Echo and Answer (Grades K-6, Listening and Music)
Process
- Invite students to echo your four-count body
percussion pattern. This can be tricky the first time. Use the familiar
attention-getter pattern (clap, clap, clap-clap, clap) and/or count to four
while doing the pattern so that the four counts are clearly defined. You could also
begin with four claps, snaps, pats, etc. counting to four each time. Later,
leave out the counting and the students should be able to simply count in their
heads.
- Immediately after the students echo the pattern,
begin a new pattern. The echos should be seamless—pattern, echo, pattern, echo.
Large gaps interrupt the flow and pacing. Keep the patterns simple enough for
the students to echo, but complex enough to keep them interested. Vary the type
of body percussion (clap, snap, pat, pat cheeks, pat head, stomp, etc.). Vary the
volume level. Vary the rhythm. You can also use repetitive actions that are silent; these are especially effective in focusing a group of students.
- Invite the students to, instead of an echo,
perform an answer to your pattern. An answer is a pattern that is different but
takes the same amount of space. If necessary (if students just keep echoing),
choose a student to demonstrate with you, pattern-answer-pattern-answer. Ask the students, “Was
it an echo or an answer?” Answers are an important step towards students making
up their own patterns.
Variations on echoes and answers:
- Choose individual students to be the leader.
- Have two students answer each other back and
forth.
- Have halves of the class answer each other back
and forth.
- Divide into partners or small groups and
practice echoes and answers.
- Vary the tempo (fast echoes and answers or slow
echoes and answers)
- Around the Circle: Have everyone develop a
pattern. Go around the circle and have each student perform her or his pattern
for the rest of the class to echo or answer.
- Use the same process with percussion instruments or with found sounds.
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