Newsletters

Music and the Brain Newsletter No. 18 – Fall 2008

Ushering in the 2008-2009 School Year:

The new school year is shaping up to be one of our strongest in terms of our goal to get MATB in all public schools who have music teachers in NYC.  We are expecting to add 15-25 new schools this academic year bringing our total to well over 100 public elementary schools across the city.   We are in early planning stages of several professional development workshops during the 2008-2009 school year.  We anticipate completing Newsletter 19 soon so please send us any of your classroom stories or ideas to brainmusic@aol.com .

MATB Success during 2007-2008 Academic Year!

Music and the Brain’s 11th year in New York City public schools was a great one.  Congratulations and many thanks to all the MATB music teachers who made the program thrive.  During the 2007-2008 academic year, we added 15 new schools across Manhattan, the Bronx, and Brooklyn.  Many of our new schools joined thanks to the assistance in spreading the word to all principals from Dr. Sharon Dunn, Executive Director of the Arts at the NYC Dept. of Education.  We also want to thank Bill Kasuli, Director of Arts in the Office of Strategic Partnerships & External Initiatives at the DOE, for his continued support of MATB and finding wonderful schools for us with whom to partner.

We held two successful professional development sessions for all of our music teachers last year and we want to thank Danai Gagne, the Director of Orff Certification Program at Trevor Day School in NYC, for her Orff movement workshop in October 2007.  We also hosted a packed training at our own Theater Row, for all MATB music teachers in April 2008 focusing on exploring Book 3 of the MATB curriculum.  The lunch at Chez Josephine’s was of course a highlight!

STORIES FROM THE FIELD:

Seating by Rhythm:

Daria Isayeva of PS 85Q has her children sit in spots that have pictures of different rhythmic notes.  When calling students to their keyboards, she calls all the quarter notes, half notes, etc to their marked keyboards.  

Fun with Grasshoppers:

Darron Leander teaches at Hunter College Elementary and during the Grasshopper lesson, he sang the song first until everyone caught on.  He then had half the class stand on the rug to hop like a Grasshopper.  To prevent chaos, he had them all trace an imaginary bubble around them that no one could come near while hopping.  At the keyboards, he had them challenge themselves after practicing the written song, to play it on the black keys only.  

Akiwowo Storytelling:

Alfredo Leon from PS 44K added some riveting storytelling to his Akiwowo lesson.  He told a story that he made up that a young boy lived with his family in Nigeria and they were very, very poor.  He wanted to help and asked if he could go to some neighboring villages to find work.  His parents agreed and he left with a little bit of water and food. He walked and walked for days and each village he went to didn’t have any work for him and eventually he ran out of water and food. He had no choice but to come back home.  He couldn’t walk back without supplies so he had to take the train.  He waited all day for the train and tried to figure out how he could get on without any money.  He decided to come up with a song.  He knew the conductor’s name with Akiwowo and when the train came he sang it and explained that he didn’t have any money.  Of course Akiwowo was delighted with the song and let him on the train where the boy continued to sing.  The other passengers joined in and soon they taught the catchy song to all of their friends and families and so on and so on.  

DJ Spins the Rhythms:

Arthur White at PS 175M has fun with rhythms with his kids.  He switches music for rhythm card clapping adding suspense like a DJ.  During one session he played the classical rhythm CDs from MATB, the programmed drum beats by Lisala, and James Brown’s “I Feel Good”.  The kids loved it because he was sneaky with when he would change the beat.  (It helps to have a multi CD changer or Ipod for this!)

Simple Halloween Challenge:

While at the keyboards, Maria Schwab of PS 84Q had the kids add a spooky accompaniment to “Halloween” by playing quarter note E’s above the melody in the right hand.  A super simple and effective accompaniment that makes for a fun introduction to two handed playing.

Music Detective Humor:

Cherette Lewis, formally of PS 246X uses her operatic and comedic talents in class. When students get an answer correct, she sings a high note in an operatic tone, which makes them erupt with giggles.  During one lesson, Cherette did her music detective routine where she had kids turn on their brains and put on an imaginary detective cap.  She asked a few students to come up as contestants to find the “rhythm” suspect at the scene of the crime, which was “Hot Cross Buns”.  She started singing the melody of Mission Impossible while the kids found the measures that matched the clue, which was the rhythm card.   

Making Wise Decisions:

Edel Boland of PS 71Q is always encouraging her students who might be struggling with musical concepts with stories of her own struggles learning to play as a child in Ireland.  During one lesson, before headphones went on at the keyboards, she asked if any students needed more time with her on the rug to review the song before playing and about 8 raised their hand.  She praised them for being wise enough to ask for more help.

Demonstrating what Beethoven Experienced:

At PS 278M, Elana Stiel Obstfeld was starting the second lesson on “Ode to Joy.” Elana started by mouthing her words to the class until they caught on to what she was doing.  They had enjoyed trying to lip read as she told them she was about to play a song on the piano.  She went to a keyboard and played without turning it on so the class could try to imagine what Beethoven experienced.  

After Lunch Meditation:

Fatima Rodriguez of PS 384K began her first afternoon class with a story about two people who had very different after meal habits. The one who stayed very calm after eating and thereby let all the little bits of food flow peacefully to through his body aged very slowly. When that person reached the age of one hundred years no one could believe that this motionless digester was a day over thirty. The other person, eating hastily and rushing about without a pause, appeared a hundred at the age of thirty.  This story was followed by having the children assume a meditative sitting position counting backwards from thirty very slowly. She was able to calmly begin her lesson.  The next period’s class actually began this silent ritual without Fatima’s direction, much to her delight and surprise.

Creative MATB for Older Students:

Gian Tornatore of the Washington Heights Expeditionary Learning School cators to 6th  and 7th grade students.  During one 6th grade class, Gian started a composition project which involved each student choosing either the “CDE” or “ABC” tune as a starting point.  To model the process, he had the class collaborate with him at the board.  They put together a “melody” note by note and measure by measure.  They could choose only pitches and note values that appeared in the source tune, either ABC or CDE and only quarter, half notes and rests. Gian played the new composition on a keyboard and some students did not like how it turned out.  He then let them choose notes to change.

Bounce the Beat Ball:

MATB Intern Laura Vincent was visiting PS 161M and began a lesson by playing a game called “bounce the beat ball”. There were in two teams, girls led by Laura and boys led by Jason Kennedy (the teacher). They had to bounce the beat ball for three beats and then throw it to the other team on beat four. The other team would catch it on beat four and then begin bouncing on beat one. The starting tempo was largo and focused on keeping the beat really steady.  Soon they varied the tempo and meter. Laura would call out numbers for how many times they bounced the ball.  Afterwards Laura asked them what they found difficult or easy about the game and they found it harder to pass the ball when the number wasn’t even but by her account, they changed meter pretty fluidly.

Choral Rehearsal “Gift” Analogy

After a half-hearted run through by her students of a song for an upcoming concert,  Krista Wosniak of PS 149Q made an interesting point saying that their upcoming performance was a gift to their parents.  She asked them how they took care of and presented gifts they gave to friends or family and asked them if they got excited when it was being unwrapped.  She explained that these songs were to be treated exactly the same and that their hard work and serious attitudes would not only make their performance a better gift but would make the present more enjoyable to give.  The kids responded very well to Krista’s stern but thoughtful comment and put some heart into the rest of their rehearsal.

FUNNY KID QUOTES

>Lisala Beatty was teaching  a lesson at PS 249K.  At one point she was explaining that thumbs would always be finger number one and one of the 2nd grade boys raised his hand and looked at her inquisitively, and asked, “Is that opinion, or fact?” 

>Richard Miller was visiting PS 49X and asked one child how he was sure that the right hand plays the treble clef.  He answered “My dinosaur told me!” 

> At PS 199K a kindergarten student of Sheldon Ferber, was very eager to answer questions and Mr. Ferber asked if anyone knew how a clavichord sounded as we looked at the sketch on the Musette poster.  When he was called on he said “I…….I know…..it’s …..it’s…..well I have to ask my mommy because I forgot”

Letters from PS 157X students to MATB Teaching Intern Richard Miller

Dear. Richard

I Like “the music and the brain” because some of the songs make a good tune. Thank you for coming to the recitals and teaching us music. We all thank you.  you watched our recitals, gave us books to learn music, and a good education, even though we only saw us 2 times. It must be hard making sheet music every day. You must have done 1 million sheets by this time.

Love, Malaki

Dear Richard,

My name is Nicholas. I’m 8 years old. I like music in the brain. My mom wants to

meet you. I liked when you came to our show’s you’re a good audience member. You taught us a lot you told us we didn’t no. Thank you. Also what like about music in the brain’s we learn things each class visit.    Sincerley Nicholas

Dear, Richard 

Thank you for the music. I love music  a lot okay. You are very nice to do this okay. You are very nice Thank you so much. to people right I playder ode to joy. It was fun to okay bye.

Love, Deshanae

Dear Richard,

Thank you for helping ms beatty for buy the kebord becauseI love to play Hot cross buns and twkle twkle little star  because it sound  Just like the song and  it is the song 

Love Tatiana Thomas