Educating the Masses
So Friday I was able to teach 3rd-4th graders and K-1rst graders in the classroom setting for the first time, and really the first time I've ever taught both those age groups. It was a really good experience for me. I just had the time of my life teaching them. Granted teaching brass instruments to elementary school is a lot easier than other subjects.
There were a couple of things that made it a lot easier. First off, after following my schedule as much as possible, by the time Friday rolled around, the lack of sleep finally got to me, so I was pretty slaphappy. You know how it's usually a late night slaphappy, nope, 10 in the morning. We were doing our final teaching for MUS 360 and since we're technically being kids for these, so I acted the part. Everything went downhill from there. At least by the time I got to where I had to teach, I was pretty much on the level of the kids, and I guarantee they could easily relate.
So anyway, onto the lesson. I was able to set up everything before the class enters, so I kept all the instruments in their cases. I started off reviewing all the different types of instruments and the differences between each. They learned that the week before from their actual teacher. I also discussed where you would hear the instruments at with them. They had a pretty good idea. I then showed them a rubber tube, and asked if this is an instrument, then series of questions to help them think through the process of how to make a sound on the instrument. It did take quite some effort for before one finally recognized that vibration was needed to make a sound. I used several visuals from strings to show that and get the idea of sound. They didn't get the buzzing concept though until I told them. Then I showed the defining factor of what a brass instrument is, the mouthpiece, and placed that on my rubber tube to make a brass instrument. Then I showed a picture of a brass instrument, and asked them to name what else is missing from my 'instrument'. Surprisingly, one of them said valves. I couldn't believe they got that one. Although I didn't have a way to add valves to my instrument. I just showed them that it was the bell. I explained what the bell was for and then added a funnel on the other end. You know, that's a fun instrument to play with. With as much flexibility as you have, you can turn it ever which way and so eventually I spun the instrument while I was playing it. They had a fun time listening to that.
The next section was getting them to do it themselves and understanding the idea of making a sound on a brass instrument. So I had different sizes of PBC pipe smoothed down so the kids could buzz on them and experiment. I also showed the concept of short versus long by adding and taking away lengths of PBC pipes to get higher and lower pitches. So I got them all experimenting with the instruments and making sounds, one kid in particular was really good and had a nice strong buzz. So I got them to repeat after me for a little bit. Then we finally get to the instruments. I took out the trombone first as it's the most visual one to see the changes of pitch. So afterwards I could relate it to the valves, which they picked up on rather quickly. So after explaining it, I played When the Saints for them, they enjoyed that. The next was trumpet. They already knew this one fairly well and knew that taps and things were played on it. So I played taps and a couple of versions of it for them. Next was French horn. I played the theme from Superman for them. I really wanted to do the theme from Harry Potter. In my head it works exceptionally well on French horn, but the only versions I could find on CD were electronic keyboards that had a similar sound to French horn, if even that. French horn was by far my weakest performance. I couldn't get a mouthpiece until the day before, so I didn't have a chance to redevelop some French horn chops. The next I showed was euphonium. That was one they weren't familiar with at all, and had trouble remembering the name. I played "My Old Kentucky Home" for them. The only popular euphonium lick is Mars, and that isn't very characteristic of a euphonium. Then I finally broke out the tuba. This is the instrument I actually ended up played the ride on, although I did it with music in it's proper key of B major. Ugly, but it worked rather nicely.
I then played a CD of different movie themes and had them tell me the instruments being used. They did really well at that. Much better than I expected. I played 2001, Indiana Jones, Superman, and maybe a couple of others.
It was amazing. For an entire hour, I held the attention of these kids without a hitch. They really wanted to be involved, and some a little too much involved, but it was great.
With the K and 1rst graders I didn't have as long because of a school assembly, so I only had time to show and tell with the brass instruments and nothing else. Only with them I took requests on all the brass instruments and played the dragon solo on tuba for them. The dragon solo is a Wagner excerpt where basically a dragon wakes up, scares the people, then goes back to sleep, so while I played it, I had the kids act it out and be sleeping dragons, wake up and scare people, then fall back asleep. They absolutely loved it, so much they wanted to do it again, but they had an assembly to go to. All in all, a really good experience for me. The kids wanted me to come back and teach more. So I guess that's a good sign I'm doing something right. It was a great way to end the day, that's for sure.
There were a couple of things that made it a lot easier. First off, after following my schedule as much as possible, by the time Friday rolled around, the lack of sleep finally got to me, so I was pretty slaphappy. You know how it's usually a late night slaphappy, nope, 10 in the morning. We were doing our final teaching for MUS 360 and since we're technically being kids for these, so I acted the part. Everything went downhill from there. At least by the time I got to where I had to teach, I was pretty much on the level of the kids, and I guarantee they could easily relate.
So anyway, onto the lesson. I was able to set up everything before the class enters, so I kept all the instruments in their cases. I started off reviewing all the different types of instruments and the differences between each. They learned that the week before from their actual teacher. I also discussed where you would hear the instruments at with them. They had a pretty good idea. I then showed them a rubber tube, and asked if this is an instrument, then series of questions to help them think through the process of how to make a sound on the instrument. It did take quite some effort for before one finally recognized that vibration was needed to make a sound. I used several visuals from strings to show that and get the idea of sound. They didn't get the buzzing concept though until I told them. Then I showed the defining factor of what a brass instrument is, the mouthpiece, and placed that on my rubber tube to make a brass instrument. Then I showed a picture of a brass instrument, and asked them to name what else is missing from my 'instrument'. Surprisingly, one of them said valves. I couldn't believe they got that one. Although I didn't have a way to add valves to my instrument. I just showed them that it was the bell. I explained what the bell was for and then added a funnel on the other end. You know, that's a fun instrument to play with. With as much flexibility as you have, you can turn it ever which way and so eventually I spun the instrument while I was playing it. They had a fun time listening to that.
The next section was getting them to do it themselves and understanding the idea of making a sound on a brass instrument. So I had different sizes of PBC pipe smoothed down so the kids could buzz on them and experiment. I also showed the concept of short versus long by adding and taking away lengths of PBC pipes to get higher and lower pitches. So I got them all experimenting with the instruments and making sounds, one kid in particular was really good and had a nice strong buzz. So I got them to repeat after me for a little bit. Then we finally get to the instruments. I took out the trombone first as it's the most visual one to see the changes of pitch. So afterwards I could relate it to the valves, which they picked up on rather quickly. So after explaining it, I played When the Saints for them, they enjoyed that. The next was trumpet. They already knew this one fairly well and knew that taps and things were played on it. So I played taps and a couple of versions of it for them. Next was French horn. I played the theme from Superman for them. I really wanted to do the theme from Harry Potter. In my head it works exceptionally well on French horn, but the only versions I could find on CD were electronic keyboards that had a similar sound to French horn, if even that. French horn was by far my weakest performance. I couldn't get a mouthpiece until the day before, so I didn't have a chance to redevelop some French horn chops. The next I showed was euphonium. That was one they weren't familiar with at all, and had trouble remembering the name. I played "My Old Kentucky Home" for them. The only popular euphonium lick is Mars, and that isn't very characteristic of a euphonium. Then I finally broke out the tuba. This is the instrument I actually ended up played the ride on, although I did it with music in it's proper key of B major. Ugly, but it worked rather nicely.
I then played a CD of different movie themes and had them tell me the instruments being used. They did really well at that. Much better than I expected. I played 2001, Indiana Jones, Superman, and maybe a couple of others.
It was amazing. For an entire hour, I held the attention of these kids without a hitch. They really wanted to be involved, and some a little too much involved, but it was great.
With the K and 1rst graders I didn't have as long because of a school assembly, so I only had time to show and tell with the brass instruments and nothing else. Only with them I took requests on all the brass instruments and played the dragon solo on tuba for them. The dragon solo is a Wagner excerpt where basically a dragon wakes up, scares the people, then goes back to sleep, so while I played it, I had the kids act it out and be sleeping dragons, wake up and scare people, then fall back asleep. They absolutely loved it, so much they wanted to do it again, but they had an assembly to go to. All in all, a really good experience for me. The kids wanted me to come back and teach more. So I guess that's a good sign I'm doing something right. It was a great way to end the day, that's for sure.
posted by Trueblat at 9:58 AM
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