Music in the Classroom

Hello readers!

My name is Keenan Federico and I have been working alongside Cathy Hoang, teaching music to Central Elementary school students every Wednesday since the beginning of September 2011. I have been paired up with Cathy because of my previous experience playing music; during my late teens I played bass in a touring musical act titled, Lights Below. Although my music skills are not traditional by any means, Cathy and I have effectively excited the children’s interest in music through interactions with my own personal guitar and bass as well with the use of more traditional instruments such as the glockenspiel and the bongo drums.

As you may or may not know, this is the first year that music has been offered at Central Elementary, and I must say that the kids are naturals! Children of all age groups are participating and becoming engaged with the musical experience. The younger students are focusing on movement based activities, such as acting out the way that a sound makes them feel. The younger grades are also training their ears to decipher what instruments are being played and what “mood” do the instruments set. The older grades are very much enjoying the action based music listening activities where they follow along to music and act out scenes and scenarios. Although the majority of these students have not participated in a music class before, all of them are picking it up flawlessly and very little recap is needed to remind them of the activities. Also, many students walk in to class requesting to do activities they partook in the week prior; suggesting that music class is something they look forward to experiencing!

All grades are learning memorization and rhythm patterns as well. Cathy has been assessing their skills in this department and there have been some interesting results. Some children are obviously more inclined than others to participate, however most are showing very promising qualities. Singing, pitch-matching, and rhythm keeping are all skills that these students are learning and they seem to personally want to get better at, and they seem to show imporvements every class.

In the near future, a dance instructor will be incorporated into music class and teach the children how to “get there groove on”. Although I will not be there to see this first-hand, I know that the children will enjoy this (they love interacting with the music).

If parents of children from Central Elementary would like to speak with me personally regarding the music program, I would love to chat (kfederic@sfu.ca).

Thanks for taking the time to read the blog.

Keenan.

Enjoy the great Oliver Sacks as he attempts to understand why some people cannot decipher music at all, while other respond to even the slightest nuance.