Description: The Daniel's Music Foundation logo is shown, an arced music ledger line, with a large treble clef in the middle, surrounded by smaller music notes.
A woman is standing in a turquoise room, in front of a selection of conga drums and bongos. She has short brown hair, and a red t-shirt that reads "Just Call Me By My Name".
Stefani: Hello. My name is Stefani, and I'm an instructor at Daniel's Music Foundation. I'm so excited to be teaching this activity to you. During this activity, you will learn about legato and staccato, half time, as well as quarter notes and half notes. If you enjoy these videos and would like to see more of them, please click the Subscribe button down below to help us grow our channel.
Stefani: And just a quick reminder, if you would like to skip ahead to the activity portion of this video, take a look at the description box down below for the exact time the activity begins. If you'd like to learn the moves, stay right here with me. We're going to be moving and grooving to a song called "Don't Stop Me Now", from one of my all time favorite bands, Queen.
Stefani: Before we begin learning this activity, I'd like to gently remind you that all the moves I've chosen to do for this activity are what work best for me and my body. But you should feel free to do the moves that work best for you and your body. Let's start with the intro or the very beginning of the song. "Don't Stop Me" Now starts slow and legato, so I'm going to try and find some slow and legato moves to match. But first, what is legato?
Stefani: Legato means smooth and connected so that there are no breaks in between the notes played, kind of like how there's no space between my words right now. When I think of legato, I like to think I'm an astronaut floating around in space. My first legato move will start with my hands and arms close together to my chest while moving my body side to side. Next, I'm going to start stretching my arms up to the sky as if I'm coming to life.
Stefani: After, I'll be creating a circle around me like I'm drawing the world, and then I'll turn the world inside out by bringing my arms back around to my chest like so. My last legato move will be floating around in space like an astronaut. I'm going to extend my arms out to each side of me and move side to side. Let's try and put it all together. I'm going to be singing the lyrics of the song so that it can help illustrate our legato moves.
Stefani: (SINGING) Tonight I'm going to have myself a real good time. I feel alive. Stretch, stretch, stretch, and the world will turn it inside out. Yeah. I'm floating around in ecstasy. Amazing work. That looked really nice. Things are about to change a little here. After our beautiful legato section, we suddenly hear, (SINGING) Don't stop me now. Don't stop me now. Now, I don't want to stop anybody, but that doesn't sound very legato, does it? That's because we now hear something called staccato.
Stefani: Staccato is the opposite of legato, which means we have a lot of space in between each note. When I think of staccato, I like to think of jumping up and down, kind of how my words are jumping up and down like this. [LAUGHS] For the hook or the most catchy part of the song, I'm going to extend one arm down at a time for don't and stop, and then extend one arm up at a time for the words me and now.
Stefani: There are four words in this hook, so I'm going to have four separate moves. Every time we hear the hook of the song, we're going to be doing this move. Sometimes in the chorus of the song or the part that repeats most often, we wave our arms side to side above our head like a shooting star for the lyrics-- (SINGING) cause I'm having a good time. Let's put it all together and try it out. Ready?
Stefani: (SINGING) Don't stop me now. Don't stop me now cause I'm having a good time, having a good time. Whoa, you crushed that like a meteor. Whoa, I'm feeling a little spacey today, but don't stop me now. [LAUGHS] You guys are doing such a fantastic job. We are on to the verse of the song or the part of the song that tells us a story. I'm going to start by clapping my hands four times above my head from side to side. Let's try it together. 1, 2, 3, 4. 1, 2, 3, 4.
Stefani: When we count to 4 in music, we're usually using something called quarter notes. These notes help us divide a song we're playing into smaller numbers so that we can keep track of where we are. Next, I'm going to clap my hands above my head twice from side to side. Since I only need to fit in half the number of claps into the same amount of time, I'm going to be going slower. This is something in music we like to call halftime.
Stefani: Halftime means that we are going half as fast as we did before. When moving in halftime in this song, we are using a different type of note. It's not a quarter but it is a fraction. What could it be? Oh, you guessed it, a half note. Let's try putting our quarter note claps together with our half time claps. I'm going to do two rounds of quarter notes and then three rounds of half notes. Here we go. 1, 2, 3, 4. 1, 2, 3, 4. 1, 2 3 4. 1, 2, 3, 4. 1, 2, 3, 4. Excellent job.
Stefani: For my next move in the verse, I'm going to do some punching. Air punching, of course. [LAUGHS] Let's start with punching our quarter notes first. I'm going to use one fist at a time to count to four using my quarter notes, and then use both of my fists to punch in half time. I'm going to be doing three rounds of quarter notes and three rounds of half notes. Let's try it together. 1, 2, 3, 4. 1, 2, 3, 4. 1, 2, 3, 4. 1, 2 3, 4. 1, 2, 3 4. 1, 2 3, 4.
Stefani: Oh. Just kidding. Awesome job. Our next move is going to involve quarter notes, but no half time or half notes. We're going to make some twinkling stars by curling our fingers into our palms and then flicking them out, like you're splashing someone. Just don't splash me, Please. I'm going to be moving my stars from low to high. So I'll start flicking my fingers out at my chest and end above my head.
Stefani: When my hands are above my head, I'm going to move my fingers as fast as I can back down like they're twinkling lights. Let's try it together. I'm going to be doing a sequence of 1 set of shooting stars on my quarter notes and then twinkling down. Are you ready? 1, 2, 3, 4, bring it down. 1, 2, 3, 4, pretty twinkling lights. You are such a shining star. Nice work.
Stefani: For our last move of our verse, we are going to create some lightning bolts by bringing one arm into our chest with our palm facing the ground while bringing the other arm out to the side with our palm facing the ground. Then, we're going to alternate them by bringing the arm that was in out and bringing the arm that was out in. Let's try alternating. Bring one arm in and one arm out. Now let's switch, and switch, and switch, and switch. Nicely done.
Stefani: During the song, I'll be doing two sets of quarter notes and two sets in half time using half notes. You ready to do it with me? 1, 2, 3, 4. 1, 2, 3, 4. 1, 2, 3, 4. 1, 2, 3, 4. Whoa, that was incredible. We are now at the bridge of our song, which is the part of the song that sounds different from the rest of the parts but brings them all together. We're going to start by shaking our feet, and then our legs, and then our shoulders, and then our arms. [LAUGHS]
Stefani: I'm going to sing the song along to us practicing so that you can feel the music in your body. You ready? Let's start with our feet. (SINGING) Don't stop me. Don't stop me. Hey, hey, hey, legs, don't stop me. Don't stop me. Oh, oh, oh shoulders, don't stop me. Don't stop me. Have a good time, good time. Arms, don't stop me. Don't stop me. Wow. Oh, that was fun. Now, I think there's only one thing left to do before we move on to our song. Let's practice some air guitar to get into that rock and roll spirit. Maybe queen will even let us take a solo during the song. You ready?
Description: Stefani pantomimes playing an electric guitar, rocking backwards and forwards as she plays
Stefani: Oh, I felt like a rock star doing that. All right, everybody. Are you ready to go to space? I'm going to start with my hands close to my chest swaying. Now I'm going to reach up, up. Oh, I'm coming alive. And now let's make that world around us and turn it inside out. Oh yeah, that's right. Let's go astronaut. Float around in space. (SINGING) Don't stop me now. Was that staccato? I think it was.
Stefani: All right, here we go. Let's clap it out. Beautiful. And over the head. Quarter, quarter, quarter, quarter, and give me that half time. Beautiful. Now let's hustle. 1, 2, 3, 4. 1, 2, 3, 4. And half time. That was beautiful. Very nice. Let's do the star, star, star, star, and twinkle it down. 1, 2, 3, 4, and twinkle it down. Beautiful. Let's do the lightning. 1,2, 3, 4. Quarter, quarter, quarter, in the house. No half. No half. No-- And don't stop me now. And sway to the side. I'm just having such a good time. Here we go. And sway again. Up. Beautiful.
Stefani: (SINGING) And don't stop me now. Don't stop now. And give me a big stretch cause we're going to do it all over again. Let's go. Here we go. And half time. Very nice I'm out of control. And air punch. 1, 2, 3, 4. And half time. Let's go. Give me those stars. Twinkle them down. Beautiful. Let's do the lightning. Here we go. 1, 2, 3, 4, and half time. Very nice. There's no stopping us now. Let's do those feet. And tap those legs. Oh, I feel so good. And do those arms. Oh Yeah. I think it's time we do a guitar solo. Oh yeah, let it go everybody.
Stefani: Give me a kick if you want. You can toss off your hair everywhere. Get as rock and roll as you want to be. All right, here we go. We're going to bring those stars up. 1, 2, 3, 4, trickle them down. 1, 2, 3, 4, and trickle them down. Very nice. Let's do lightning. 1, 2, 3, 4. 1, 2, 3, 4 Don't stop me now. Sway to the side. Beautiful. Don't stop me now. And one more time. Let's do it one more time. Beautiful. And stretch those arms out for me. Beautiful. We're going to bring them back into our chest, and we're going to just sway.
Stefani: You guys, did such an amazing job. And we're going to stretch it out, out, out, out, and bring your arms down to your sides. Take a deep breath. Awesome work. Whoa, that was rocking. I hope you had just as much fun as I did. And just a gentle reminder, if you enjoyed this video, please click the Subscribe button down below so we can continue to celebrate the joy of music together. Have a wonderful day filled with peace, love, and music. Until next time.
Description: The Daniel's Music Foundation logo, as well as the links to the foundation's social media channels:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/danielsmusicfoundation/ Instagram: http://instagram.com/dmfmusic Twitter: https://twitter.com/DanielsMusicFdn YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCp30ob_W2ec2ok8mfitep8A