Blog Posts

Tony Chestnut

Denise Gagne

I just attended Artie Almeida’s session on teaching tempo and dynamics at TMEA. One of the songs she used for teaching and reviewing tempo terms was Tony Chestnut which is in Musicplay 2 for that very purpose. (Is this great minds think alike or fools seldom differ?)

To touch toes
ny touch knees
Chest touch chest
nut touch head
knows touch nose
I touch eyes
love cross hands over heart
you extend hands to someone else
that’s what clap clap

Game Directions:

Try the actions slowly. On the board write: slow - andante and tell the students that andante is a word that musicians use to describe slow. Try the actions faster. On the board write: medium - moderato and tell the students that moderato is a word that musicians use to describe a medium speed. Try the actions with the song really quickly. On the board write fast - allegro and tell the students that allegro is an Italian word that musicians use to describe fast music.

Teaching Purpose/Suggestions:

Teach song #14 “Tony Chestnut” by rote. The song is fun, and will be useful in not only doing the actions, but working with half notes and tempo.

In the student book, and in the PowerPoints the tempo terms and definitions are given. Read these with or to your students. Add these terms and their meaning to your word wall.

Tempo: Fast and Slow

Italian words are used in music to tell whether music should be played or sung fast or slow. Some of these words are:

Adagio - slow
Moderato - medium speed
Allegro - fast and lively
Presto - very quickly
Prestissimo - as fast as you can go

Try singing and doing the actions for “Tony Chestnut” at each tempo.

Artie had a tempo poem written by one of her colleagues. I don’t have permission to use Artie’s poem, but thought it was a great idea, so here I am on the airplane on the way home, writing my own tempo poem. Here goes:

Slow, slow, adagio means slow, That is the tempo you must go.
Moderato medium, Moderato’s in-between.
Allegro is fast - lively and quick. Allegro;s a puppy dog fetching a stick.
Presto!” says the magic man, as waves his wand! run as fast as you can!
Prestissimo, prestissimo -- go as fast as you can go

Use a metronome to demonstrate each tempo, and try saying each line of the poem with the metronome!

Put each line of the poem on an index card and the put the cards in a drum. Pass the drum around the room, have children pull out a card, and say the line that they’ve pulled in the correct tempo. You could use the metronome to indicate tempo, and have the class accompany the reader on hand drums, rhythm sticks or other instruments.

Informal assessment:

To assess how well you class is doing, play “Pin the tempo-tail on the Puppy Dog”. In this game, the class gets a point for every correct answer, and the teacher collects a point for incorrect answers.

Print the pictures (found here) of the puppy with the tempo words, and tape the picture to an envelope. Print out the “tails” on cardstock, and laminate. Make 5 sets of the tails for classes with 25 students. Tell the students that they can’t look at anyone else’s tails. When it is their turn, they will take their tail and put it into the envelope with the correct tempo term. Don’t have all students do this at the same time. You could have the girls go, and then the boys. Or you could have children wearing red go first, then blue, then black then any color. While the students are putting their tails in the envelope, play a piece of music. I would suggest “Little Dog Waltz” by Chopin that is in the Listening Resource Kit Level 1.

After all the students have put their “tails” in the envelope, go through the envelope to see how many students put the correct answer in it, and give one point for each one correct. Review and reinforce the meaning of the tempo terms as you count up correct answers.

This is one game that you really want the students to win!