Newsletters

Music and the Brain Newsletter No. 11 – April 2003

It is finally Spring! We've had a long, hard winter in terms of world affairs and weather, but your classrooms have been alive with wonderful ideas! So many good things have beenhappening that it is impossible to put them all in one letter. I hope you enjoy the ideas of your colleagues. Let them spark your imagination.

Quotes of the Month from the classrooms of Robin and Paul:

One, usually very quiet, girl at Midtown West was clapping a whole note when she burst out with the observation, "It looks like someone carrying a big bag of garbage across the ocean."

During a lesson on "Brahms Lullaby", a boy at PS 150 asked, "What are the numbers under Brahms's name? If it's his phone number, I want to call himup and tell him I love his music!"

The Headlines

Babatunde Olatunji, the Master drummer from Nigeria, died on Sunday, April 6, 2003. He is responsible for popularizing African drumming outside of that continent. His song, Akiwowo, is known and loved around the world and, certainly, by all the Music and the Brain students and teachers.

Evaluation Tool: We have been looking at new ways of evaluating the program, teachers and students, and are in the process of designing a matrix to be distributed to everyone, with the goal of finding ways to improve what we all do. The interns that have been visiting your schools are providing some ideas for this evaluation but we need more and would greatly appreciate your input. A brief questionnaire will besent to you to be filled in and returned.

A great example of the Music and the Brain information exchange: A boy at PS 163 explained very politely to Coralie that he understood we have to study classical music like Bach and Mozart, but he thinks it's a shame we don't study more modern music like the Beatles. When this story was relayed to Sharon Golub at PS 11 she thought about what Beatles song might work well for MATB and suggested "Yellow Submarine". 

Incorporating lessons of respect, self esteem, equality and empathy into music class is an important part of many MATB teachers' lessons. The idea of the ensemble is a great analogy for social harmony. Everyone needs to listen to one another. Each part is integral to the whole. There is a steady beat that needs to be respected in order to keep the group together. Art has always been a forum forself-expression, so it seems only right that teachers spend some time looking below the surface of the music we study. Music is full of emotion, love, political unrest, social inequality, protest against war, celebration, cries for help and spirituality.

ESL kids are performing wonderfully! Many MATB teachers have classes that are just beginning to learn English. Teachers inadvertently confuse their own lack of fluency in another language with the children's understanding and abilities. It may seemas though concepts are not getting across the language divide, but don't worry, they are! From an outsider's perspective, the ESL classes are right up there with the rest, if not surpassing them. Our interns have been impressed with how much can be expressed and learned without words. Having multi-lingual classes creates a great opportunity to discuss language and have bilingual children translate for others. During a lesson on "Duerme Pronto" one child was extremely proud to explain what the Spanish words meant to the rest of theclass.

Get the Homeroom Teachers Involved! Many of you make a habit of performing for homeroom teachers and keeping them up to date on what happens in the music room. This is a great way to help the children feel special about what they accomplish in music! It may also inspire the homeroom teacher to include music in everyday activities.

Time on the rug and time at the keyboards. Understanding musical concepts and using the correct vocabulary is wonderful, but the children are not receiving the full benefit ofthe program unless they get consistent time to play the keyboards. Children need unstructured practice time to figure things out for themselves and build the basic motor skills of playing. After time alone, individual attention from a teacher is important to reinforce ideas, offer praise for a job well done orhelp with difficulties.

Balance time between practicing and performing: Performing builds self-esteem, instills good listening skills in the "audience" and is a good way for teachers to check theprogress of individual students. Some teachers make performing part of their daily routine. Others make performances a special occasion. Performing ingroups is also a great way build listening skills and reinforce the concept of"steady beat". Be careful that performing not take precedence overpractice time. If children are constantly performing during practice time, it may be difficult for other children to concentrate. It also takes away from the idea of the performer and audience. Listening to someone play perfectly whatone is struggling to master may also be discouraging. Practice time and performance time should be separate.

Music homework! Everyother subject assigns homework, why not music? Homework is a good way toreinforce concepts and include parents in the activities of the music room.  Theory sheets, coloring musical instruments, bringing in a favorite song formusical "Show and Tell" or practicing songs on a paper keyboard arejust a few things children could easily do on their own.

Introduce more complex rhythm cards to beginners: Please do not spend the entire year just working on the 4/4, 2/4 and 3/4 rhythm cards. Introduce 6/8 and triplets and even 16th notes.  Krista PS 149 made a big deal in one class about using 6/8 rhythm cards for the first time. The class felt really special and rose to the challenge. Even beginners can master difficult rhythms. Don't worry about surpassing the rhythmic difficulty of the keyboard songs. Your classes will only be more prepared when the rhythms show up in their songs.

Games:

Musical Jeopardy from Vermel Rhodes: What has 5 lines and 4 spaces? What plays thered numbers? What goes on the top staff? Etc.

Rhythmic Telephone: Sharon Golub has a game for concentration, remembering rhythmsand keeping a steady beat. The class sits with their backs in a circle. Shetaps a rhythm on the back of one the child and it is then passed, from back to back, around the whole circle. Though the rhythm that comes back around is rarely the same, the kids love trying.

Rhythm Card Game used by Peter Kaufmann and Sharon Golub:

1. Select several rhythm cards appropriate to the lesson or level of the class and laythem on the floor in from of the class. (Circle or rows, as long as thechildren can see clearly.)

2. The teacher chooses a rhythm beats it on a rhythm instrument or claps it. (Using an instrument makes the game more challenging and fun.)

3.Children raise their hands to select the correct card from the middle of the circle.

4. Once chosen the child must select the right card without stepping on any other card.

5. If the child is correct, he or she holds the card up for the whole class to clap and takes the winning card back to his or her spot in the circle.

Tone Block Hide and Seek as played by Vermel Rhodes at PS 46: One child faces the corner of the room with another child as the bodyguard to keep them from peeking. The teacher hides a tone block somewhere in the room. The child then has to find the block using the teacher's piano playing. High notes mean"hot" and low notes mean "cold".

Cool Musical Tools: Call Music In Motion(877) 646-3262 for a catalogue

-Build a Measure Cards: These cards are sized to illustrate the duration of thenote they represent allowing students to build measures like fitting puzzles together.

-Stair step tone blocks: These blocks allow a teacher to show melody in a new way.

-Small chalk boards with music staves on them

Great Ideas from MATB Classrooms

Paul Madden at PS 150 had one of his classes divide 4/4 rhythm cards in half. One child named and clapped the first two beats and another child named and clapped the second two beats. After recognizing the beats they were responsible for, they clapped in rhythm, one after another. This is a good exercise for listening, playing as an ensemble with another person, reading rhythms and feeling asteady beat.  It's also good for reinforcing what kind of notes or groups of notes equal one beat.

Maria Schwab's lesson on "My Mama's Callin Me" turned into a whole unit on African American music and musicians. During a discussion of call and response songs and spirituals, she asked her 2nd grade TAG class if they would like to learn more of these kinds of songs. They did, so Maria intends to introduce morespirituals soon. The discussion was also a good segue into Black History Month, so each student is going to do a small research project about a Black-American jazz musician. The children also decided to create poems on the letters of each musician's name for the bulletin board. Maria was amazed that so much material was inspired by one short song and lesson.

Vermel Rhodes at PS 46 had a nice way of introducing rules for the keyboard room. She began talking about why we have rules at all, using road rules as an example. "Rules protect and help us." She then asked her class what rules they should have for the music room. Some answers were, "Be peaceful to the piano." And "Treat them nicely."

Michelle Turner at PS 36x used a frog puppet for her lesson on "Frog Jumps Down". She began by teaching the class a song called "The Little Green Frog" letting the frog hop around on her shoulders and lap etc. She then put numbers 1-5 on the board and showed the frog hopping around them, from 1 to 3 and 3 to 5. It was a great way to illustrate skips. Looking at the music poster, Michelle described each note as a lily pond. "How many lily ponds are there?" "Only 2!" Using props and getting into the"froginess" of this song is a great way to inspire the children to want to play it.  It also makes the concepts learned more memorable.

Irene Mc Byrne-Pepe has a great tool for helping her classes read music while they are playing. While at the keyboards, she has them follow their music with a finger while she plays the song. Then she asks them questions relating to the printed music like, "Find the middle C in measure 4." Then she glances around to make sure everyone's finger is in the right place. I noticed immediate results with one class. The children practiced the song of the day once as a group and many were lost within a few measures. Then they followed the music with their fingers while Irene played and tried again as a group. The children were much more successful the second time through. They knew where tolook to not get lost.

List of "tri" words: triangle, triceratops, tricycle, tripod, triplet,

Sharon Golub at PS 11 has a habit of incorporating other songs onto the MATB curriculum. Depending on the holiday of the moment, a specific lesson on Blues or in relation to an MATB song, her classes are always singing. I noticed that Sharon's classes tend to sing in tune more successfully than other schools.  Pretty amazing! Because all music is built of the same elements, any song can be a topic for discussion. What instruments are playing? Is it fast or slow? Do we have to sing high notes or low notes? Is it jazz or rock? Does it sound like any song you play on the keyboard?

Eileen Calder at PS 81 has some very special students! Her school just began the MATB program this year and spent many months without enough keyboards. For a while they had one keyboard and then only four. After doing a normal lesson in the rug area, she divided each class into four groups. Each group would form a line behind their prescribed keyboard and take turns practicing the songs.  Eileen used a bell to indicate when the next child was to have his or her turn.  Amazingly, this method worked smoothly! It also created a great cooperative dynamic among the students. Now that PS 81 has a full keyboard lab, there are only one or two children to a keyboard, but they still help each in a wonderful way. Pretty regularly, I'll see one child place another child's hand in the correct spot on the keyboard and then begin pointing to the music to help the player's eyes find the right notes.

Making copies of theory papers is a problem at some schools. Music teachers aren't necessarily allowed to use the copy machine and end up spending money from their own pockets. Maria Schwab at PS 150 had some great ideas about raising funds for this endeavor. She suggested having a "Piano Sponsorship Day". Students get people to sponsor them for the number of songs they learn and play. (Maybe 50 cents for each song.) They would collect the money at the end of a specified "playing day". A benefit concert with suggested donations is another idea. She also has had success asking classroom teachers to make copies of their class' music papers.

Joan Schwartz at PS 24 sometimes uses a recording of the "Hand Jive" as a warm-up in the beginning of class. An intern reported that it was interesting to watch the different levels of coordination and sense of rhythm. Dancing, and movement in general, is a great way to reinforce rhythm.

In order to keep children's fingers on the ends of the white keys, intern KirstyGuster suggested that the black key area was the forest (black keys are thetrees) and the white area that grass. She asked the children to play on the grass because it's much safer.

RobinCasey at Midtown West explains dotted quarter notes by saying, "Ta with a dot makes a longer note than just plain 'ta'. A 'tee' is added to it. That's why we say 'ta-ee'."

Krista Wozniak at PS 149 had a great idea for how to express the phrase markings in "Andante Grazioso". She had the class make up words to the song, only breathing between phrases. (Based on Robin's ideas the rhythm for this song would be ta-ee ti ta.)

James Ross at PS 163 had a good idea for explaining rhythmic subdivision when the single eighth notes cropped up in a song. He began by drawing a whole note in the board. Beneath it he drew two half notes, four quarter notes and eight eighth notes. He then had children choose one of each of the four rhythms. Each child had to clap their individual rhythm while the others clapped theirs. It was great to hear how the different rhythms fit together. The class then performed the multi-rhythm exercise for their classroom teacher. She was so inspired by them that she began dancing Flamenco to their music!

One of our interns, Kirsty Guster, observed: "Nicole Becker is not afraid to allow the children some "free" time to absorb ideas, interact with the music or just listen. I am sure that many piano/keyboard teachers (I am prime example,) shy away from free, unstructured time, even in small doses.  While there is no doubt that other classroom environments may not be as conducive to this sort of freedom, I am starting to see that this balance notonly helps children achieve more focus when needed, but also makes complete sense in terms of providing a rounded musical education."

Robin Casey's pneumonic device for remembering 'B' in the left hand: "Baby 'B'bouncing his bottom on the bass clef."

By discussing different kinds of voices; talking, whispering, screaming and finally singing, the children at PS 11 were able to produce a lovely singingsound.

Penny Prince at PS 37 had a great idea for explaining musical form. She used children's clothing as an analogy. For ABA form, she chose a child wearing awhite shirt, black pants and white shoes. She also pretended to be a chef preparing a peanut butter and jelly sandwich to illustrate ABA. (Bread, filling, bread.)

Kevin Hill at PS 209 did a cool exercise where he conducted the children clapping. They followed his direction to get softer or louder, faster and slower. He then had children take turns conducting with the recording of "Ode to Joy"in preparation for the lesson.

At Midtown West, Robin Casey did a high level lesson on "Kalinka" with asecond grade class. After discussing sharps and flats and figuring out the note names and new hand position, Robin had the children play just the bass line while she played the melody. She focused on the accerando. The children did very well and got involved in playing together with her. Afterward, the class spent time finding flat 3 and practicing the top line alone.

"Why do we have two clefs?" "Because we have two hands."

Nicole Becker at Hunter Elementary wanted her students to understand and feel the difference between 6/8 and 3/4 time. She drew a row of eight notes in different groupings with the appropriate accents. (1-2-3 4-5-6 and 1-2 3-4 5-6.) The children were able to move between the two feelings easily. Nicole then played examples of 3/4 and 6/8 on the piano and had the children guess which waswhich. Most of the children could tell the difference. Then she played"America" from West Side Story that mixes the two meters and had the children identify when the meter changed. This is a great, high-level lesson that the children were able to master.

Robin Casey at Midtown West makes a habit of getting the finger numbers, note names and lines and spaces to make one cohesive picture in the minds of the children.  The right hand becomes the staff - fingers are lines in between are spaces.  She often begins class with review questions like, "What will we get if we arpeggio up?" ("C-E-G"), "Where are you if you step up from Dummy D?" ("Easy E"), "What if you skip up?" ("Number 4 or F") These take high level visualizing and help to think about music spatially.

PS11, Sharon Golub had a great idea for a Valentine's Day lesson. She made a drawing of a heart with the Grand Staff inside and on top it said, "Love Notes". She had the children fill in all the notes for right and left handand musical symbols like bass and treble clef, time signature etc. They also had to write who their love notes were for.

From the Mouths of Babes

In a class of drama kings and queens at PS 36, one girl looked sad and said she was having trouble with the fingerings. She said, "I am an ok pianist, but I will never be a great artist!"

A boy's memory was sparked at PS 163 during a solfege lesson. Some children remembered the syllables from "Do a Dear" which led this boy toobserve, "'The Sound of Music' is like 'Mary Poppins' exceptdifferent." Julie Andrews plays a nanny in both, after all.

During a lesson that involved appropriate performance behavior, children were taking turns playing "Kuma San" for the class. Joan Schwartz was having the children introduce themselves and the song they would be playing. After they finished, they were to bow to the audience. One boy must have missed some information along the way because he introduced himself and said, "I like to play with my brother."

One of our interns was describing the staff as a ladder. (I think this is an idea from Robin Casey.) The children loved the idea that lazy E stopped on the first rung and G said, "Move out of the way!" and climbed to the second rung.The treble clef wrapped her self around the G line because it was so comfortable, that's why we call her "G clef". One girl got really into it and told the intern that C was afraid to climb the ladder, so she's just sitting on her stool in front of it.