Activity
Vocal Improvisation with Rhythm Sticks
Instrument Imagination
Created November 10, 2023 | Added May 24, 2025
This can help students, especially some who might be afraid of singing, to explore their voices musically through group improvisation.
- Teacher sits down with a pair of rhythm sticks and says, “I bought a violin today at the shop. Want to see it?”
- Students say, “Yes!”
- Teacher shows them a pair of sticks.
- Students will laugh and say, “That’s not a violin. It’s a pair of sticks!”
- Teacher says, “Oh. How do play a violin?”
- Students mimic playing a violin.
- Teacher says, “Oh. If make that movement, will you at least make the sound of a violin while I play? That would cheer me up.”
- Students make the sound of (and show how to play) trumpets, flutes, guitars, cellos, etc.
- Repeat with any number of “instruments.”
- Soloists can sing
- The class can choose a song to “play” like Twinkle.
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Michael Joviala
Michael Joviala is a composer/improviser/performer and educator in New York City. In 2020, he earned the diplôme supérieur from the Institut Jaques-Dalcroze in Geneva and is the director of the Dalcroze Teacher Training Program at the Lucy Moses School in New York. He teaches Dalcroze eurhythmics to students of all ages at the Lucy Moses School of Music, the Diller-Quaile School of Music, the Dalcroze School of Music and Movement in Dallas, Texas, and in workshops worldwide. He is the creator and music director of the improvising music and dance ensemble, Locomotors. He has called Brooklyn, New York, home since 1992.
Vocal Improvisation with Rhythm Sticks
Instrument Imagination
Michael Joviala, Author
About the Author(s)
Michael Joviala
Michael Joviala is a composer/improviser/performer and educator in New York City. In 2020, he earned the diplôme supérieur from the Institut Jaques-Dalcroze in Geneva and is the director of the Dalcroze Teacher Training Program at the Lucy Moses School in New York. He teaches Dalcroze eurhythmics to students of all ages at …
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