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Activity
Activity

Steps and Skips

Created September 15, 2023 | Added May 22, 2025

Warm-Up

  1. Students are spread in the room.
  2. The teacher plays a drum and a triangle (or any kind of other hand percussion)
    • ONE drum sound = step forward
    • TWO drum sounds = step back wards
    • THREE drum sounds = stop
    • ONE triangle sound = leap forward
    • TWO triangle sounds = leap backwards (this may need some practice)
    • THREE triangle sounds = stop

Activity

  1. The teacher sings short phrases with music going up or down stepwise. Teacher uses one hand (or both) to show imaginary steps in the space. Students echo.
    • Teacher does the same with skips (a third or more)
  2. Exploring the piano/glockenspiel/xylophone:
    • Music going up or down stepwise
    • Music going up or down, skipping keys
    • Students take turns exploring
  3. In space:
    • Piano plays music going up or down stepwise, students step forward or backwards
    • Piano plays music skipping up or down, students leap backwards or forwards
  4. Conclude by singing a song in which one or more of these are elements of melodic direction are represented.
    • “The Little Birch Tree” works well
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Author

Adriana Ausch-Simmel

Adriana Ausch enjoys a career as a singer and Dalcroze Eurhythmics teaching artist. As cross-style singer she has performed solo and chamber programs and presented Dalcroze workshops in Boston, New York, Toronto, Hangzhou (China) and Bucharest (Romania).  She currently teaches as Dalcroze Eurhythmics faculty at Longy School of Music of Bard College, where she created several Dalcroze courses for graduate and undergraduate students: Eurhythmics Lab, Plastique Animée, Improvisation for Singers, Music and Architecture and Cabaret. Adriana Ausch is the founder and president of the New England Dalcroze Chapter in Boston since 2011 and was the Chair of the Dalcroze Eurhythmics department at the Winchester Community Music School in Winchester, MA from 2006 until 2024. Adriana Ausch earned the MM, Certification and License in Dalcroze Eurhythmics at Longy School of Music. She completed her MM in Vocal Performance at Longy. Previously she earned an MM in architecture and was active as in architect in Romania and Germany.

Steps and Skips
Adriana Ausch-Simmel, Author

Catalog

  • Resource ID
    2265
  • Original Date
    September 15, 2023
  • Date Added
    May 22, 2025

About

  • Category
  • Age
    Ages 4–7
  • Dalcroze Branch
    Solfège
  • Dalcroze Teaching Techniques
    Association, Quick Reaction: Aural/Musical, Quick Reaction: Visual, Relationships of Time, Space, and Energy
  • Music Topics
    Melodic Contour

Community & Access

  • This is a free resource available to all.
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About the Author(s)

Author

Adriana Ausch-Simmel

Adriana Ausch enjoys a career as a singer and Dalcroze Eurhythmics teaching artist. As cross-style singer she has performed solo and chamber programs and presented Dalcroze workshops in Boston, New York, Toronto, Hangzhou (China) and Bucharest (Romania).  She currently teaches as Dalcroze Eurhythmics faculty at Longy S…
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