I love music. I love playing music too and I have been in a few bands over the years as either a drummer or singer/guitarist. I have even dabbled in writing my own songs. So earlier today, when I came across inbflat (a collaborative music/spoken word project), I was not only impressed at how simple an idea it was but inspired at the potential it could have for classroom use.

What to do

• Teach my class a pentatonic scale C D E G A C
• Give the children xylophones with only these notes so they can experiment on musical arrangements
• Video these performances for review and discussion
• Provide further instruments such as a keyboard marked with the scale for the children to explore arrangements further
• Children record these on PC and on video
• Upload separate performances onto a blog post for the grand performance

This is only an idea brewing but one which I intend to explore with my new class of Y3/4′s sometime this coming school year providing them a wonderfully creative musical experience.

Darren Solomon is the musician behind inbflat. You can find out more here.

edit

Earlier today @mrslwalker posted a link to the following video. It shows Bobby McFerrin demonstrating the power of the Pentatonic scale. Amazing stuff.