Travelling, Travelling

School Radio > Music > Join in with Music

This thoughtful piece has elements of music drawn from many parts of the world to explore the early history of human movement and transport.

The video

Travelling, Travelling

This thoughtful piece has elements of music drawn from many parts of the world to explore the early history of human movement and transport. There are lyrics about travelling by foot and boat across path, river, land and sea through all weathers; about using sledges, horses and camels; and about using wheels to move carts, chariots and wagons. As well as saying or singing the words, pupils can play various percussion patterns to evoke each method of travelling.

A few suggestions:

• The video has traditional notation for the melody of the chorus, using notes C, D, E, F, G, A and B. Panpipes, xylophones, glockenspiels, keyboards, recorders, ocarinas and string instruments could play along with the tune.
• Throughout the choruses, hand drums can play steady ‘walking’ rhythms, with lots of little variations to suit different transport types. Body percussion can pat or tap knees and thighs in time.
• There is also a box with chord names shown (Dm, C, G, A and B flat) for keyboards, guitars, ukuleles, autoharp, etc.
• Each verse has four lines. To the left on the video, a phrase from triangle or small bells introduces a type of transport (walking, sledges, horses etc). In the centre are images of some suitable instruments (drum, shakers, woodblocks, etc) to play rhythm patterns shown on the right, suggested by Xs. You can allocate children and groups to perform particular sounds and instruments; and then practise a few times to get the timing right. Feel free to change instruments to whatever you have available and to use body percussion instead, so that everyone has a part to play.
• At the very end, the last line of the chorus - ‘Travelling, travelling on…’ is repeated twice as a coda. Tambourines and drums conclude this with a snappy rhythm pattern shown on screen. Again, practise with the track or video a few times to get the timing right.

Resources

School Radio > Music > Join in with Music