Teacher - John Eldridge

Exploring Rhythm & Time, World Music Pedagogy

Elementary Lesson Plan + Video Lesson
Grade 3

● Standards being addressed

○ MU:Pr4.2.3a Demonstrate understanding of the structure in music selected for
performance.
○ MU:Re7.2.3a Demonstrate and describe how a response to music can be
informed by the structure, the use of the elements of music, and context (such as
personal and social).
● Materials of instruction
○ Audio playback
○ Several gongs of varying sizes, soft mallets
○ Map or globe
○ Video player or projector
○ Ketawang Puspawarna music recording
■ https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qhQg3DOz4GwG1y9KUn_CERJMl2EH0
5r_/view?usp=sharing
● Music background - This piece comes from the tradition of Javanese gamelan music.
The metric structure of gamelan, or at least this style of it, is colotomic - multiple
instruments are assigned specific roles and are played at specific times to define the
rhythmic cycle. The music follows a duple meter in cycles of 8, 16, or 32 counts (I think
it can be 64 or more, but I don't want to make this too complicated). Within that cycle
(called a gongan), the strongest emphasis is always placed on the last count, the count
before "one," with a strong hit on the gong ageng, the largest and lowest pitched gong of
the set. Other gongs of different relative pitches fill out the rest of the gongan. The
kenong is another large gong that is played halfway through the gongan, dividing it into
two kenongan - for example, if the gong ageng is played on count 16, the kenong is on
count 8. A strong hit on the kempul, a smaller gong, is played halfway through the second
kenongan, but not the first - in our example, this means count 4 is the only count that is
not filled. The rest of the counts (1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, etc.) are played more quietly between the
kempul and the kethuk, the smallest gong. This specific piece is in a 32-count gongan and
the gong ageng is the most obvious indicator of where the cycle is starting.
● Learning sequence
○ Attentive listening - "Okay, I'm going to play some music for you, and I want
you to see if you can find where the beat is. You remember the other day, we
learned about beat? It might be a little tricky, but see if you can feel it."
 ■ (After playing it once) "How'd you do? It kind of speeds up and slows
down, right? I'm gonna play it one more time and give you another shot,
but this time, listen for a really low sound. It doesn't happen very often,
but when it does it's really big and loud."
○ Engaged listening - At this point I would try to explain the gongan cycle, and
that the last beat of the cycle has the most emphasis. "You know how usually
when we sing songs, beat 1 is the most important? Well this is a little different.
I'm gonna play it again, and this time you're gonna count along with me - 1, 2, 3,
4, 5, 6, 7 - and on beat 8 I want you to say 'gong.' Say the word but make it sound
like a gong sound, like bwooooooooooong. Then go back to 1, 2, 3, okay? I'll
show you when to start counting."
○ Enactive listening - "I have here some little gongs for you to play. These aren't as
big as the ones they would use for this music, but it's the same idea."
■ At this point we'd start an activity. All the gongs are pretty small but
they're not the same size, so we'd group up with people with the same kind
of gong. After teaching the different parts of the gongan, we'd play along
with the recording. "For this song, instead of counting to 8 we're gonna
count to 32. I know, that's a pretty big number, but I'll help you out. The
biggest beat isn't 8 anymore, it's 32, because 32 is the last beat of the
pattern." The biggest gongs hit on 32, the next biggest gongs hit on 16,
and the itty bitty gongs just hit quietly on every beat.
○ Integrating world music - "The kind of music we just played is called gamelan.
Say that with me, gamelan. Gamelan is a tradition of music that comes from
Indonesia. Does anyone know where Indonesia is?" (Ideally, pull out a globe and
point to it) "It's this big group of islands right here, between Asia and Australia.
Indonesian people play gamelan in really big groups where everyone has an
instrument, like a gong or a drum or a xylophone."
■ Show videos of gamelan ensembles so they can hear it all together and see
what they're doing
■ Example video - Javanese Gamelan Ensemble - Pelog Barang - Singa
Nebah (The Pouncing Lion) - YouTube

Teaching video - https://youtu.be/ZON_M4AK33A