Question:   What do Batman, Green Onions, Funky People, and The “A” Train all have in common?

Answer:   They are all multi-part musical arrangements that students are learning to play together on steel pans,
marimbas, drums, keyboards, and percussion.

Our music program is somewhat unique.   We incorporate playing real arrangements on real instruments for all students. 
This is unusual for a general music program.  We have a long-standing and highly productive relationship with our Artist-in-Residence, Jah Breeze.  
We have four performing ensembles, with at least two more to come.

Our broad goals reflect national and state standards:

1. Sing alone and with others, using a varied repertoire of music

2. Perform on instruments, alone and with others, a varied repertoire of music

3. Improvise melodies, variations and accompaniments

4. Compose and arrange music within specified guidelines

5. Read and produce musical notation

6. Listen to, analyze, and describe music

7. Evaluate music and music performances

8. Understand the relationship between music, the other arts, and disciplines outside the arts

9. Understand music in relation to history and culture

This year there will be mandatory state assessments for all 5th and 8th graders in The Arts.   Our students will be more than ready.   
Many of them have poise, confidence and skills beyond their years.

Students enter into music via a "folk" process:  listening, moving, singing, exposure to instruments, playing parts within an ensemble, sharing, exploring,
improvising, and performing.  We proceed with a multi-cultural emphasis:  starting with African and Caribbean traditions, we incorporate other "world music"
as we progress, especially American roots music:  folk, blues, jazz, R & B.

Students start with singing and African drums as their primary "voices". They learn a beginning set of songs, and basic musical skills such as pulse, tempo,
pattern, melody, dynamics, expression, ensemble cooperation, and performance.  Steel pans and marimba are introduced early on to provide experience
and skills in melody, voicing, lead playing,  back-up playing, "counterpoint", and basic notation.

Within any given class, there is a range of skills and experiences that students bring.   Music instruction is necessarily “differentiated”. 
There is always a part for each and every student to play. This is a philosophical linchpin of the program.  From there, skills grow in complexity, and
students help and teach each other.  Students practice and learn during class time, during after school clubs, and many come in during their
unch times to work on material.

We currently have four performing groups:   Girls Power Pans Group, 6th Grade Jazz Ensemble, Afterschool Little Drummers, and Rhythm and Blues Group.   
We will be adding a second girls group and a boys group focusing on African American Musicology. 

These groups spring out of the classroom-based general music program.   Ideally, each class functions as its own “small orchestra”.
Currently, we have 6 sets of functional chromatic (with all sharps and flats) instruments.

We need to find creative ways to acquire more instruments to meet the needs of the performing groups and the “small orchestras”.   
Finding this funding will be a central priority for this year.   We’ll be brainstorming ideas this month and next and welcome your ideas!   

Another priority for this year is to have the Jazz Ensemble go on the road to perform in Victoria, Vancouver, Portland, or San Francisco, for example.
Closer to home, we hope to perform at Folklife and other community events in Seattle.   

Many people have already helped us build a successful music program.   I would like to thank the Parent Alliance Group, The New School Foundation,
and special thanks to Ms. Davis, Ms. So, Mr. Oakford, Ms. Bolin, and all our wonderful students and parents.  

To see our music program in action, visit www.teachertube.com.   In the search window, type New School Music.   
The video “New School Music Fall 2008” shows what we worked on the first month of this school year. 

If you would like to get involved with the music program or have fundraising ideas to share,
please contact me at ejones@seattleschools.org

 

Thanks and see you in P1!    Mr. Jones

 

From March 2008 School Beat

 

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