Learning Musical Contrasts through Ice Skating
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One of my favorite activities is playing with staccato and legato musical contrasts with the Skating song from Charlie Brown. All you need is the music (the link's below), and some paper plates.
Scatter the paper plates around on the floor. Tip toe around the plates (staccato, detached movement) during the descending eighth note patterns in the song. Then jump on the the plates, keep your feet down and skate (smooth, connected legato movement) during the dotted half note section. These two parts are about 4 measures long and alternate back and forth. Then there is a fun, jazzy middle section to the song where you can jump off your plates and show off your dance moves. The alternating eighth note and dotted half note sections come back at the end. End with the staccato tip toe phrases, and legato dotted half note skating.
Tip toe music 0:08 - 0:11
skating music 0:11-0:15
Jazzy dance section 0:57
