|
||||
“Cantares Mexicanos Rhythms”
by Phil and Sarah Tulga
In Cantares Mexicanos Rhythms, students recreate ancient Aztec musical phrases with syllables and fractions — please also see my introductory page on Aztec music.
Your students learn seven Aztec rhythms: three of them with ocarina accompaniment, plus four more rhythms that form a drum spectacular! Each rhythm is taught using Aztec drum syllables, and is translated into musical notation and pie fractions! During the activity your students participate in an Aztec percussion group, and their role is to play the shakers. In addition to shakers, Phil and Sarah also suggest a variety of popular classroom instruments that will extend your students' learning — please see below.
 In the Cantares Mexicanos Rhythms activity package, Phil and Sarah provide you with everything you need to present an engaging musical activity that compliments your school’s standards-based Mathematics curriculum! You get Phil’s full-length introduction on how to play the rhythms, along with three versions of the music that you can play from your computer, or burn to disk using Windows Media Player or iTunes. Phil includes the same music and visuals he uses when he
presents this activity at his popular
Musical
Fractions family nights.
After learning a couple of playing techniques, the kids perform the three rhythms on the Aztec Drum Rhythms page, and then segue into four more exciting rhythms in a drum spectacular! To hear a sample of the music with Phil's voice-over track, press the play button below — it will begin playing as soon as the file is completely loaded.
It’s perfect for classroom teachers, music teachers, math specialists, history teachers, drum circle facilitators, or anyone else who has a love of rhythm! The entire package (including lesson plans, music, and visuals) costs only $24.95. To download Phil and Sarah's complete package containing two PDF files and four MP3 files for the "Cantares Mexicanos Rhythms" activity, click the "Buy Now" button below. |
Table of Contents
 In
this activity we will feature the various shakers and rattles
that would be found in a traditional Aztec
 percussion
group. Any instrument that produces a shaking sound will
qualify. Many music teachers already own egg shakers, fruit
shakers, and maracas — these work quite well. If you own
any other unusual or interesting instruments in your collection,
feel free to make them part of your group to add a
characteristic sound.
Once your students demonstrate proficiency with the rhythms, have them extend their learning!
Incorporate Boomwhackers®, Orff
instruments, or our
homemade fraction tubes Give your students the ocarina melodies to play on their recorders — all of the songs are tuned to play on a student soprano recorder (or any of our homemade instruments), and the sheet music is included in this package! |
Bibliography
Cantares Mexicanos: Songs of the Aztecs Translated by John Bierhorst. Stanford University Press; 1985.
Music in Aztec and Inca Territory by Robert Stevenson. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1968. Second edition, 1976.
Copyright © 2006-2012 Phil Tulga
During his family nights the
students each bring a rinsed soda can, and Phil brings the
popcorn and rice. He puts one spoonful of popcorn and one
spoonful of rice into each can, and covers the opening with a
square piece of duct tape — that’s it. Now every student
owns a shaker! 
Students
can play hand drums the same way that Aztec drummers played the
into your percussion group using
the pitches C (low) and F (high). These pitches exactly
match the
