Copy Cat - Teaching Beat and Rhythm Easily

<p>Welcome to Episode 13 of the Doremi Teach podcast. Today I'm going to teach you a song that's perfect for preparing pulse and rhythm.</p><p><strong>Copy Cat</strong></p><p>Copy cat, copy cat</p><p>Sitting on the door mat</p><p>Hello there and welcome to the Doremi Teach podcast. If you’re interested in teaching musical skills and literacy through singing then this is the place for you. My name is Helen Russell from Doremi Connect and I’m going to help you achieve your goals using the Kodály approach.</p><p><strong>Benefits of Copy Cat</strong></p><ul><li>This song is used to prepare pulse or rhythm, and taking turns</li><li>The toneset is&nbsp;<strong><em>mi-so-la</em></strong>&nbsp;with a range of a Perfect 4th so ideal for little voices and for nervous teachers</li><li>It uses the&nbsp;<strong><em>so-mi-la-so-mi</em></strong>&nbsp;motif, which is easy for beginner singers to pitch accurately because it is used naturally in playgrounds all over the world,&nbsp;<em>ner-ner-na-ner-ner</em></li><li>The rhythm is very simple, just using&nbsp;<strong><em>ta&nbsp;</em></strong>and&nbsp;<strong><em>titi&nbsp;</em></strong>or crotchets and quavers so this will reappear throughout the curriculum as we prepare and present rhythm</li><li>The game involves solo singing and improvising actions</li><li>It’s great to get your students moving around and the actions can be as energetic as you want</li><li>I also include this in my piano curriculum</li></ul><br/><p><strong>The Game</strong></p><p>The game for this varies as the curriculum progresses</p><p><strong>Level 1: A simple copy cat game</strong></p><p>The teacher sings the song while doing a pulse action, and the students copy.</p><p>It’s not so simple though, because the students must only sing and do the action when it’s their turn. When the teacher is singing the students must stand still and silent.</p><p>This is actually way harder than you’d think, and is a great way to practise patience and turn taking.</p><p>An extension to this is to get the students to choose