Caribbean music: calypso and found percussion

Introduction and overview

Calypso is a style of music that developed in the West Indies, the islands of the Caribbean. It began in Trinidad, and spread through the islands, influencing many other popular styles of music, in the West Indies, the U.S., and around the world. This module includes several ideas for presenting Calypso to young students.

Use this lesson for:

• Music class - Make and play percussion instruments, and/or sing and play percussion using typical Caribbean rhythms.
• Music concert - Learn the songs (with percussion accompaniment) for a performance, particularly a multicultural concert.
• Social studies class - Do any of the activities, as part of a unit on West Indies cultures, cultures of the Americas, history of the Caribbean or of the Americas, African-American history, or African-American music.
• Creative writing - Do the "Introduction to Calypso", and then have the students write some calypso-style lyrics.

This module includes several different activities, all related to Calypso music. There is a short Introduction to Calypso music , songs to sing with calypso-style rhythms, a "found percussion" activity , Calypso-style rhythms to play on percussion, and a creative writing activity . Choose whichever are appropriate for your class; doing all of them will probably require at least five class periods. There are also suggestions for finding recordings to listen to.

An introduction to calypso

Goals and standards

• Goals - Following the presentation, students should be able to correctly identify photos, drawings, and audio recordings of steel drums, locate Trinidad and Tobago on a world map or globe, and give an age-appropriate description of the history of calypso music.
• Objectives - The students will listen to steel drum, calypso, and/or calypso-style music, look at photos, drawings or videos of steel drums, locate Trinidad and Tobago on a map, and listen to a lecture on the history of calypso music.
• Grade Level - K-12 (adaptable)
• Student Prerequisites - none
• Teacher Expertise - Teacher expertise in music is not necessary to present this activity.
• Time Requirements - 10-20 minutes. Can be combined with one or more of the activities below to fill one (approximately 45-minute) class period.
• Evaluation - Assess student learning by including questions covering the material in a unit test, or by quizzing the students orally following the activities.
• Music Standards Addressed - National Standards for Music Education standard 9 (understanding music in relation to history and culture).
• Other Subjects Addressed - The activity also addresses National Council for the Social Studies standard 1 (culture) and 9 (global connections).
• Extensions - If at all possible, the lecture should be followed by at least one of the activities below, or a similar activity that makes the information more concrete and memorable. Older students may be asked to do independent research on the subject.