Aim: What are the characteristic rhythms of calypso? Materials: Musical Explorers Digital Resources, Musical Explorers Student Guide, percussion instruments made from everyday objects Standards: National 1, 3, 6, 7, 10, 11 Vocabulary: engine room, steel band, and steel pan.
Chorus: All day, all night, Miss Mary Ann, Down by the seaside, she sifting sand Strings on her banjo can tie a goat Water from the ocean can sail a boat. VJ Day was bacchanal The whole island played Carnival People were jumping to and fro To the rhythm of a red-hot calypso Hear them singing:. Music educator Margaret Jenks teaches how music can be made almost anywhere you look in this lesson for students in grades 3—5. Musical Explorers.
Related Pages:. Calypso with Etienne. Play Video. Learn to sing the chorus. Click the three dots to toggle different parts on and off. Download Lyrics PDF. Create an Engine Room with Found Percussion The engine room is the group of non-pitched percussion instruments that comprises the rhythm section of the calypso band. While the steel pan is playing the melody and the harmony, the engine room is responsible for keeping the rhythm. It is what makes the band keep going—just like the engine room of a ship!
Ask the students to each bring in an object from home e. Decide on ways to categorize the instruments—for example, material type e. First, have the entire class play a steady beat in unison on their instruments. The students can then learn any or all of the following characteristic engine room rhythms, using the Engine room rhythms audio track. While one section holds the steady beat, the others can play a calypso rhythm.
If your students are comfortable with one rhythm, layer two or three together. Steel bands formed in Trinidad in response to a law passed in by the British colonial government that banned the playing of drums in Carnival parades. Instead, musicians began to use found objects, such as pots and pans, garbage cans, and bottles with spoons.
