Our Year 4 students have been experimenting with creating their own phrases using Stravinsky’s melodic fragments. They were given four short building blocks to reflect on and discuss, before they worked in pairs to assemble the melodies using the same blocks. They shared their ideas in larger teams and played them on tuned percussion before we moved on to keyboards, ensuring accuracy of pitch and rhythms.
This lesson’s exploration of Stravinsky’s unconventional melodic construction helped reinforce students’ understanding of contour and pattern recognition—both aurally and visually. As students were developing their understanding of melodic structure, it was also important for them to recognise that there are smaller gestures within longer phrases.
Our further exploration led us into the world of transposition and most Year 4 students were delighted to understand and be able to play the same fragments not only in a-minor but transpose them keeping the structure and rhythm in d-minor.
By Iva Borisavljevic
Head of Performing Arts
