It will
soon be a question of taking the children in turn, a few at each
lesson--so eager will they be to 'express themselves' in melody.
It is important not to be too critical of these early efforts. The
great thing is to get the children un-self-conscious--variety of melodic
outline and of rhythm will follow quickly enough.
The next step will be for two children in the class to extemporize the
whole phrase between them, one taking the first two bars and the other
the last two. The key and time should be varied as much as
possible--keys a fourth or fifth apart should be used in succession, or
the children will assume that any melody can be sung by them in any key,
which is obviously not the case. A melody sung in C major, which uses
middle C and high F, cannot be sung in the key of G major with the child
voice.
The class will now find it quite easy to extemporize the whole of a
four-bar phrase. Suggestions can be made by the teacher, such as:
'Begin on the third beat of the bar.
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