Improvise

In the last month we have explored a lot with improvising and mixed meter songs.  You can improvise (create on the spot) new verses to any song.  Create new verses to help you get through your day.  The head teacher at the Montessori school I teach at directs her students by singing to them all the time.  Her soft singing is so awesome to listen to!  (Much better than loud fussing).

We have improvised with Jim Along Josie a lot!  It is an easy song to change the words too.  It is also an easy song to play on the guitar or ukulele.  Enjoy jumping along with Pete Seegers version at home.  Add your own verses if you haven't already done so!

Here is a link to the play along version of Jim Along Josie we used in class.  You can preview and purchase it on Amazon or iTunes.

http://www.amazon.com/Jim-Along-Josie/dp/B0014N9FRG

Mixed meter is also a lot of fun to play with.  I have two music degrees and reading mixed meter music would always stress me out.  It wasn't until playing with mixed meter as a music together teacher that I became comfortable with it!  

Dance To Your Daddy is a mixed meter song.  It is in triple meter for a few phrases and then has a duple beat stuck in there.  When we danced with the song we bounced on the duple beat.  When we rolled balls with the song we felt the rhythm by 

roll (2,3)

roll (2,3)

roll (2,3)

bounce, bounce (or bounce pass) 

catch (2, 3)

Try this again at home.  When you can get your body to move with the beat and feel it the music becomes easy to understand and enjoy.

Rocketship is also a mixed meter song