
Lesson suggestion 3 - Spring breezes ages 13-15
Here are ideas on how to form a lesson for the older ages in the compulsory school. The lesson example is followed by a video where you can see elements of the actual lesson. I held the lesson as part of a workshop with university students from Berlin and Stockholm at the LTT week in Stockholm, May 2022. You also have The Swedish lyrics and chords for the song as pdf files.
The basic idea for this lesson was to work with the genre of Swedish Folk music. I wanted to sing a traditional song and also to play some instruments. The idea was to use the Eurhythmics exercises that you see in the beginning of the video, to get the class more familiar with the meter of 3. But also to give them a bank of rhythmic ideas to improvise with while playing an accompaniment for the song.
I also wanted to incorporate some improvisation and melody playing but not in reading sheet music, but instead “reading” how the walking group put their feet in the note lines on the floor.
When I work with different activities in groups, such as singing, accompanying, melody playing and movement improvising, it’s important to switch the groups around so everybody tries out all four activities.
Video: Spring breezes