He Sent His Son Bell Descant

Since we made a couple sets of the pipe chimes I like to use them whenever there is a nice song that would sound good with a little descant.  This is much more difficult than just having the children in groups playing chords.  However, I use musical icons which makes the teaching much easier.

Children who do not read music can understand musical icons because they are very logical.  The children can SEE how long a note is and also HOW the music moves upward and downward.

Senior Primary could do this easily.  My Junior Primary will also be able to do it but it will take longer.  You have to decide how much time you want to invest in these "extra" activities.  I would use the CTR 6 & 7 classes on the bells.

I have attached the actual music in two forms:  piano and bell part together, and then the bell part separately. Beneath those you will find the iconic pictures.  They are numbered.  You can cut each page along the blue line and then put them in order on your board for the children to see.

Just a note about long notes and pipe chimes.  There is no way for that little pipe to sustain a sound very long but the children won't really notice that.  The point is that the yellow icons are 3 beats long while the red icons are one beat and those move quickly.  They will have to pay careful attention if they are playing on the red notes.  There are two fermatas that the children can learn as you play this song.  I colored that second icon that gets a fermata green to make it stand out from the other icons.

Also note that on page 3 of the icons at the bottom right side there is the word REST.  The piano plays for one measure here while the bells rest.