Darla Hanley's Music Room
Creative Teaching for Students of Today (& Tomorrow) PK-8
Today’s Teaching Strategy: Play and Say
(Instrument Parts with Vocalizations, Arranging)
Upper Elementary (4-5)
© 2025 Darla S. Hanley
This teaching strategy is all about catching the groove, adding vocalizations to instrument play, creating original arrangements, and having fun. It goes with Rick Braun and Richard Elliot’s 2007 track titled “RnR” because of its solid percussion foundation and driving horns.
This track is available on multiple streaming audio platforms. (Like many of my teaching strategies, you should feel free to find other audio tracks to anchor the learning experience using music that works in your setting or new tracks to simply “mix it up.”)
Pedagogical Foundations
Language can be fun…and funny…and musical! Think about a baby’s babble before her words are formed. She uses vocalizations like “buh” and “bah” to communicate. She also elongates sounds and “coos” and uses dynamics to make her point. This is pure vocal exploration.
As we get older we experience “fun, funny, and musical” elements of language when we express words like “eek” “wowza” or “hey”, right? Try to say those words with a flat affectation (and no smiling). I think they come out strangely that way. Now say them with attitude and tone. In this example, it’s clear to see that the way we approach a word (flat or with energy/animation) can change the game.
As we think more about what comes out of our mouths (lol), here’s one: There are the vocal exclamations that happen automatically when we get startled, stub a toe, or see something exciting or scary. These vocalizations can be squeals and cheers or words like “ouch” that we have been taught to say as a reaction to something painful—and never think about saying when we need to use it—it just comes out (lol).
Oh, and then there are secret languages created with friends… made up words and phrases. Did you ever do that? When we were kids my sister and I tried it once (lol). We thought it would be so cool to have our own way of speaking that no one else (especially our parents) could understand. That was a pretty short lived endeavor (ha!) but I remember the fun we had trying to create it!
Okay, so why am I talking about all of this? Today’s teaching strategy blends instrument play with nonsense words, “fun” words, and maybe even a few “funny” words for students to perform. The learning experience is intended to add something unexpected to the music classroom and encourage kids to be kids as they giggle, Play and Say!
Hi! I’m Darla, an experienced PK-12 music educator, college professor, and former Berklee College of Music Dean looking to connect with teachers, parents/caregivers, and others seeking to advance creative music making for today’s students—and their teachers. In Darla Hanley’s Music Room you will find teaching strategies, advice and teaching tips, playlists, and more.
Today we will read and perform rhythmic patterns, play instruments, and add vocalizations. Take a close look at the music. You will see rhythmic patterns and a few words or vocal sounds under some of the notes. We will play all of the rhythms and speak the vocal parts when they occur.
ProTIP: Isolate “Hey!”, “Shh”, “Ugh”, “Ooh”, and “Wowza” for students to speak as a chain. Encourage them to speak with lots of animation and playfulness! This practice will prepare students for the “Play and Say” combination.
Distribute instruments to students and guide them to perform the “Play and Say” rhythms.
ProTIP: Take time to practice all 5 Parts.
Play and Say
© 2025 Darla S. Hanley
Play the recording of “RnR” by Rick Braun and Richard Elliot and instruct students to play and say Parts 1-5 straight through with the track.
Divide the class into 2 Groups and ask them to select 1 Part each.
Play the recording and lead the 2 Groups to play their selected Parts (repeating like and ostinato) with the track.
ProTip: Continue with Groups selecting and playing Parts as time permits.
Now we will all come back to 1 large group and have someone become our arranger! The arranger will make musical decisions and determine the order of Parts 1-5 for everyone to play. Note: When you are the arranger—no matter which Parts you include in your arrangement—you must include 5 in your list.
ProTIP: Asking students to create arrangements that have 5 Parts (any order) will frame this creative experience with structure rather than keeping it completely open.
Invite one student to be the arranger and write the Part numbers in their determined order on the board.
ProTIP: Remind students that Parts may be played more than once or they may choose to include all Parts (1-5) in a new sequence (e.g., Arrangement = Part 3, Part 1, Part 3, Part 5, Part 3; Arrangement = Part 5, Part 4, Part 1, Part 2, Part 3).
ProTIP: It’s 100% okay for a student to create an arrangement that has the same Part repeating 5 times (lol). The goal here is for personal decision making and group performance.
Materials/Set Up
Variety of Unpitched Percussion Instruments
EXTEND the Learning:
Divide students into groups to create arrangements using Parts 1-5 to perform with the track. Invite each group to perform their arrangement in turn (without stopping) to create a class arrangement!
Record arrangements for student review and reflection. How did you select the order of Parts 1-5 for your arrangements? What would you change if creating a new arrangement?
Ask students to replace vocalizations with new words and sounds.
ProTIP: You know your students! Offer guidelines for vocalizations/sounds/words that work best in your teaching setting OR have them choose words from the list provided in the Word Bank.
🎵 Rick Braun and Richard Elliot “RnR” Link to Track on Spotify
Learning Targets
Play, Vocalize, Arrange
Learning Outcomes
Respond with instruments and voices
Create arrangements (and new vocalizations*)
Perform rhythms using instruments and voices
Assessment
Informal Observation/Formative Assessment
*This learning outcome is only addressed in the EXTEND the Learning section of this teaching strategy.
Thanks for checking this out. If you use this teaching strategy, be sure to leave a comment to let me know how it resonates with your students!