Children's Song to help them learn the quarter note. |
One of the first musical notes my students learn is the Quarter Note. I made up a chant to help them remember its name and its number of beats.
Quarter note = 1 Beat
I have made a video to demonstrate the chant. If you have trouble viewing the video click here.
Quarter Note
By Tonya Dirksen
Quarter note
Quarter note
Tap your knee
Quarter note
Quarter note
Black and neat
Quarter note
Quarter note
Has one beat!
Carolyn, at Wise Owl Factory, has a fun Free Do You Know Your Music Notes Power Point This is perfect for learning and reviewing notes. It also shows the relationships between the different notes. Be sure to check it out!
Alyssa was messing around on the piano yesterday and was very interested in the names of the notes and how long to hold them. I credit her interest to this chant! :)
ReplyDeleteCool! Thanks for letting me know. I love it when students remember and "take home" what we have done in class!
DeleteWhen you think you would start introducing note values to kids? Is it an age or more developmental. My son can keep a steady beat and I'm really not sure where to go after that...
ReplyDeleteHi, Tonya. I found your blog through We Teach. My son and I loved the chant! So cute. At 5, he is sure that he is meant to be a drummer and practices on anything that will stay still long enough for him to tap on. LOL Jackie raises a great question above. I wonder, too, if we should start to provide more structured opportunities for him to develop his interest. Starting Kindergarten a month ago, he's already decided that music is his favorite class!
ReplyDeleteJackie and Stephanie,
ReplyDeleteI start introducing my students to note values right away. I've had students as young as 3 years old who have learned the note names and their values. I sing songs like this (I will be posting more soon) and play games with them such as Musical Twister Hopscotch http://www.stringskeysandmelodies.com/2012/03/musical-twister-hopscotch.html
And they learn them right away.
I also teach rhythms by sound and after they know the rhythms I'll show them what the rhythms look like and it is really easy for them to understand and recognize.
This week I have taken the rhythms I usually teach and are using candy names to teach the rhythms. This has been really successful.
Stephanie, 5 years old is a great age to start music classes, especially since your son is so interested!
Thanks for reading!