Welcome to Episode 4 of the Doremi Teach Podcast, with Helen Russell from Doremi Connect. Today we’re going to share a fun and creative rhyme that develops pulse kinaesthetically with the opportunity for improvisation.

Chop Chop Choppity Chop

This rhyme has so many uses

• It’s so interactive, our students get to choose which vegetable go in the pot and decide if their imaginary soup is delicious or disgusting
• It uses the speaking voice so perfect for that first term when you’re exploring voice types
• It’s use of the speaking voice also makes it very attractive for teachers who aren’t yet confident using their own singing voices in the classroom
• The actions help our students to feel the pulse or beat kinaesthetically
• Its metre is simple compound or 6/8 so when they’re much older and are preparing this metre it could stage a comeback. You never know, they can surprise you and love a bit of a retro flashback to their younger years. I’ve used it with older students and linked to chopping trees in Minecraft or even Fruit Ninja or Beat Saber.

The Game

Use a chopping action with a flat vertical hand, the knife, striking a flat horizontal hand, the chopping board.

The children can choose ingredients for the pot. You decide if they have to be sensible vegetables or if you can trust them to be a bit more creative with ice-cream and radishes. Watch out though, they will definitely want to include slugs and worms so you decide if you want to tolerate that level of silliness. I do, but you might not.

For an extra challenge you can change the chopping action to match the size or stability of the vegetable. So instead of a hand you might use your whole arm, or a tiny finger, or maybe those pesky peas are rolling around so you can’t catch them.

Make sure you let us know what you think of the rhyme, and if you use it in your lessons. You can get in touch with us through our website at doremiconnect.co.uk

Do share us with your colleagues if you’ve found it helpful

I hope you have a lovely week, filled with music and singing.

I’ll see you soon here, on Facebook, Twitter or at doremiconnect.co.uk to help you achieve your music teaching goals using the Kodály approach.

For more resources and free webinars on teaching music through singing make sure you visit doremiconnect.co.uk/freetraining for our latest opportunities.