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Reception task time happens weekly, it is an extra music session taught in small groups. This is an optional lesson for those children wanting to take their music further.
This week we explored the concept of a tuned and untuned ‘ostinato’. Ostinato is an Italian word meaning ‘persistent’ and it is used in music to describe a musical phrase or rhythm that is repeated persistently.
We took the well-known tune of Frere Jacques and sang some new lyrics relating to Australian animals. After practising the song, we took the final line of “Possums, too” and used this initially as an untuned ostinato. To familiarise the children with the rhythm they tapped this out on their bodies; ‘shoulders, knees, shoulders, (rest)’ and repeated this whilst saying the words. Once they were secure with this rhythm, half the children sang the song whilst the other half performed the action pattern. We then transferred this rhythm to the chime bars to create a tuned percussion. We used the notes F and C and practiced the same rhythm. It became evident that the ‘rest’ in the rhythm made it challenging as the children instinctively wanted to carry on playing in that gap as if it were the pulse. We had a good few attempts at playing the tuned ostinato whilst singing the song. The children were extremely focused throughout and rose to the challenge.
Nursery have been exploring the timbre of different percussion instruments through a guessing game. They learnt a little song… “I have sounds, 1, 2, 3, hide away. Listen now carefully, which shall I play?” The children took it in turns to hide behind a cloth with percussion instruments. Once the song had ended they played one of the instruments for the rest of the class to guess which one it was. We discussed the correct way to hold and play the instruments and the names of the instruments. Nursery were brilliant at guessing the correct instruments and even gave a great attempt at using the correct names. Well done!
