Snake Charming Music
The children were totally “hypnotized” this week by snake charming! ;)
We revisited what we knew about India—where it is on our globe/world map, the animals we know live there (Royal Bengal tiger, Asian or Indian Elephant, and Flying Fox fruit bat) and also listened to some more traditional music from India called “Thumri”. One of the things I discussed with older students are the ideas that Indian music uses a lot of semi-tones…unlike the notes we are used to hearing in American music. When we hear the scale “do, re, mi” we hear whole tones. The subtle fluidity or bends of semi-tones are difficult to make with Western instruments but it can easily be done with the voice with some practice. I used my voice to demonstrate this for the children. We will continue to explore semi-tones this month as we did with the “been”--also called the “Pungi”--(gourd flute used for snake charming) and the sitar, coming at the end of the month!
The Pungi or Been, used for snake charming
We looked at some pictures of different “been” flutes and also, men performing snake charming with King Cobras. We revisited the “turbans” worn by Indian gentleman and I also explained to the children the process that a snake charmer uses to make it appear as though the snake is dancing. Truly, the snakes are agitated by the snake charmers rattling the basket, blowing on them, and waving the been instrument back and forth in front of them. They are not swaying or hypnotized by the music but, rather, keeping an eye on where they are going to strike during this agitated state (visible by how their hoods are puffed up).
The kids enjoyed pretending with the woven snake basket I had in class. I pretended to charm the snake with a recorder and we positioned our paper snake inside the basket, slightly popped out.
We even watched a video in class where a man charmed three King Cobras at once! The kids were totally mesmerized by this and should have a lot to say when prompted by a conversation at home!
Check out the pictures, videos and extender questions below to keep the learning going. Have a wonderful Tuesday!
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Thumbs up for the four year old class, who remembered ALL of last week's details about India!
The three year olds practicing making cobra heads with their hands!
QUESTIONS TO ASK YOUR CHILD
1. What animal was inside the basket at music class? A snake!
2. Do you remember what country has snake charmers? India
3. What does the snake charmer do to the basket to get the snake "riled up" for snake charming? Taps or shakes the basket, blows on the snake, waves the "been" back and forth