BRUMM KidsLet's go

For teachers

A melody of their own in 20 minutes.

Every child hums two bars. The class hears them back as a track at once, first as the voice, then as an instrument. No sheet music, no instrument, no sign-up. A phone and a speaker are enough.

What you need

  • A phone with a current browser (Safari or Chrome) and internet to load. The address: brumm.ai/kids, or the QR code on the worksheet.
  • A speaker (a Bluetooth box), so everyone hears the beat.
  • The worksheet, one per child: My song with Mika (PDF, one A4 page).

The plan

Five steps.

1

The beat. 3 minutes.

Press Play. Mika makes the beat. The class finds the pulse: clap on the one, count to four.

2

An idea. 5 minutes.

One child comes to the front and taps Brumm. Mika counts four, then the child has two bars to hum or sing. Anything, however off-key. Hold the phone close to the mouth, the others stay quiet.

3

Listen. 4 minutes.

The melody comes back, in time and in key, with the child's voice. Then pick an instrument with ‹ ›. Questions for the class: Is it still the same melody? What stayed the same, what changed?

4

Change it. 4 minutes.

Drag the dot on the pad, then switch the shape: Sun, Moon, Lasers, Eyes, Water. Each colours the screen and twists the sound. The class describes what it hears.

5

More children. 4 minutes or longer.

The next child hums along. Up to six melodies play together, from the third there are Break and Drop. Whatever has to go, Mika gets; a tap on him brings it back. At the end every child fills in their worksheet.

What the children learn.

  • Melody: a sequence of notes, high and low, short and long. On the worksheet they draw it.
  • Bar and pulse: four beats, two bars, the beat keeps going.
  • Timbre: the same melody as a voice and as an instrument.
  • Playing together: several melodies at once, and what happens when one is missing.
  • Their own music: the melody comes from the child. The app only moves it into time and key, it invents nothing.

Privacy in the classroom.

  • No account, no sign-up, no ads, no tracking, no cookies.
  • The recordings stay on the phone and become notes there. The server only sees that a page was opened (described exactly).
  • The songs live in the phone's browser until someone gives them to Mika.
  • Please don't share from the lesson. A shared song carries the children's voices; that needs the parents' consent. Sharing sits behind a gate for grown-ups anyway.

The worksheet.

One A4 page, printable in black and white: name and title of the song, the melody as a line over two bars, the shape to circle, what stayed the same and what changed, a picture. Under CC BY 4.0: copy, change and pass it on freely, with credit (Daniel Breyer, brumm.ai/kids).

Worksheet (PDF)

This lesson is new and not yet tried in a classroom. If you try it, write to us what worked and what didn't: hello@brumm.ai.

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