Newsletters

Music and the Brain Newsletter No. 2 – April 2001

Concerts

Earlier this Spring, Joe Lowenbraun, the music teacher at P.S. 120 put together a highly successful concert of keyboarding ensembles with his kindergarten, firstand second graders! Groups of 7 or 8 children played selections such as"Andante Grazioso" in beautiful unison to an enthusiastic audience!

Paul Madden and Maria Schwab of P.S. 150 are planning not only two days of general music concerts where keyboarding with be featured, but also a third day withall the keyboarding classes participating.

A number of teachers are planning open houses for the end of the year. In the past, some schools have arranged one or two days where parents can come during their child's class to watch them perform. Parents need to be informed of their child's schedule, but otherwise, it is an easy way to highlight the achievements of your keyboarding classes and get parents involved.

Please inform the office of any concerts or open houses you have planned. We wouldlove to come or send visitors!

Exciting News for P.S. 87

P.S.87 in Middle Village has been chosen to participate in Gordon Shaw's special math program that combines math and music. Principal Arlynn Brody regarding the new addition: "Next year Dr. Shaw's program will bring another dimension to our "magically musical" school."

Music and the Brain Moves to Paris

We are pleased to announce the addition of three bilingual Montessori schools in Paris to the Music and the Brain community! Deborah Nomani of P.S. 130 will begetting things underway next fall!

Visitors Come to Observe Keyboarding Classes

We are also sending people around to observe your classes in action. Our observers are not there to criticize in a negative way, but to learn from you and pass ideas from one school to another. As a third party, they will also be able to objectively identify things that can be improved. We are always striving to be better! Also, when a third adult is present it should give one of the other two a chance to sit back and watch from a new (and free) viewpoint. Some of you have had the pleasure of treating this extra musician as a sort of guest performer (Liza Gibbs has offered to visit with her English horn ready to play)and I encourage all teachers to take advantage.

Music and the Brain Makes a Video

I wrote last month that we will be putting together a short video of Music and the Brain "In Action" and would like to film the classes of 3-5 of our teachers. It would be great to include everyone but logistically and financially that is impossible. Wherever we film, letters of permission from the school and from parents will be necessary. I hope that you will facilitate getting those letters signed and returned - it's the one obstacle for which wereally need your help. More information on this will follow soon.

Music and the Brain Receives Dana Grant

In the last newsletter, we asked for suggestions for teacher training workshops. The Dana Grant that we have recently received is specifically for funding teacher training. Please tell us you ideas for helpful of interesting training sessions. By request of one of our interns, we are already planning a session with Shaw and Rauscher to learn about the scientific studies that lead to the creation of Music and the Brain.

Help Contribute to Music and the Brain

Many of your will recognize comments made by your students or ideas that you have suggested for overall improvement of the program. We are VERY grateful to those who have been writing regularly with comments and want to encourage others to start. (Obviously, not all observations get into the Newsletter, but they are still most appreciated.)

This month, in addition to general comments, we are asking for your observations and questions regarding the new Teacher's Handbook for Book One. The revised version is scheduled to be reproduced this summer, so any ideas on how it can be improved or added to would be very useful. Some of you have already been intouch by mail or email and your comments are extremely helpful.

Book 1 and 2/ Handbook Suggestions and Criticisms:

This section is devoted to your informed suggestions and criticisms of Book 1 and 2and the teacher's handbook. Your observations and ideas are integral to the success of this program. We need to know what works and doesn't work from a practical, day-to-day standpoint.

Here are some great suggestions we've already received:

>One teacher thought it would be useful to have a few songs in a row with"F#" and "B flat" to solidify the avant-garde concept of sharps and flats.

>Another teacher wanted to add Holiday songs at appropriate times during the year.

>It was suggested that rhythms be made more difficult in Book 2, like writing adotted rhythm for "Ode to Joy" when it returns again.

>To challenge more advanced students, one teacher added longer classical pieces tothe curriculum.

"DuermePronto in D" was criticized for introducing too many difficult concepts atthe same time.

General Questions:

1)How do you teach the letter names of notes?

2)Do you have your classes memorizekeyboard songs? Do you think it's a good idea?

3)What is your experience with havingchildren perform for their peers? For an audience?

4)One intern found that the tripletsin "Amazing Grace" are easy for the children to sing, but hard for them to play correctly. Have you had a similar experience?

 

Observations From the Field:

One teacher wrote words to go with the "Can-Can" in book two. They are:

"Watch ladies dancing,

Skirts are waving

Legs are kicking high

From side to side

From side to side so now let's... (Repeat)"

Having words to go with the notes of the song really helped the kids to get into thesong.

A boy made about six pages of a musical drawing with all sorts of rhythms, ties and sharps in pink crayon. When his teacher pointed to a sharp on his drawing and asked what it was, he said proudly, "That's a shark!"

When teaching "Andante Grazioso," many teachers have found that the dotted quarter eighth quarter half-note quarter is difficult to bring across. One teacher found that when she said "ta-ee" for the dotted quarter, and slid her voice up from the "ta" to the "ee" and then went on to "ti ta," that the kids got a better feel for the pattern. They also enjoyed the somewhat silly sound of the voice sliding up and down.

An intern was reviewing "da capo al fine" with her class when a boy said, "I know that! You start at the beginning and play to the end, then you go back to the beginning and play until you get to Phoenix!"

A fun activity using the Velcro board can be to compose songs. You can use notes that the children have learned (if you are teaching letter names), or just let them place notes on the board and see how it sounds. It can be a great "math" lesson as well. Do measures in different time signatures, and have the class figure out how many more beats can go in each measure. Some schools even had the classes go on to write words to sing to the melodies they wrote.

Remember the game from the last newsletter where three cards are made for each note (forexample: a whole note, a number 4 for the beats, a picture of a complete pie).The cards are then passed out and the children have to find the others with related cards. One school tried it and it was a big hit!

Children in several schools have noticed that the ties they learned in "When the Saints" appear in their next song, "Andante Grazioso." (Or so they think) This can lead to discussions of slurs versus ties, how they look different, and what they tell the player to do.

When listening to the recording of "Largo," several children commentedthat it sounded like "Titanic."

A principal exclaimed, "My (school's) parents couldn't be more thrilled with the Keyboarding! The Leadership Team takes all the visitors to watchthem!"

Rather than simply telling the class who "William Tell" was, one teacher made it a project to go home and find out!

One teacher with a particularly restless class got them sitting quietly, and had them listen to the silence for a minute. They then had a discussion of what they heard in the quiet time. This really helped in getting them settled down.

When having a class discussion about Mozart one boy exclaimed "Yeah! Today we're going to talk about WOLFMAN!!"

Suggested words for the Brahms Lullaby:

Lullaby and goodnight,

Go to sleep little baby.

Close your eyes now,

Close your eyes.

Snug and warm in your bed.