Finger Puppet

Photo by Rafael Baldwin, courtesy of New World Symphony

Goals:

Audience will explore movement and character in music.

Overview

The audience will use their fingers on their hand to imitate the character and/or tempo of a piece.

Process

  1. Choose a passage that evokes clear or strong movement for you. Ideally this is a passage that you can feel a steady pulse to walk to.
  2. How fast would your fingers walk across your hand to this piece? What dance would your finger person do to this mood?
  3. You can make modifications to how you perform a piece (speed up/slow down, change the character to be more legato or staccato) and ask the audience to change their puppet movements to match your performance.

Audience Type

What does this activity look like in action?

Example Script:

Piece: Grieg – In the Hall of the Mountain King

Performer: The next piece we’re going to play is a little bit spooky, and maybe even a bit scary. While we play this piece, I would like you to imagine yourself walking through a haunted castle at night. Close your eyes for a second and imagine your haunted castle. Can you see the cobwebs covering all the walls and old, broken furniture? Can you feel the floorboards creak and bend under your feet? Do you hear little creatures scampering around in the darkness, and the howling of the wind through the broken windows?

 

We’re going to take our first two fingers and place them on our other palm. (demonstrate finger puppet). Now walk your puppet through your haunted house to this piece. We might start quietly tip toe-ing around on our hands (fingers bent, crawl-like motions), but as we encounter things in our house during this piece, our movements might change! Let’s explore this house!

 

Perform In the Hall of the Mountain King. Someone in the ensemble can stay at the front of the stage to finger puppet along with the audience.

Modifications

  • For higher interactivity in a more casual space, have the audience stand up and walk around a room.
  • For a more advanced audience, this can be done with changing tempo or time signatures to delve into rhythm.
  • For a fun Halloween activity, ask the audience to walk like a ghost, zombie, etc. corresponding to specific passages in the music.

Create interactive performances. We have activities to help you connect with your audiences.