ResonatorBar_Green

Resonator Bars are considered a long-time favorite in Kindermusik Classrooms. These beautiful chime sounding bars are pitched to notes on the staff providing melodic sounds for our young students to explore. 

As your student progresses through the Kindermusik curricula, you’ll begin to see how we use these instruments to prepare your child for the Kindermusik Orchestra.

You’ll find resonator bars introduced in our Level 1 Baby Classes as a way to introduce long sounds vs. short sounds. Your baby’s eyes light up when they hear these sweet melodic sounds.

In our Level 2 classes for Toddlers, the bars are introduced in sets of 2, paired together to create a melodic chord that is not only beautiful to hear, but equally delightful for our little ones to play using the rubber mallets. Your toddler is playinig along to songs like “Bow Wow Wow” or “Sweetly Sings The Donkey” with a focus on playing both bars at the same time to the steady beat of the song. This is the beginning of ensemble development while also learning how to take turns and share the bars.

It’s not until Kindermusik Level 3 classes for Preschoolers that we focus on developing ensemble skills each week in class. As we incorporate resonator bars into these ensembles, your child is also preparing for the Kindermusik Orchestra where the primary instrument is the glockenspiel, a pre-keyboard instrument.

Here are 4 things to look for in Level 3:

  1. Rest-Ready-Play: When we use resonator bars in class, your child learns the positions of Rest, where mallets have a specific position on the floor above the bars; Ready, where we pick up the mallets and hold them over the bars and wait for the song to begin; and then Play, where the children are invited to play the bars in unison. This rest-ready-play structure will be used again with the glockenspiel, the dulcimer, and the recorder as your child moves on to the Kindermusik Orchestra. 
  2. Playing in Unison: This mallet practice invites your child to watch, listen, and respond to the conductor. It’s teamwork in action as each person practices inhibitory control, timing, steady beat, and listening skills. Your child’s confidence will grow as they actively participate in these ensemble activities. It feels good to be a part of a group that’s working together to make music.
  3. Pincer Grip: Your child will begin to use the pincer grip to hold the mallets as we practice and play with the rubber mallets more and more. In the Kindermusik Orchestra Class, Level 4, we will build on this practice to introduce a very specific way to hold and play with the wooden mallets. This is the same pincer grip your child will use to hold a pencil in school.
  4. Playing Chords: When your child plays resonator bars in class, they typically play two bars at the same time in a chord known as a “bordun,” an open 5th chord. The goal is to play both bars at the same time on the beat. Both hands and arms are doing the same thing at the same time. When we move to Level 4, your child will transition from playing only chords to playing melodies and songs on the glockenspiel. As we learn notes on the staff, we will introduce them on the glockenspiel until eventually your child will be playing notes from the lowest bar, middle c below the staff to 4th line d on the staff. And it all starts with the preparation in level 3 on the resonator bars.

THE BONUS: The skills we are using in level 3 on the resonator bars and in Level 4 on the glockenspiels are developing skills that will prepare your child for success in school and in life – inhibitory control, discriminatory listening, sense of timing, team work, turn taking and more. It’s music for now. Skills for life.

What can you do to encourage the learning experience?ResonatorBar_PostcardL3

  • Notice the resonator bars in class when they are being used.
  • Ask your child about how they work. Invite them to teach you to play the bars. Sing along together tapping the beat.
  • Consider adding these bars to your home instrument collection. You’ll discover a wide range of songs in our Kindermusik Library that are ideal for singing while playing the bars. Take home our resonator bar postcard that’s packed with suggestions for home.