It is that time of year! It is the week when May 4 will fall on a school day and you can celebrate two celebrations: May The Fourth Be With You and Dave Brubeck Day! This year, I created a rhythm play-along to John Williams's Theme to Star Wars, conducted by Henry Mancini, From The Reader's Digest Music: Wizards & Dragons - A Fantasy Game Mix.

May The Fourth Be With You

May the Fourth Be With You has become extremely popular in music classes.
"May the Fourth be with you" is a pun on the popular catchphrase "May the Force be with you" from the Star Wars franchise. It is used as a greeting among fans on May 4th, which is also known as Star Wars Day. The date was chosen because "May the Fourth" sounds similar to "May the Force", and the day has become a popular occasion for Star Wars-themed celebrations. It is also a great way to incorporate a study of John Williams and his music from the Star Wars franchise.

Star Wars Rhythm Play-Along

This play-along incorporates whole notes/semibreves, half notes/minims, quarter notes/crotchets, and eighth-note/quaver triplets. If the eighth-note triplets are too advanced for your students, you can replace them with a quarter note.

To teach this play-along, I would begin with a slide of each rhythm pattern, which can be found here. I would review the rhythm patterns that they already know through movement.

• Quarter note = step

• Half note = step—>slide

• Whole note = freeze like a statue and say “whole note hold it” or “ta-a-a-a”

• Eighth note triplets = I would introduce this by having the students say a three-syllable word like straw-ber-ry.

  • I would then have them clap the steady beat as they say “straw-ber-ry” several times.

  • They would then walk the steady beat as they say “straw-ber-ry” several times.

  • Finally, I have half the class tap the steady beat as the other half says “straw-ber-ry” several times, and then switch.

• We would watch the play-along and raise our hands when we see the triplets.

• We would then perform the play-along video using rhythm sticks.

Dave Brubeck Day

In the States, students can write the date on the top of their assignments as 5/4. 5/4 or May 4th is also known as Dave Brubeck Day in honor of the famous American jazz pianist and composer Dave Brubeck. The date was chosen because of Brubeck's famous composition "Take Five", which is in 5/4 time signature.

Dave Brubeck was born on December 6, 1920, and became one of the most popular jazz musicians of the 20th century, known for his unique style of blending jazz and classical music. He passed away on December 5, 2012, at the age of 91.

Here is a body percussion play-along I created last year to honor this day.

Wakelet: 84 activities for May 4

Wakelet is a free, digital platform, that allows educators (and students) to create and easily organize various content for easy accessibility. Most of the content in this particular Wakelet is YouTube videos, with some png, websites, and Teachers Pay Teachers (TPT) links. One of the best things about Wakelet is you can add a YouTube video to it and when you click on it in Wakelet, it will not leave the site. It will embed the YouTube video into the Wakelet so there will be no comments, no advertisements, and no additional videos being played or shown at the end. This is a very successful tool to use in the classroom.

More ideas…

Check out last year’s blog post celebrating this day for more ideas!