Making Music Fun and Easy

Making Music Fun and Easy
All concepts and materials © 2009 by David Paul and Saguna Sati Productions.

Make the SH sound as your rocket takes off, flies and lands. Inhale deep into the abdomen. Push steadily from the diaphram on the exhale. Push harder to make it louder. See how long you can make the SH sound continue. © 2009 by David Paul and The School for Creative Music.

This is a music player. Push the arrow button to play! Push again to stop.

Make the AH sound as you slide your voice on a smoothe glissando up and down through your vocal range while you mover your roller coaster up and down to match the change in pitch. Wide fast swings are ok in the beginning. Gradually go slower through the glissando to strengthen the muscles. © 2009 by David Paul and The School for Creative Music.

Make the zzz sound at the lower middle part of your vocal range as your airplane goes down the runway. Make a smoothe slow glissando sliding up through all the notes to the upper middle of your vocal range and sustain the note on that pitch at a cruising altitude. Toward the end of your breath, bring the pitch back down to the starting place as you land your airlplane. © 2009 by David Paul and The School for Creative Music.

Sing up the major scale using the numbers numbers 1-5. Each number is one floor of a building. Open up on the 5th floor and sing “Ta Da!” on the 5th scale degree. Descend through the 5 numbers back to the first floor. Open the doors again and sing “Ta Dah!” on the first floor. Continue and stop at different floors. Continue on through the 6th, 7th, and 8th degrees of the scale after the children master 1 through 5. © 2009 by David Paul and The School for Creative Music

To do the echo game, first sing two notes with the note numbers of elevator, have the children repeat them back to you. Then sing two different notes with note numbers, have the children echo them back to you. After the children master two notes, go on to singing 3 notes. After the children master 3 notes, go on to sing 4 notes. © 2009 by David Paul and The School for Creative Music.

Making Music Fun and Easy is a simple way to learn how to sing. It starts with no right or wrong notes. Kids can learn without worrying about making mistakes. They can have fun and overcome their fear of singing at the same time.

Rocket Ship shows how to breathe correctly and condition the muscles that support the voice. Rollercoaster shows how to move through all the musical notes to strengthen and tone the vocal cords. Airplane shows how to stay on one note, sustain it, and move between notes. Elevator shows how to match pitch and sing notes from the major scale. Echo Game shows how to organize those notes into short musical “words” that are easy to remember. Songs to Sing shows how to add lyrics and practice songs so they are easy to learn.

These simple steps are intended to be repeated over time. That will gradually strengthen the breath support, tone the vocal cords and develop a music pitch vocabulary for singing. Singing is a physical activity, and it needs to be developed just like an athlete trains for a sporting event. In this case though, we’re only talking about 5 to 7 minutes a day. Click on play beside each step to hear the exercises.

How does the program work?

Step One:

Mr. Paul does an assembly program to inspire and motivate the children to learn. They are introduced to the fundamentals with songs, puppets, rhythm instruments, and action games. Below is a sample from Mr. David's Music Class, an ongoing program begun more than 10 years ago from which the Making Music materials were developed.

Step Two:

Mr. Paul provides a training session for classroom teachers. They go over the educational fundamentals of the program, learn how to implement them in their classrooms, use the book and CD, involve the children in leadership, move beyond obstacles, apply the songs to other academic disciplines (each song is coded with applicable Sunshine State Standards), and accomplish the goals of the program (teaching the children to sing well) in 5-10 minutes a day.

Step Three:

Each classroom receives a Making Music Fun and Easy book and CD. There are 21 songs, including the Pledge of Allegiance Song which is ideal for singing together in school. The goal is to do the five fundamentals each day for 3 minutes (total) and learn one song a week for a semester by playing the CD and sharing the material in the book either during a transition time, or as part of a cross disciplinary integration.

Making Music Fun and Easy Pic

For information about scheduling an assembly program and training session, (they can happen on the same day), contact:

David Paul 904-294-7219

or send your email request to: david@musicbydavidpaul.com

The Making Music Fun and Easy Book is in full color and includes Five Fundamentals and 21 Songs to sing.

Each song is taught with the Elevator numbers and the Echo Game; a lead sheet with guitar chords and solfege are also included. On the CD, each song includes a "teaching" track, featuring short call and answer segments (introduced in the echo game) for ease of use by non music teachers.

To see inside the book, you can download this free PDF file: LOOK INSIDE

For book and CD order information, please contact David Paul 904-294-7219 or send your email request to: david@musicbydavidpaul.com