This short piece provides a background framework for pupils to improvise sounds and patterns inspired by snow and ice in the extreme North and South, as well as the changing climates all round the Earth.
The video
Supercool Ice and Snow
This short piece provides a background framework for pupils to improvise sounds and patterns inspired by snow and ice in the extreme North and South, as well as the changing climates all round the Earth.
- Voices and mouth sounds can play a great part - especially quiet, frosty lip smacks, pitter-patters, and ‘t’ and ‘s’ sounds.
- Body percussion can contribute freezing finger clicks, gentle taps on the head, cheeks, chest, thighs and knees (like icicles), as well as gentle, clapping patterns and rhythms (like ice melting and freezing again).
- Among instruments, metal sounds are particularly suitable - eg triangles, bells, cymbals, tambourines and glockenspiels - to evoke the coldness of frozen environments.
- Xylophones, woodblocks, castanets and claves can give an impression of the hardness of ice as it freezes, melts and freezes again.
- Keyboards, piano, guitar and ukulele can all provide cold, tickly textures, as well as chromatic scales of white and black notes at different speeds.
- Violins and cellos might add some interesting, icy pizzicato plinks and plonks.
Resources
Teacher Notes
Download / print the Teacher Notes for the series (pdf)
Download audio
Download the audio file for this music video (mp3)
