Movement Activity
Get to know how different instruments sound and how they make you want to move with this activity from Toneworks Music Therapy Services, created for our Inside the Composer’s Mind Young People’s Concert Experience.
Watch the video to join music therapists Lyndie and Shelby as they assign different movements to the violin, flute, and other instruments playing Rossini’s Overture to La scala di seta (The Silken Ladder), as performed by the Minnesota Orchestra. They even have special movements for the “tutti” sections played by everyone!
Then download the Movement Activity Worksheet and get ready to create your own set of instrument-inspired movements to one of the pieces on Inside the Composer’s Mind. Here is a key showing which instruments play on each piece:
- Zivkovic: Bass drum, gong, bongos, snare drum, tom toms, crotales, vibraphone
- Montgomery: Violin, viola, cello, bass
- Dvorak: Cello, bass, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, horn
- Kay: Violin, viola, cello, bass
- Haydn: Violin, viola, cello, bass, flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, horn, trumpet, timpani
Once you’ve chosen your piece, come up with a movement to perform when you hear certain instruments or instrument families. (Not sure what different instruments sound like or how you’d translate their sounds into movement? Visit our Guide to the Orchestra for instrument demonstrations from Minnesota Orchestra musicians.) Then turn on the music, get moving, and have fun!
Toneworks Music Therapy Services is a private practice dedicated to providing individualized, evidence-based music therapy interventions to improve the lives of its clients in physical, cognitive, social and emotional domains. Toneworks music therapists have partnered with the Minnesota Orchestra for numerous Sensory-Friendly and Relaxed Family Concerts, and they serve children and adults throughout the Minneapolis-St. Paul metro area.
