INFANT THROUGH SCHOOL AGELearning about harmonies!
Today in music class, we learned all about harmonies!
What is a harmony? Harmonies are defined as the simultaneous combination of notes or pitches, particularly of a pleasing sound or of chord structure.
Today, using a xylophone as a visual, I taught children to use the "skip a bell" method to harmonizing in thirds...that is, to play notes with one skipped note between them. Using our 8-note bell sets here at Joyful Noise, this lends itself to making a third harmony each time. Older children noted the note that was displayed on the xylophone and used that reference to select desk bells to create matching harmonies. Because were selecting pleasing or harmonious tones, we also learned the definition of "dischord".
Here is a free download of a song called "I like the flowers" that I played for children this morning in order to demonstrate what singing harmonies sounded like!