Hot Cross Buns... it might be the bane of your existence, a song to start with students with B-A-G on the recorders that really doesn't affect you one way or the other, or a great song to use that is simplistic and gets the job done. No matter what your feeling on it, it's likely that you've used it because it is effective at teaching simple rhythms, B-A-G and giving students a great starting place when learning recorder.
Personally, I find it useful but I'm honestly tired of it. I decided to do something new with it this summer and wanted to change it so that it was more musical. For many days of my summer break I spent time in the morning playing the recorder. I wrote down melodies I had improvised and liked, played with modes and scales, added unpitched percussion parts/piano/guitar chords and enjoyed seeing what could be done. Not all of the pieces were very good but it was a great creative way to figure out some solutions for recorder pitch sets, rhythms and versatility that I found needed support in my classroom. One of the pieces I wanted to play with was Hot Cross Buns. There are two ways that I found that made the song more interesting:
1) I changed the mode/key
2)I played with the meter
Being that I love songs in modes and minor keys, I began to play around with the idea of what it would sound like in E minor compared to G major. Students don't have to change the melody line (the rhythm does change slightly - using whole notes... great way to practice steady breath and sustained pitch), but the accompaniment and harmonies were what made it more interesting and musical.
In working with the melody and playing around with ideas on the piano with it, I realized that it would work great to take the familiar melodic pattern from #11 on page 13 from Spielbuch fur Xylophon Band II, transpose it to e minor to fit Hot Cross Buns and voila! it worked beautifully. I then created a higher descant/higher harmony part using high D and B on the recorder (simple and easy for students to learn and play). There are a few parts where the two recorder parts are dissonant, but I find that it works well with the melodic pattern underneath. Somewhat haunting.
So this is what I came up with. I hope it's useful for you. I'd love to know if you try it with students and what you thought. Here are the two recorder parts:
XYLOPHONE MELODIC PATTERN
I prefer this xylophone pattern, but have also used the first measure of this pattern for the entire song and found it worked as well. If you need it less complicated, this is something to try. There will be more dissonant harmony that way. I found that it is best to switch the pitches in measure 9 and 10 so that it fits with the melody/harmony lines better.
Give your students the opportunity to experience playing the Meter of 6/8. Not difficult and has a different feeling to it. Honestly, pretty simple. Add a bass line to it (on recorder or barred instruments would work).
Personally, I find it useful but I'm honestly tired of it. I decided to do something new with it this summer and wanted to change it so that it was more musical. For many days of my summer break I spent time in the morning playing the recorder. I wrote down melodies I had improvised and liked, played with modes and scales, added unpitched percussion parts/piano/guitar chords and enjoyed seeing what could be done. Not all of the pieces were very good but it was a great creative way to figure out some solutions for recorder pitch sets, rhythms and versatility that I found needed support in my classroom. One of the pieces I wanted to play with was Hot Cross Buns. There are two ways that I found that made the song more interesting:
1) I changed the mode/key
2)I played with the meter
CHANGE THE MODE/KEY
Being that I love songs in modes and minor keys, I began to play around with the idea of what it would sound like in E minor compared to G major. Students don't have to change the melody line (the rhythm does change slightly - using whole notes... great way to practice steady breath and sustained pitch), but the accompaniment and harmonies were what made it more interesting and musical.
In working with the melody and playing around with ideas on the piano with it, I realized that it would work great to take the familiar melodic pattern from #11 on page 13 from Spielbuch fur Xylophon Band II, transpose it to e minor to fit Hot Cross Buns and voila! it worked beautifully. I then created a higher descant/higher harmony part using high D and B on the recorder (simple and easy for students to learn and play). There are a few parts where the two recorder parts are dissonant, but I find that it works well with the melodic pattern underneath. Somewhat haunting.
So this is what I came up with. I hope it's useful for you. I'd love to know if you try it with students and what you thought. Here are the two recorder parts:
XYLOPHONE MELODIC PATTERN
I prefer this xylophone pattern, but have also used the first measure of this pattern for the entire song and found it worked as well. If you need it less complicated, this is something to try. There will be more dissonant harmony that way. I found that it is best to switch the pitches in measure 9 and 10 so that it fits with the melody/harmony lines better.
CHANGE THE METER
Give your students the opportunity to experience playing the Meter of 6/8. Not difficult and has a different feeling to it. Honestly, pretty simple. Add a bass line to it (on recorder or barred instruments would work).
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