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Discovering Guitar in Pairs

by | Nov 28, 2022

52

Category

instrumental

Age

8+

Number of participants

in multiples of 2

Duration

approx. 20 min.

Working method
  • individual work
  • group work
Musical abilities of the trainers

1 2 34 5  6

Equipment and instruments
  • guitar
Competences
  • attention
  • dexterity
  • movement coordination
  • cooperation
  • concentration

Discovering Guitar in Pairs

This activity is the first one in a group of activities that consists in the use of a single guitar in pairs, being one of the partners the left-handed player and the other one the right-handed player.

AIM

The idea of this activity is to face alone technical difficulties and isolate them in a funny and musical piece. Like in general music studies, we will isolate one hand. However, this activity is not going to be a repetitive as the other studies. In fact, it is going to be amusing, the guitar is going to be shared between 2 partners.
They are going to use one hand by person, and in this way, they are going to have the same use of a normal guitar, but with less hands to worry about. In addition, they will experiment since the beginning the process of sharing music interpretation with another person.

Description

  1. The facilitator would explain the guitar neck and how to play the guitar
    2. Will give a demonstration on how to play the piece.
    3. After that they would be explained what to do on the activity, play the guitar on pairs. Using one hand by each person.
    4. They will view the positions in 5 minutes with the facilitators help.
    5. They will perform changing roles in other 10 minutes.

Comments for facilitators

Knowledge of guitar requisite, ensure they know the positions.
This type of instrument learning can also be applied to other instruments, where the notes can be played by using several hands together, e.g. piano, accordion, lute, violin, cello.

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Sunrise for 7

by | Nov 28, 2022

53

category

instrumental

Age

8+

Number of participants

7

Duration

approx. 20 min.

Working method
  • individual work
  • playing in pairs
  • group work
Musical abilities of the trainers

1  2  3  4  56

Equipment and instruments
  • 7 guitars
Competences
  • concentration
  • attention
  • movement coordination
  • perception
  • cooperation

Sunrise for 7

This activity consists of a conductor-performers activity for 7 guitars. In this activity the facilitator will ask for certain motives (previously assigned) to be done. Each performer has a maximum of 2 notes and the motives are going to be combined to have Bartok’s Sunrise song as a result.

AIM

The aim of the activity is to enable the first approach to the guitar playing. This approach is usually done by doing some technical exercises individually. In our case we are going to do an activity in which a musical piece is divided into simple and feasible motives that can be assigned to different participants. In this way an individual work becomes collective and social, being an activity that goes further than just mechanical practice.

Description

Explanation:

The activity is going to begin with a description of the guitar neck: location of the high and lows etc. and how to perform them.
After that description, the facilitator will explain the activity:
– they will be given a score and they will read it;
– they will put the fingers in the places they are going to use;
– they will practice and ask for help if they need;
– at the end they will do it in order in the big group.

Doubs-Practice:

After the explanation we will give time to clear the doubts and to practise as said before.

Execution:

They will play the piece.

Sharing opinions:

The facilitator will guide a conversation with the participants
about the exercise, found difficulties and the evaluation of the
experience.

COMMENTS FOR FACILITATORS

Convenient to have a good guitar control.
We will observe if any of the participants has difficulties to develop the activity and we will see if the performers play with the correct notes.

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Two Guitarists, One Singer, One Team

by | Nov 28, 2022

54

Category

instrumental

Age

8+

Number of participants

multiples of 3

Duration

approx. 30 min.

Working method
  • group work
Musical abilities of the trainers

1  2 3 4 56

Equipment and instruments
  • 3 guitars
Competences
  • improvisation
  • creativity
  • expression
  • confidence
  • attention
  • perception
  • cooperation
  • team cohesion

Two Guitarists, One Singer, One Team

In this activity, we are going to use a guitar by two people to accompany a singer participant.
The idea is to follow the development of the guitar sharing and in this case train the chords making as well. In addition, the singer will improvise some melodies with the help of the accompaniment.

AIM

The aim is to follow the activities of the shared guitar, but in this case, we are also going to be part of a singer. Therefore, the idea is to mix instruments in a way that they can manage more or less the pairs playing style. In this case, we are going to work on
chords. The left-hand player would have the most demanding part of doing the chords. The other hand is less demanding but not simple. They will do a constant rhythm. The other person is going to improvise singing following the chords.
So with this activity we are going to train guitar in a more complex way and a more attractive one: Accompanying a singer’s improvisation.
Also about the vocal part of the activity, we can say that is an opportunity to explore their improvising skills for the singer participants and of course an expression chance.

Description

1. First of all we will do a guitar and singing warming up.
2. After the warming up the facilitator will give the participants the scores of the chords and the rhythms, and will leave some time to practise them and the singer to acquire the harmonics.
3. The activity will continue with the performing part, they will do the accompanied improvisation. They will change roles on the guitar and the improvisator would have two chances to perform.

Chords progressions:
C-A-C-A-F-G7-C
Am-F-Dm-E7-Am
others

Rhythms:
Regular first
Subdivided after
Mixed
Improvised

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Guitar in Pairs

by | Nov 28, 2022

55

Category

instrumental

Age

8+

Number of participants

in multiples of 2

Duration

approx. 20 min.

Working method

playing in pairs

Musical abilities of the trainers

1 2 3 4 56

Equipment and instruments
  • guitar
Competences
  • attention
  • dexterity
  • movement coordination
  • cooperation
  • concentration

Guitar in Pairs

In this activity, participants will play guitar in pairs, in the sense
 of sharing one guitar by two people. In this way, social relationships could be improved and a new way of playing
an instrument can be explored.

AIM

The aim of the activity is to begin the guitar “training” in an attractive way that enables isolated training (hands independence). The idea of sharing a guitar by two people has
a complexity itself: you have to be mentally and physically near the couple and this fact can be a handicap for some people. Considering this, we can say that social competences are going to be developed for some people, for others (people that are more social) on the other hand, the activities are going to be possibly a pleasant activity to participate in.
Other aspects to focus on are aspects we can find in every group music activities, such as: sharing a rhythm, waiting the other if it is necessary, etc.

Description

Warm-up

1. easy melody in 1st string first with thumb
2. easy melody i-m
3. melody with some chord notes and thumb
4. melody with some chord notes and t-i-m

Piece

1. If it is possible demonstration of the piece by the facilitator
2. Exploring the positions of the notes to use
3. Exploring the rhythm
4. Explanation of what they are going to do:
5. First the simple melody and change the roles
6. After add the chords at the original notes if it is possible.

Comments for facilitators

Try to choose partners with affinity between them, if the activity goes well change the couples.
Ensure that they know where and what to play.

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Sound Recognition

by | Nov 28, 2022

58

Category

vocal
instrumental

Age

8+

Number of participants

12-25

Duration

approx. 20 min.

Working method
  • individual
  • playing in pairs
  • group work
Musical abilities of the trainers

1 2  3  4  5  6

Equipment and instruments
  • music player / app to play the sound
    effects
  • any sound generating device
Competences
  • creativity
  • attention
  • perception
  • cooperation

Sound Recognition

Recognition of different natural and artificial sounds from a music player and through the activities of group members

AIM

The purpose of the game is to sensitize and develop young people’s hearing and association skills by recognizing and identifying the „melodies”, „rhythms” and noises of the sound world.

Description

The participants first listen to various effects with their eyes closed and the task is to recognize them. They can even compete to see who can recognize more sound sources.

The sound effects can be recorded in nature (water, wind, storm, thunder, birdsong, sounds of domestic and wild animals, etc.), sounds of human expressions (heartbeat, wheezing, sneezing, coughing, clapping, pounding, etc.), or even sound effects produced by household appliances, vehicles and machines. The animator can use online platforms to search for effects if it is not possible to make her/his own audio recordings for the
exercise.

Another option during the exercise is for the participants to produce sound effects themselves behind a curtain alone or with a partner, and the others have to guess what sound they hear.

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