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You Down with UPP?
NEW book from Katie-Grace Miller!
We’re so excited to celebrate the release of Katie Grace Miller’s newest book, You Down with UPP?
Unpitched percussion instruments are a foundational part of the elementary music classroom, providing endless opportunities to build musical skills while addressing a wide range of music standards. In You Down with UPP?, Katie shares engaging songs, ready-to-use lessons, and practical teaching strategies that help students develop proper playing techniques while making music learning active, creative, and fun.
Whether you're introducing students to the four families of unpitched percussion or looking for fresh lesson ideas, this resource is packed with classroom-tested activities that foster musical understanding, creativity, and joyful participation. It's a fantastic addition to any elementary music teacher's library!
About the Resource:
The book begins with a collection of Unpitched Percussion Learning Songs, organized by instrument family:
- Woods
- Metals
- Shakers
- Membranes (Skins)
From there, you'll explore lessons that combine all four instrument families, followed by 12+ ready-to-use classroom lessons that help students apply their skills through engaging musical experiences.
Today, I'm excited to give you a sneak peek with one of the instrument learning songs from this resource!
You Down with UPP? - Musicplay Store
Lesson Instructions:
This activity helps students identify the four families of unpitched percussion while practicing steady beat, rhythm, and instrument technique.
- Teach students the song, which becomes the A section.
- Practice keeping a steady beat during the A section, as students will later play this on their instruments.
- Teach the B section rhythm. With first grade and older, use the rhythm visual for reading practice. For kindergarten, teach the rhythm by echo without showing the notation.
- Once students are confident with both sections, choose one of the following setups:
Whole Group
- Seat students in a circle with instruments arranged in a repeating pattern (wood, metal, shaker, membrane).
- Students play the steady beat during the A section.
- At the end of the song, they place their instruments down.
- Speak the B section rhythm, calling out instrument families. Students only play when their family is named.
- Repeat the activity, changing the order of the instrument families each time to reinforce listening skills and provide an informal assessment.
- Use the transition poem to have students move to the next instrument before repeating.
Small Groups
- Set up small stations using agility hoops, with one instrument from each family in every hoop.
- Students complete the same activity in groups of four, rotating instruments between rounds using the transition poem.
You Down with UPP? - Musicplay Store
Keep the Learning Going!
Want even more ideas from Katie Grace Miller? Be sure to check out her session from Sing! Dance! Play! 2026, available with our virtual conference registration.
When you register for the virtual conference, you'll receive:
- One-year access to all session recordings
- Fresh ideas you can use right away
- Movement, songs, teaching strategies, and plenty of fun
Learn at your own pace and bring the energy of Sing! Dance! Play! into your classroom all year long.
👉 Click here to register for the virtual conference.
Virtual registration is open until December 31, 2026.
Together Sing 2026 - Registration Now Open!
Registrations for Together Sing 2026 are now open, and we are so excited! Since registrations opened at 9:00 am on 21st June (Make Music Day), we already have registrations representing over 25,000 singers — and we want to add yours!
This year's beautiful song, We Are Here, composed by Louise Kelly, is a powerful celebration of the joy and wellbeing that comes from singing together, and a reminder of why music education in our schools matters so much. When you register (make sure it's for your maximum number of singers!), you receive audio tracks, YouTube video links, band and string arrangements (both in the same key as the song this year!), a lyric sheet, social media images, and so much more — all completely free.
Over 50 partners are contributing to this project out of sheer passion for the cause. Don't miss out — register now and add your voice to this growing force for good!
https://www.kodalyqld.org.
And if you're on social media, we'd love you to like, follow and share our pages too:
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Musicplay Team Updates:
We wanted to take the opportunity to share some updates from the team:
Content Updates:
- Check again next week for future updates!
Development Updates:
- New Drum Machine interactive
- New Staff Lesson bass resources
- Support for 2 beat rhythms in Word Rhythm Composition tool
- Added the ability to disable student codes
- Navigation now remembers the last open state.
- Notifications can now be dismissed more easily
