Listening to students in Choir makes me want to sing — sometimes just because it's difficult not to sing along, and sometimes with the desire to correct them by example. My mind is a whirlwind of ways to tell/explain/show them what to do to improve, but it's almost always not the right moment to jump in and do so.
The Theory kids learned what music is today! I think they had half as much fun as I did coming up with definitions of music and then listening to me play exceptions. They also called me "crazy" and "weird" a lot...even before I told them that the recording of 4'33" was of my own performance. It's a good thing I'm used to that — thanks, friends!
Without going into any portions of my socratic dialogue with the students, I would love to hear from readers which of the following selections does not qualify as music. You earn extra points if you give a reason why.
Musical examples I played today:
1. Sagaba - Blue Scholars (iTunes)
2. Resource (from Koyaanisqatsi - Philip Glass) (iTunes)
3. Pretty - Katie Makkai (YouTube (full version))
4. Phel-den La-mo - Guyoto Monks (iTunes (the group, not the specific song))
5. An alarm clock
6. 4'33" (John Cage) - Myself and pianist Mrs. D (not my co-op)
7. A sample from the CD that accompanies our workbook
Music i had prepared but didn't have the time or need to play:
1. Three Quarter-Tone Pieces: II Allegro (Charles Ives) - Cheryl Seltzer and Joel Sachs (iTunes)
2. Poème Électronique - Edgard Varèse (iTunes)
3. Toxic (Dennis, Jonback, Karlsson, and Winnberg) - Britney Spears (iTunes)
4. The "Empire Today" jingle
5. A Gamelan piece (YouTube)
6. A Joik sung by a Sami (YouTube)
7. Gregorian Mass for Christmas Day, Introit, Puer natus est nobis
We were cursed by out-of-tune guitars in GM today. We spent a good portion of the first class letting them practice as we wandered around to tune everyone's guitars by ear. That wasn't good enough, our ears were still miserable every time more than one guitar tried strumming the same chord. We then spent a significant portion of the second class tuning every guitar by the piano. Now we're about 80% satisfied. It's bearable.
A GM student said "I saw Mr. Inman on Saturday! With a girl!" Mrs. D said to me in front of the class, "You have no private life anymore." Yes, as my friend and I were getting pizza 45 minutes away from where I teach, I was being pointed out to a father. I need to start dressing nicer on weekends.
There's this junky old bicycle that has been painted orange and sitting in the choir room all year. We stuffed it into a small connected room and have been tripping over it all the time. It turns out this was an item found by the marching band percussion section, who then painted it and left it in their summer practice room (the choir room). Mrs. D joked this morning that we should get rid of it. Near the end of the day Mr. H, the band director, walked in for something and I said, "Oh, hi! I have something for you," walked into that room and returned with the bike. I handed it to him with a grin and he begrudgingly took it and walked out, mumbling something about his percussion section. The look on Mrs. D's face was a priceless expression of shock, and this event had us laughing for the rest of the day. I have a feeling she'll be telling that story for a long time.
I can't believe I got away with that.
Showing posts with label varèse. Show all posts
Showing posts with label varèse. Show all posts
Monday, September 13, 2010
Thursday, September 9, 2010
9/9
Whoah.
Today we began listening to the HS choristers, in pairs, so that we may determine their proper voice parts. Mrs. D doesn't usually do this, but we are because of me (and my desire to learn from hearing them on their own). Well...the few pairs we got to listen to this morning were an experience, indeed. The first pair couldn't stop laughing and one of the two wouldn't sing "My Country 'tis of Thee" because he doesn't like it, so he sang a holiday ditty instead. The next pair had one girl I could barely hear and another who could only accurately sing about 4 pitches. Be glad you didn't hear her rendition of "My Country". Perhaps I'm being too mean, but the timidity and anxiety and excuses and distractions that they all have or find are extremely frustrating. I like a lot of them, and all of their voices (so far) truly have potential, but when they can't or won't sing in the octave that you ask them to, what will it mean to be in the right section at all? I'm actually still optimistic about the group, but this has given Mrs. D infinite ammo against me. We laugh about it a lot.
The selection I played for Theory today led to a discussion of whether or not the piece is really "music". That means it's time for the "What is music?" lesson/discussion. That shall be tomorrow. I'm excited.
Poème Électronique - Edgard Varèse (iTunes)
Managing the GM classes was fairly successful today. I'm getting to know pretty well at this point which students are most easily distracted by gossip with friends or by shamelessly begging for attention.
However, I did make one mammoth mistake in the 3rd (and wildest) class: To briefly review some note-naming on the board, I drew the note F. They identified it and I wrote the letter beneath the staff. Then I asked a student where to go from there, upward, and he mentioned the first ledger line, so I drew an A and, once named, added the letter below. Ah, but I couldn't move on without making sure they knew that the G is in between those notes, so I wrote it and they named it. Then I added the letter below the staff, confidently and cluelessly spelling "FAG". I caught myself right away and said, "Oh, that's not going to happen" and erased the G, but it was too late -- the class erupted in laughter. There wasn't a chance I was going to get them to settle down, so I pointed out, "Well, there's no way you're going to forget those note names now" and had them begin group studying for a quiz.
That's not all, folks. With no classes remaining and Mrs. D going to the HS for her after-school choir auditions, I settled down to grade today's quizzes. Soon, Mrs. D returned and told me that her car would not start. I offered a jump, Mrs. D called the HS to cancel auditions, and we went out to our cars. Quite fortunately, the jump worked, and just as I was putting away the cable, out of the school walks my college supervisor, here to meet with us together for the first time. We thought that he was going to arrive earlier if at all, but here he was. The rest of the day went into this meeting, and I'll be grading quizzes this weekend.
Today we began listening to the HS choristers, in pairs, so that we may determine their proper voice parts. Mrs. D doesn't usually do this, but we are because of me (and my desire to learn from hearing them on their own). Well...the few pairs we got to listen to this morning were an experience, indeed. The first pair couldn't stop laughing and one of the two wouldn't sing "My Country 'tis of Thee" because he doesn't like it, so he sang a holiday ditty instead. The next pair had one girl I could barely hear and another who could only accurately sing about 4 pitches. Be glad you didn't hear her rendition of "My Country". Perhaps I'm being too mean, but the timidity and anxiety and excuses and distractions that they all have or find are extremely frustrating. I like a lot of them, and all of their voices (so far) truly have potential, but when they can't or won't sing in the octave that you ask them to, what will it mean to be in the right section at all? I'm actually still optimistic about the group, but this has given Mrs. D infinite ammo against me. We laugh about it a lot.
The selection I played for Theory today led to a discussion of whether or not the piece is really "music". That means it's time for the "What is music?" lesson/discussion. That shall be tomorrow. I'm excited.
Poème Électronique - Edgard Varèse (iTunes)
Managing the GM classes was fairly successful today. I'm getting to know pretty well at this point which students are most easily distracted by gossip with friends or by shamelessly begging for attention.
However, I did make one mammoth mistake in the 3rd (and wildest) class: To briefly review some note-naming on the board, I drew the note F. They identified it and I wrote the letter beneath the staff. Then I asked a student where to go from there, upward, and he mentioned the first ledger line, so I drew an A and, once named, added the letter below. Ah, but I couldn't move on without making sure they knew that the G is in between those notes, so I wrote it and they named it. Then I added the letter below the staff, confidently and cluelessly spelling "FAG". I caught myself right away and said, "Oh, that's not going to happen" and erased the G, but it was too late -- the class erupted in laughter. There wasn't a chance I was going to get them to settle down, so I pointed out, "Well, there's no way you're going to forget those note names now" and had them begin group studying for a quiz.
That's not all, folks. With no classes remaining and Mrs. D going to the HS for her after-school choir auditions, I settled down to grade today's quizzes. Soon, Mrs. D returned and told me that her car would not start. I offered a jump, Mrs. D called the HS to cancel auditions, and we went out to our cars. Quite fortunately, the jump worked, and just as I was putting away the cable, out of the school walks my college supervisor, here to meet with us together for the first time. We thought that he was going to arrive earlier if at all, but here he was. The rest of the day went into this meeting, and I'll be grading quizzes this weekend.
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