Singing warmup: additive diatonic major scale in canon

(about 10-15 minutes)

Part one:
Students should go to the seats near the piano and demonstrate to the teacher that they
can sing the additive ascending scale exercise 1, 121, 12321, 1234321 etc. starting on middle
C, in unison, and ascending and descending, adding an additional scale step each time. Use
the piano or other instrument as a reference tone.

Here’s an example:
https://youtu.be/FgUtOHSZJFU?t=28

Part two:
After singing the scale exercise once, then the class splits in half down the middle; one side
is group one and the other is group two, and they sing it again in canon.

Here’s an example of the canon:

https://youtu.be/FgUtOHSZJFU?t=169

Teacher notes: Have a student that is confident in the exercise conduct if you need help.
They tend to speed up and get out of sync so you might have to slap or finger snap the
tempo to keep them together. There will likely be lots of exuberance and argument about
who made a mistake in the exercise; have them try it a couple of times taking turns on who
is group one and who is group two. You could film it on your smartphone if you like to
document the learning process.

Variations: (optional)
- The canon can be further developed by having the students split into three or four
groups.

- Students split into smaller groups and go to practice rooms to practice for a few
minutes, then come and demonstrate their performance to the class

- Students replace one of the steps of the scale with a body percussion element

- Students repeat the exercise using a different scale, such as the major pentatonic.