Christmas Bells are Ringing Day 3

Another activity that you can do with Christmas Bells are Ringing is to sing the descant that is written in the songbook.  But I use a simpler "counter-melody" that coordinates with our bell patterns we are singing.  We call this our "Bell Choir" since we are singing a bell part.

I use the part called Vocals 2 with the children.  We had to have someone play that part on the piano as they sang the first couple of times until they got it.  We just had the pianist play the regular music an octave higher and I played the counter melody lower so the kids could hear it well.

Since only a few children actually read music, I like to make iconic pictures to help them when we are learning something like this.  Here are the actual visuals I used when I taught it this to the children.  They are numbered so you can easily order them.  The piano can play off the music above as you teach it to the children.

Now the fun has just only begun.  Now I want the children to be able to sing the "Bell Choir" parts while playing the chimes at the same time.  So I have added color coding to the visuals.  The G chord now plays once on every BLUE dot, the D7 chord on the YELLOW dots, and the C chord plays on the GREEN dot.  Just have the piano keep playing their part as they sing.

When the kids can do this and it is going well, then it is time to add back the actual song: Christmas Bells are Ringing.  I choose a small group of children to sing the song.  Most of the children will be playing the chimes and singing the bell choir.  It is good to have both parts played on the piano just as you did when learning the counter melody for the first time.  At this point the children are getting their clues from the colored dots so I was free to help at the piano.

If your group can do all of this, celebrate!!  

Now what about that part that is labeled Vocals 1?  I use that only if I have some teachers who are singers. They get to add that part after we have learned the whole thing and the children really know what they are doing.