Various Ways to Teach Articulations, Tempos and Dynamics

With the younger students, I've been working with them on understanding some of the basic Italian terminology about tempos, articulations and dynamics. I decently came across two books that are really great to consider utilizing while teaching. the concepts These are new books to me, yet will be beneficial to your studio.

The first book is called Roar-chestra A Wild Story of Musical Words by Robert Heidbreder and Illustrated by Dusan Petricic. The creators provide a simple story line, where a conductor arrives where animals are all dressed up with bow ties. The conductor is directing musical terms: allegro, adagio, glissando, staccato, dolce, fortissimo and pianissimo. Each articulation and dynamic is represented by animals of that caliber, characteristic, description. Allegro has tigers, cheetahs, ostriches rabbits running amok. Staccato has kangaroos, goats, dolphins and more bouncing around . Heidbreder and Petricic gives descriptive words about the tempos and articulations, helping those who read understand what the terms mean. It's a creative book for younger kids to visualize what an animals personally represent based on music.

The second book is called Tiger Tempo by Vicky Weber and Illustrated by Genevieve Viel-Taschereaau. This story of Tiger Tempo attending a jungle race, where the tempos delineate the speed of how he responds to the races terrain. The creators utilize largo, adagio, allegro and presto, where students and teachers pat or move to the tempos. This is great to explain the various tempo options. Thanks to the author and Illustrator for producing a great book.

One of my favorite ways during the summer is using water squirts from the Dollar Tree. I write with sidewalk chalk Largo and Allegro or Forte and Piano and singing a basic song like Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, singing it fast, slow, loud or soft. The kids fill up their water squirters and spray the term. These games have been a hit with the studio. Hopefully I can get pictures soon about the fun so far this summer.

What are some of your favorite ways to explain tempos, articulations and dynamics? Would like to know. Thanks for your support. Blessing.