Evan S Teaching Music to Children (Week 3)

I had a very busy week 3 at Ruffing!

Last Wednesday was their spring concert. Monday and Tuesday were devoted to rehearsing everything on the stage in the gymnasium. I was there to help make sure things ran smoothly and also to accompany three choir pieces on the piano. I played for one fourth grade piece, "I Bought Me a Cat," one fifth and sixth grade piece, "How Can I Keep from Singing" (which coincidentally is going to be sung at our graduation this year), and one middle school, German piece whose name escapes me. It was something like "Heindenroslein," but it's not that important.

Oh yay! I just got a call about a callback for a summer show I auditioned for! Anyway, back to the blog...

The day concert for the rest of the school went well, as did the evening concert for the parents. After the evening concert, something happened to me that made my whole project completely worthwhile. I left the school and went to my car which was parked on a side street. I was just sitting and browsing through my iPod when all of a sudden a woman tapped on my window. I rolled it down, and she began by saying "thank you." I was just silent as I didn't know what to say, and then she introduced herself as a parent of a fourth grader who's in the chorus. She told me that she thought what I'm doing - working with the students and sharing what I know about music - is great. Her son, who's very much into music, had told her about my project. For almost the whole time she spoke to me, I couldn't really say anything but "thank you" and the like because I was so touched. It made me so happy! Definitely one of the highlights of my project.

Thursday was luckily a more relaxing day during which the gym was put back in order and the music room was restored to its original state with all of its instruments in their places.

On Friday, I worked with the younger grades, kindergarten through third graders, in a variety of activites. In most of the classes we played games as a celebration of the almost-end-of-the-year. I was able to lead some warming up exercises and even teach some dances to classes. The highlight of this day was what happened in the afternoon. One class made up of first through third graders performed "The Tale of Peter Rabbit" for the kindergartners. There were also a couple special adult visitors...Anyway, one of the music teachers, Jennie, read the story of Peter Rabbit from the storybook, pausing every so often to allow for a song to be played while the children acted out the story. I had the job of running (or hopping, get it? ha...not really) around the room to make sure all of the children who were supposed to be playing actually were playing and playing the right notes on the Orff instruments (xylophones). It was a blast. I've learned from this activity specifically, having done it a few times now, that all I can do is tell the students what to play even if it's not perfect. I just have to smile and encourage them, otherwise their spirits are lowered. It was a fun week.