the set to the end. Verse 4 all groups move up one spot with their non
locomotory movement.
● Learn the movement for verse 3 and 4. “Cast off and Reel, peel the banana, peel the
orange…”
● Choice time- which version shall we use today?
● Try the song with the recording.

EXPLORING METER

Beat in the Feet Game- Changing meters 2/4, 3/4, 6/8

(Process by Paul Weller, used with permission)

Compound Meter (6/8) - skipping/galloping meter

• T. begins by playing a walk beat as S. travel around the room
• Now teacher plays a pattern of long-short sounds for compound meter. S. will discover
this is a skipping or galloping rhythm.
• Use walk, jogging, and galloping beats as S. travel around the room.
• Discuss the difference between skipping and galloping
o Some kids are unable to skip, so you may use this process to help get them to
understand the foot change for skipping.

Triple Meter (3/4) - dancing meter

Triple meter is often not done much or well at the elementary level because the repertoire we
have is not in triple meter. Also, a majority of the music on the radio is in simple meter and so
students do not have the aural vocabulary to work with it without extensive experience first.
• T. plays a duple meter beat using two tones (low and high) on the temple blocks or
drums
• S. explore ways of traveling with this beat and do something with your hands that goes
 1-2 (back and forth)
• T. changes to triple meter (using a low and two high sounds) and S. alter their
movement to match the beat
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• T. switches back and forth from duple to triple meters allowing s. to explore and
discover how each one feels in relationship to each other.
• add a dip or bend on the low sound as they continue to travel
• travel on your tip-toes for the two high sounds and continue to travel and do the
pattern with their hands.
• Change tempo of the 1-2-3 beat to experience it fast and slow
• Explore changing direction as you travel (forward, backwards, sideways) •
When ready add one or two turns as you travel
• what does it feel like you are doing? DANCING!
o Levels of Dancing Meter
▪ Level 1 - Basic Down-up-up traveling
▪ Level 2 - changing direction while down-up-up traveling
▪ Level 3 - adding a turn while down-up-up traveling and changing direction

Duple Meter: A meter consisting of one strong and one weak beat with even subdivisions. For
our purposes both the meter of 2 and the meter of 4 will be considered duple meter.

Wee Willie Winkie runs through the town

Upstairs, downstairs in his night gown
Rapping at the window, crying through the locks
Are the children in their beds for now it’s eight o’ clock?

● Explore ways to say the poem. How does the tempo, timbre, dynamics, inflection, etc.,
change the feel of the poem? How can we use these musical tools to make the
performance of this poem artistically interesting and meaningful?
● Explore movement ideas. How can you move this as a soloist? How could we act out the
story using small or large groups? What are the characters/setting and how can we use
our body and voice to depict this story?
● Game:
o Students spread out and pretend to sleep
o One Willie Winkie moves around while speaking the poem
o At the end of the poem, they tap someone and ask, “Are you sleeping?” (Note: I
sang this as a So-La-Mi chant). If the person says, “No I’m not,” then they can
join Willie Winkie and wake more people up but if they do not move then Willie
Winkie moves on to someone else.
▪ Note: Only one student may tap at a time, so there can be a time
where not everyone can tap on someone.
● Extension: Pantomime game with things you may do out of the house in the night.
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Compound Duple Meter: A variation of duple meter consisting of two strong beats subdivided
into triples. (Strong, weak, weak; strong, weak, weak)

Little Miss Muffet, sat on her tuffet

Eating her curds and whey
Along came a spider, who sat down beside her
And frighten Miss Muffet away!

● Speak the poem while keeping the beat. How else can we show the beat?
● Repeat the poem and speak expressively
● Dramatic play: Everyone is Little Miss Muffet, except there is one spider. Work in a
scattered formation. If the spider sits by you become frightened and run away. This can
also be done with partners and take turns.
● Game: (Learned from Cindy Hall at the University of St. Thomas Orff Level 1) o
Everyone sits in a circle. A spider walks around the outside of the circle. When the
spider sits down the people on both sides need to run/walk around the outside of
the circle in opposite directions. The first one back to their own spot wins. Note:
have the runners high five halfway through, this will help avoid collisions.

Triple Meter: A meter consisting of three beats with a strong beat followed by 2 weak beats
and beats are subdivided into eighth notes. (Strong, weak, weak; strong, weak, weak)

Early to bed and early to rise,

Makes a man healthy and wealthy and wise

● Speak the poem while keeping the beat. How else can we show the beat?
● When poem is over, Teacher plays a pattern in triple meter
● Students act out something they could do when they get up early in the morning. (If you
are not a morning person, you will need to pretend).

Is it duple, compound duple, or triple?

Little Tommy Tiddlemouse
Lives in a little house The north wind doth blow
Someone’s knocking, me oh And we shall have snow
my. Someone’s calling, “Who And what will poor robin do then, poor
am I?” thing?
How much wood could a woodchuck chuck
 if a wood chuck could chuck wood? What we have left, we’ll put in the
pot Chop, chop, chipity chop.
Chop, chop, chipity chop
Cut off the bottom and cut off the top

● Try reading it in duple and in compound duple

● Half the group keeps the beat, and the other half claps the poem then switch jobs.
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● What do you notice about this poem? Does one way seem more natural?
● Most nursery rhymes can be done in multiple meters.
o However, if it is a common nursery rhyme you should stick with what most of
your students will know.
o Sometimes one line of the poem will have a strong feel for a specific meter, and
you should follow that idea with the rest of the poem.
o If it fits in multiple meters, use the one that will either help with the concept you
are trying to teach, or the one your students need more experience utilizing. ● Find the
prosody of the poem. Prosody is defined in the dictionary as “the patterns of stress and
intonation in a language.” Look for the natural prosody of the poems, where is naturally
stressed.

Practice in finding the poetic meter, it could be simple duple, compound duple, or triple.
1. Determine the strong beats of the meter.
2. Determine the number of measures you will need. Typically, they will be in groups of
4 and most nursery rhymes will either be 4 or 8 measures.
3. Is it possible to be in more than one meter?
4. Watch out for anacrusis!
Just let your feet go clippety-clop
Pease porridge hot Your tail goes swish and the
Pease porridge cold wheels go round
Peas porridge in the pot Giddy up, we’re homeward bound
Nine days old
Some like it hot To market, to market to buy a fat pig
Some like it cold Home again, home again jiggety-jig
Some like it in the pot To market, to market to buy a fat hog
Nine days old Home again, home again jiggety-jog
Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall
Jack and Jill went up the hill Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall
To fetch a pail of water All the king’s horses and all the king’s
Jack fell down and broke his crown men Couldn’t put Humpty together again
and Jill came tumbling after Diddle, diddle dumpling my son John
Went to bed with his stockings on One
Horsey, horsey don’t you stop shoe off and one shoe on
 Diddle diddle dumpling my son John your children are gone
All except one and that’s little
If all the world were paper, Ann For she crept under the
And all the sea were ink, frying pan
If all the trees were bread and
cheese What should we have to One to make ready,
drink? And two to prepare
Good luck to the rider
Ladybug, ladybug fly away And away goes the mare
home Your house is on fire and

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Poem with Complementary Ostinato

Cobbler, Cobbler:

● Learn poem through simultaneous imitation. While playing a shoe passing game. o
Game: Pass an object around the circle. One person goes in the middle and closes their
eyes. At the end of the poem everyone pretends to have the shoe. The person in the
middle says, “Who fixed my shoe?” the person with it says, “I did.” Then the person in the
middle opens their eyes and gets __ guesses. (Let the students choose how many guesses
 before the game begins).
● Learn first ostinato through simultaneous imitation. Group continues the ostinato while
the leader says the poem. Then split the group in half and each side performs one of the
parts
● Repeat the process above with the second ostinato. Once both ostinati are learned split
the class in thirds and perform the arrangement.
o Extension: Transfer the ostinato to contrasting BP and clap the melody to create
a rhythmic piece.
o Extension: Use building bricks to create footwear patterns for an improvisation
section.

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Rhythmic Ostinato: A short rhythm that is repeated throughout a music piece as an
accompaniment. When creating a rhythmic ostinato avoid rhythmic parallelism.

Complimentary Rhythms: Two or more rhythmic patterns that contrast one another. When
preformed together they should be distinct yet create a musically pleasing sound. Often these
are of 2 different lengths.

Practice creating a rhythmic ostinati:

Using the poems below:
● Figure out the meter (duple or compound duple) and notate the rhythm following its
natural prosody in the space provided.
● Determine a complementary rhythm. Use this rhythm to create a rhythmic ostinato and
● Write a text to go with the ostinato.
● Extension: Write 2 ostinati that support the same poem.

2,4,6,8
Meet me at the garden gate
If I’m late, do not wait
2,4,6,8
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Hickory Dickory Doc
The mouse ran up the clock
The clock struck one, the mouse ran down
Hickory Dickory Doc
Tips and notes for writing multiple ostinati:
● Make sure the rhythms are complimentary
● Using different phrase lengths can be helpful
● Do not be afraid to use rests. If one pattern or the poem is busy the ostinato may use a
lot of space.
● Line up your beats and subdivisions. This will help you see parallel rhythms.
● Write out the entire rhythm and the ostinati for the whole piece.
● It must repeat at least one time for it to be an ostinato. Do not make them too long,
these pieces are not very long.
● It is okay to adjust the final repetition of the ostinato in order to create a cadence.

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Putting Speech to Rhythm

When putting speech to a given rhythm it sometimes takes a while. Care must be given with the
prosody of the text. Putting the correct emphasis on the correct syllable is crucial for rhythmic
integrity. Prosody is dependent on language and region. Different dialects may change where
the emphasis of the text is placed. If you set a text in your student’s native language and your
students naturally say it differently than you planned, they are typically correct.

Partner/Small Group Project:

• Choose a partner or small group
• Choose a rhythm from Music for Children I, pages 56—58. You may choose to use 4
measures of the rhythm or the entire rhythm. Note sometimes there are double bar
lines in the middle of the example.
• Write text to match the rhythm maintaining the prosody of the words and the rhythm in
the book.
• Be prepared to share with the group.

UNMETERED POETRY

An old silent pond…

A frog jumps into the pond
Splash! Silence again
-Basho Matsuo
● Speak the poem expressively as a group
o What if we read it fast or slow, accent 1-3 words, choose 1 word that is repeated
▪ Note: repeated text can be musically interesting there is intentionality
and often with variation in inflection.
o Consider vocables, breath, repeating text, sound effects, body percussion
o Who is saying the poem? Everyone? One Person? Does it change?
o Could you add in an ostinato? Choose 2-3 words to accent?
o Certain people only speak certain words
o What if some people repeat text while others move on?
o Could you show it with your body?
● Use movement to support the text.
o Create a starting picture
o Create an ending picture
o Consider formation, texture, tempo
o Could you speak the poem then move it?
● Create a class performance
● Analyze the process used

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Small group work
In a small group select one of the poems below. Find a way to interpret your poem using
expressive speech and movement. Be prepared to share.
 After the white-gray sails, taut to their spars
The fog comes on and ropes,
little cat feet I have eaten
It sits looking The plums
over harbor and city That were in
On silent haunches The icebox
and then moves on
-Carl Sandberg And which
You were probably
Saving
Some kind of attraction that is neither For breakfast
Animal, vegetable, nor mineral, a power not
Solar, fusion, or magnetic Forgive me
And it is all in my head that They were delicious
I could see into his So sweet
And find myself sitting there. And so cold
-Kathrine Foreman -William Carlos Williams

After the Sea-Ship—after the whistling winds;

Below, a myriad, myriad waves, hastening, lifting up their necks,

Tending in ceaseless flow toward the track of ship. -Walt Whitman

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