Conducting Music Patterns for Practice

Music to My Ears

Are you studying music theory in your homeschool? Use this worksheet with students from upper elementary on up to help them to understand time signature.

Classical education music

Last year I was asked if I would share with the Activity Day girls a mini conducting course! I thought how fun!! This is a great way to learn yourself or teach how to conduct

Music

As an elementary music student, and truthfully all the way up to about 10th grade, I felt that conducting patterns were pretty mysterious. …

kids learning

Primary Music

Music

Purposeful Primary Music

This post is the second of a 2-part series describing ways to bring Primary music into a weekday Activity Days meeting. Read part 1 here, about memorizing the Articles of Faith. Tracing conducting patterns I love that Activity Days gives our girls the chance to learn how to conduct music. If you think about it, women and girls in our church have a ton of opportunities to lead music, so it makes sense to help our girls learn this skill. I’ve been invited into Activity Days a couple different times over the years to teach basic conducting patterns. Here are four techniques I’ve used. 1. Finding the Down Beat This is a most over-looked skill. 🙂 Let’s face it, the piano will keep playing, and the congregation will keep singing, even if you don’t have a clue what a down beat is. But we’re talking about teaching these kids correct technique, right? So let’s start them off right. I have the girls sit in a circle on the floor with me, and I ask them to listen to the flow of my singing and try to sway to match it. I try to emphasize the down beat slightly, and I sway and nod my head with the beat, too. Then I ask them if they can feel that there’s a stronger beat that comes every so often. I label it as the down beat, and then I sing a song with a different time signature, so they can identify the down beat there, too. 2. Tracing Conducting Patterns Before class time, I drew the shape of the conducting patterns for 2, 3, and 4 beats onto separate sheets of white paper, making sure to have one set for each girl. (If you have any left-handed students, make a mirror-image shape for them.) I also taped the papers onto the wall or chalk board. Now I let the girls choose a color of crayon. Directing them to start with the 2-beat pattern, I ask them to trace as I sing. After singing for a minute, I pause singing to say rhythmically, \