For this spring semester, I am interning at the Josiah Quincy Upper School as a saxophone coach to 3 eighth grade students. Generally, I come into teach Kyle at 2 pm and then spend the next hour with Valencia and Jack together. To some MIE Concentration students at NEC, private instrumental lessons may seem like a no-brainer – just explain to them what you already know so expertly well (one on one). Having very little experience with teaching beginner level students, I had no idea what to expect. I had even suggested taking on a whole classroom of 25 before agreeing to start out with the 3 students I have at present.

In terms of documentation, I have audio recorded, transcribed, and analyzed some of the contents from one of my lessons below. Listening back, I realized how hard it was for me to articulate basic musical/instrumental concepts. There is one instance where I tell Kyle the wrong fingering to a note, spend some time wondering why that note won’t sound, and finally have to take the instrument into my own hands in order to find out that I had given him the wrong information. It is difficult going back to the fundamentals of music, concepts and principles that are almost mechanically ingrained within the memory. Preparing lesson plans for this semester’s internship, I had not taken into account how basic these kids’ understanding of music actually was. And the dilemma I’m faced with now is whether I am even equipped to teach younger kids, or whether I am more apt teaching at a college level. Is it worth it for me to spend the extra time reviewing major and minor scales, when my plan for teaching originally involved conceptual approaches and advanced techniques for improvisation? I just don’t know if I have the patience or the talent to a pursue a career in teaching children, although these three months have certainly taught me a lot about my own learning and development. In spite of my experience and background, I fumble over my words in explaining the simplest of ideas, such as syncopation. Slowly, I am figuring out more efficient/effective methods for teaching, but I must emphasize slowly. Progress is grim, but the students are very patient, they smile, and are eager to learn. For now, I am comforted with the fact that as long as I am not inhibiting their development, I can only help.
With Kyle, after reading over the music he plays with the 8th grade band, I ask him to play and transpose certain scales by ear: C, G, F major and blue scales. I sing while he is to hear and figure out the particular intervals of the scale on his instrument. We still have to review fingerings, so the process goes by a little slow. After reviewing the sounds of C and G blue and major scales, I show him the form of the blues. With quarter notes, we walk a basic blues progression, just hitting roots. I have him play it without the paper, and then eventually ask him to improvise using the scales we just “learned”. He seems to be a natural, and I get enjoyment from just listening to him play and repeat ideas that make sense. In addition to working on tone and reading, I basically am having him learn more scales by ear for now, using them to improvise as the end goal.
With Valencia and Jack, it is somewhat harder, especially since I’m dealing with them as a group as opposed to one on one. We spend a lot more time on reading the music they play during band. I try to get them to play in tune with slightly better results. When reading, I always get my metronome out and make sure their rhythm is together. When rhythms are off, I find it difficult to explain why, and can only demonstrate, which isn’t very effective in getting them to understand (this is what I’m referring to in my having a hard time explaining syncopation and subdivision). So far, outside of the band material, I’ve brought in etude and duet books, demonstrating the sounds of classical saxophone and vibrato. I have also brought in a Louis Armstrong solo book and had them play out of that as well. I am searching for new ideas and better ways to keep them stimulated and will continue to bring in new material. I also need to play for them some recordings of saxophonists and improvisers relevant to the topics being worked on.
– Incomplete transcription of audio excerpts from two lessons:
Um….maybe we can try…..I don’t know…you know the Blue and major scales with C….maybe some other scales? We can try those over the same thing (walking the blues).
-Yeah
- Making limitations, but your just kind of improvising over those scales basically, and then I brought a book of Lester Young solos and we could maybe play them.
- I just got this reed because my other one cracked inside, but it feels weird.
- Oh really. I’ve got these ones still.
-Thanks! (Plays the blues scale after putting on the reed)
- (Later) Allright… Can you sing that—basically what you just played?
- Sing it?
- Yeah.
- Probably not.
- (I sing it, he hums along. We work at it for a while) Yeah. I mean…I don’t want go through the intervals or how to form the scale in order to transpose it…like…so…transposing just means if you’re going the next key or whatever, you want to play it in C, I’d rather you hear, rather than just, “Oh there’s a minor third, and then a whole step, and then a half step”. That’s…it shouldn’t work that way. So…you just heard it and were able to sing it with G, maybe we can try to sing it with C.

Earlier this year I began my “Classroom Cantatas” teaching internship with Boston’s own Cantata Singers. http://www.cantatasingers.org/ Cantata Singers Teaching Artists hold semester-long residencies at local public schools where, aided by teaching interns from New England Conservatory of Music (NEC) and other local colleges, they provide an exciting introduction to singing and composing.  Over the course of a Cantata Singers residency, students will compose, memorize, rehearse, and perform their very own cantata.

At Ellis Mendell Elementary School in Roxbury, MA, where my internship takes place, the theme of our cantata is “Mexican Culture.”  For the past two months I have been working as Co-Group-Leader with fellow NEC student Soo-Kyung Chung to assist our small group of four 2nd-graders in setting our poem, “La víbora de la mar” (“The Serpent of the Sea”), to music.  Meanwhile, three other small groups have been working on setting their poems to music.  Next week, we will all begin teaching our new songs to the rest of the class.

For a peek into what we do in a “Classroom Cantatas” teaching internship, here are a few pictures and two short videos of me with my small group:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/25588505@N04/sets/72157626312373546/

More to come when we start rehearsing our cantata!

Sojourner Hodges (NEC, M.M. in Composition, anticipated 2011)

Editor’s Note: This post is the fourteenth in a series by MIE guided intern Devin Ulibarri. Devin is a first year graduate student of Eliot Fisk. His internship at the Wang YMCA is supported both by the MIE department and NEC Prep’s Community Engagement program. Read others in the series here.

Both Janea and Jason have put in good work and displayed performances the reflect their progress!

Editor’s Note: This post is the fourteenth in a series by MIE guided intern Devin Ulibarri. Devin is a first year graduate student of Eliot Fisk. His internship at the Wang YMCA is supported both by the MIE department and NEC Prep’s Community Engagement program. Read others in the series here.

“Real learning is a volitional act…”– Eric Booth
Journal for Learning Through Music/Summer 2003

Jason was the first one to learn ‘My First Rock Song’ during one of the weeks that Janea was away (she learned it the following week). I think that the lead in to this piece was a very good example of what Eric Booth is talking about when he says that “learning is a volitional act.” The lesson that day was very spontaneous. Jason asked many questions and I answered them with improvised, musical answers. For example, he mentioned how the thumb seems to attack more comfortable when it is the lower strings and when the motion is opposite to that of the other fingers. This was a very astute observation in itself and I was taken aback by his making it. Then, I decided to keep the momentum going by taking it one step further. I asked myself, “why not learn about the thumb now? He is asking good questions, what can I do with the thumb and open strings?”

So together we played a blues progression in A major, using the open bass strings, E, A and D. He did very well following along and asked, “Is this ‘My First Rock Song?’ I replied that it wasn’t and that we had just made it up together, then he asked me if we could learn ‘My First Rock Song’ today. Again, I decided to go with the momentum that Jason was providing and we learned ‘My First Rock Song’ together. The following week we reviewed and showed Janea how to play and sing the piece.

Editor’s Note: This post is the first in a series by MIE guided interns Soo Kyung Chung and Sojourner Hodges, graduate students participating in an internship with the Cantata Singers, an NEC Community Engagement Partner. See the rest of the posts in the series here.

My name is Soo Kyung Chung, a 1^st year Master’s student in Music Theory, so what am I doing at the Mendell School with 2^nd grade kids?

I am helping with a creative program called “The Cantata Singers” that encougages kids to compose and perform.

What a great idea that kids can compose!  While mostly we learn music by singing or playing an instrument, kids in “ The Cantata Singers”  discover music not only by singing but also composing.

Although we only meet for about one hour, the program is rich. The first part is to learn singing.  In this program, kids approach music through very general terms.  For example, students learn how the melody is shaped. By using one hand, the kids designed the rising or falling lines of melody. I think that following the melody with finger movement is a good method to figure out the shape of melody. The kids could understand that melody could be conjoint(stepwise) or disjoint(leap) and ascending or descending.

The kids also learn about the dynamic of how soft or loud music can be created. The depth of between two hands indicated the loudness. If an instructor shows a large depth by spreading her hands apart vertically, the kids respond with the loud sound [u]. When she puts her hands together to show a shorter depth, the kids respond with a softer sound. In this way, the 2^nd graders learn about dynamics in a way that is fun, simple and very visual.

The  second part is to participate in a small group where kids compose with a group leader. We have four small groups. Every group has a different topic about the Mexican culture. I work with Sojourner, a 2^nd semester’s composition at NEC as one of group learders.  The compositional style is totally free. Kids can emphasize any words that they like by melody or rhythm.  If one student initiates the idea, the other kids can finish it. Or if one makes an ascending melody at the end of the phrase, and the other wants descending melody, we can make a melody by combining each phrase consecutively.  One of the leader’s  jobs is to catch what kids want by singing back to them because often  young students  are not good at pitch so it is hard to understand.  We also write down what they are singing, and show music score what they did the previous week. They are so  happy to see their achivements.

At the end of each session, each group shares what they have done. We listen to each group’s song, and learn some melodies.  Each group has such different styles of music that I am always surprised.

Last week, we made a song over the course of  5-6 sessions. All of the 2^nd graders will learn group’s song, and perform them for other students at the Mendell School. Later, on May 6^th, the Mendell students will join with another group participating in the “ The Cantata Singers” program, at a local elementary school. I invite you to come listen to these great young musicians.

Editor’s Note: This post is the twelfth in a series by MIE guided intern Devin Ulibarri. Devin is a first year graduate student of Eliot Fisk. His internship at the Wang YMCA is supported both by the MIE department and NEC Prep’s Community Engagement program. Read others in the series here.

Janea always asks very good questions. Today’s big question was, “why do you play with your fingers?” The simplest answer is that you can’t do what I do with a pick. I hope that my demonstration speaks for itself.

As for strumming – I think that is cool too and there are definitely sounds a pick can make that fingers can’t, but I think that there is a lot more benefit to be had from starting with finger-style, especially in the early stages since the possibilities are almost limitless.

Editor’s Note: This post is the eleventh in a series by MIE guided intern Devin Ulibarri. Devin is a first year graduate student of Eliot Fisk. His internship at the Wang YMCA is supported both by the MIE department and NEC Prep’s Community Engagement program. Read others in the series here.

What’s up with “The Ninja?” The kids have some good guesses, but the thumb in the left hand is the ninja because it hides. This is an easy and fun way to learn a technique that will help Jason and Janea play with their fingers and produce simultaneous lines. The thumb must be behind the fretboard in order to support and allow the other fingers flexibility. I then take it one step further by challenging them to move up and down the fretboard.