Newsletters

Music and the Brain Newsletter No. 1 - March 2001

Dear Music and the Brain Teachers,

Welcome to the Music and the Brain Newsletter! This is a forum for everyone involved in this program to exchange ideas and information. It's so valuable for all of us teaching this curriculum, for the first time or even the fifth year, to hear how different teachers approach the same lessons. What worked well for expressing a new concept, what activities were a big hit with your classes or things that didn't work? How could the materials or content beimproved? Are there important things you would like to se included that wereleft out? Your ideas help to improve Music and the Brain. You may notice manyof your ideas and activities already included in the draft of the new teaching manual for Book One. Piano Book Two is in the process of being revised, so any thoughts on how it can be improved or activities you have devised for your classes would be greatly appreciated.

The wonderful thing about an open discussion involving almost 40 teachers is thatinstead of one answer to a question, we could potentially have 40 different ones. Please write or email us with you questions, problems, ideas and observation at brainmusic@aol.com.

For this first Newsletter, I have included a collection of stories from teacher and intern monthly evaluations/observations, emails and conversations, and some questions that need answers from you. Many of the stories involve the hilarious and sometimes amazingly astute ways children express themselves. I thought it might be fun for children to hear how other children talk about music. You might want to share some of these with your classes.

QUESTIONS

1) How should we speak 16th notes whenreading the rhythm cards? 
2) How do you count incomplete measures? (Does the firstmeasure, though incomplete, count as measure one? 
3) One teacher found that specialeducation/inclusion classes seem to learn songs with repetitive patterns, like Duerme Pronto, more easily than other songs. Have you found any evidence of this? 
4) What would you find most useful forfuture teacher training sessions?

STORIES FROM THE FIELD

*For a special activity, a school spent a lot of time discussing the differences between Bach's Musette and Beethoven's Ode to Joy and learning about the lives of the composers. The children then wrote formal letters to Bach and Beethoven (included here) about their music and other semi-related topics. One child wrote: "Dear Herr Bach, I really, really like the Ode to Joy because it'sreally an interesting song and it's very nice and I wish I could see you and shake hands and we could take a picture. And we could have a vacation (in)Germany and have so much fun that our laughing was hurting our stomachs and we will never forget each other. Your friend, Soon Ho Sim." Another wrote:"Dear Herr Beethoven, I wish you was alive and I could answer my question, I will be so happy and I could see you and I will be so so happy. I wonder how it feels to be in the sky and I love your songs too, so much."

 

*Oneof the kids told us he plays his father's piano and described how he plays fromright hand finger 1 to 5 and left hand finger 1 to 5. It's really exciting tohear that kids are thinking about music at home and reviewing what they know.

*A mother told us she heard her son singing one of the songs he learned in classin the bathroom at home. She got very excited because her son is diagnosed as autistic. She still can't believe it! He's having trouble learning to speak but he can play the keyboard.

*One teacher has a good trick for getting children to pay attention when they'redistracted. In a very soft voice she sys, "I know the secret to being smart.(long pause) First you need to look at the person whose talking, (pause) second you need to listen to what is being said, (significant pause) third you need to think about what is being said." Wanting to be smart, the children listen very carefully afterward.

*Question:"What is the staff?" Child's answer: "It's the lines that hold the notes. Some have lines through them and some are in the spaces. Middle C bought his own line."

*Erin on why the rhythm was easy for Pop Goes the Weasel: "Because you don't have to keep remembering a new rhythm."

*A child's answer to how she gave a successful performance: "I sang the numbers in my head, that's how I did it so good!"

*A fun game for recognizing note names: "Kiddy Keyboard" 10 children getthe red and yellow note name cards and the rest of the class has to put them inorder. (F-G-A-B-C-C-D-E-F-G) Then you can play the song on the big kiddy keyboard by singing the letter name and having the appropriate child bend their knees to represent their note being played.

*In a Jingle Bells lesson: The teacher asked "Why are these 4's?" and the child answered "because they're all in the same hole."

*While singing the song Head and Shoulders a child suggested using the colors 'pinkand blue' instead of 'head and shoulders', another chose 'boys and girls'pointing to a boy or girl at the appropriate moment. One child though 'friends and bread' would be a good alternative. (Friends and bread baby one-two-three�?)

*An abandoned doll was discovered outside the music room in one school, so theclass took the doll in. The kindergartners decided to name him Johann SebastianLegato without any help or suggestion from the teacher.

*A teacher wrote: At one point in class I had referred to the middle C as Mister C. I had a little boy come up to me and tell me excitedly, "I know why you called him Mr. Middle C. It's because he has a mustache in the middle of his face!"

*What a great idea! A school's PTA put a notice in their Newsletter saying that anyone who has electric keyboards or pianos they don't want should please call the school so they can be donated to the keyboard children who don't have pianos at home.

*In one school a class was beginning a lesson on Andante Grazioso bylistening to the recording. A child called out, "Aw, that's white people music." The teacher stopped the lesson and made a point of expressing, very seriously, that all music is for everybody.

*During a Sorida lesson a girl said, "When we play the keyboards, it's like the piano is singing the song." Another girl, when asked how she knew the finger numbers for the first and third lines were the same, motioned the hand gestures learned in class in the circle of "So-ri-da" with her arms. How cool!