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Grade level: Kindergarten

Core Standard: National Core Arts Standard #7: Perceive and analyze artistic work

Artistic work: The Macarena

Analyze: The form of the song and the different dance movements associated with the form.

Title: How well do you know the Macarena?!


By Julia Picchiottino and Ryan Richardson

Experience
Our experience wants to test your knowledge on the sequence of one of the most
popular dance tunes out there, the Macarena! Nearly everyone knows the moves to this
popular song, but will you be able to dance along if the music isn’t in order? Just how much
does each musical idea influence the performance of each dance move?
Even if you don’t have an extensive background in music, we all subconsciously connect
the parts of the song to a particular dance move. We are trying to determine whether or not
discrepancies in the original form of the song will translate to a reaction from the students. How
much is this music internalized? Is basic pop music form that apparent to children of such a
young age? Could this happen with other songs?
We will be using coding platforms, Scratch and GarageBand, to isolate small sections of
the Macarena and play them in whatever order we choose. We may play it in the right order, or
mix things up a little.

Extending the Experience


How many popular songs have a similar song form to the Macarena? Could you conduct
this experiment on other tunes? What happens to songs with a different form than the Macarena
if you conduct this experiment?
There are many other popular dance tunes that utilize the same concept of relating
musical form to certain dance moves. For example, YMCA, the Cha-Cha Slide, the Chicken
Dance, and the Hokie Pokie all include a form that centers around certain dance movements.
There are also many ways in which you could replicate our experience at home or in your
regular daily activities. For example, you can pause and play music at home or in the car and
see if your child continues the dance moves associated with the music. There are coding
platforms that you can use to edit sound files and replicate the same kind of experience we
created. We used the platforms Scratch and GarageBand, but there are many others, including
Ableton, SoundTrap, and Swift.
If you would like your child to learn more about music beyond elementary school, you
should encourage them to continue their music education in middle school! If they will be
attending Skyline Middle School, you can reach out to Sharon Miller (millersm@emu.edu) for
strings, or Ms. Rogers (rrogers@harrisonburg.k12.va.us) for the school musical. If attending
Thomas Harrison Middle School, you may contact Megan Austin
(maustin@harrisonburg.k12.va.us) for band, Ellen Kasiske (ekasiske@harrisonburg.k12.va.us)
for strings, Michael Strawderman (mstrawderman@harrisonburg.k12.va.us) for drama, or Kimly
Schlabach (ksclabach@harrisonburg.k12.va.us) for chorus.

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