Submitted by Monica Autry, Ft. Bragg, North Carolina

Idea posted July 13, 2004

I just finished my Orff Level 1 and the clinician showed us some wonderful improvisation activities. This is one that you could use right away with first graders.

Speech:
1 2 3 4 5 6 cha-cha-cha. (Question)
1 2 3 4 Now we stop. (Answer)
Transfer the speech to a body rhythm.
Transfer body rhythm to instruments.

Set up bars in a pentatonic scale. Students improvise during the beats with numbers. Everyone plays the same rhythm on "cha-cha-cha" (end on any bar except tonic) and "Now we stop" (everyone ends on tonic). Divide up the questions and answers between instruments. You can also add unpitched instruments. It was a lot of fun and very simple to do.