Teaching Notes, 20120614

Today was the last class for this school year, and I decided to make it pretty much a relaxing class, without asking the students to do too much. Similar to past years, I'm writing this several weeks after the class actually took place,

Spring Sing Video	Watch video
Once I had the students' attention, we watched a video recording of the spring sing, which amounted to about 9 minutes of video. While watching, the students chatted, laughed, and still sang along. It was fun to watch them watch themselves. There were times when I pointed out something interesting (especially during the split parts of Do Re Mi), but for the most part I let the students enjoy the moment.
Piano Keys and Scale Theory	Go over the piano keys and step spacing in a scale
I never really spent much time talking about the piano and its keys, even though there always were some students asking about it, and so I decided to just do a quick intro of the keys. Using a 8.5 x 11 sheet with a scale's worth of piano keys printed, I talked about the keys, both white and black, on the keyboard. I played a C scale and quickly noted that I was playing only the white keys. I then played the black keys, and then a chromatic scale. Next, I talked about steps, and how in most cases two consecutive white keys were whole steps, and if there was a black key in between then the white-to-black step was a half step. However, I then clarified that actually one key to the next closest key, whatever that might be, was always a half step, which meant than a C scale using all white keys also included a few white steps. I then had the students chart out the step pattern for a major scale: whole, whole, half, whole, whole, whole, half. That, I offered the students, was the required patten for any minor scale. I then played them the A (natural) minor, also using only the white keys, and then that yielded a different pattern: whole, half, whole whole, half, whole whole. I then told them that just altering the positions of the half steps could really make a big difference in how a scale sounds.
Rainforest Chant (2nd class)	Revisit chant, record/td>
I tried to do the Rainforest chant-and-record exercise that I did with the first class, but this time, I practiced beforehand working with Audacity so that I didn't find myself fumbling with the controls during the middle of class. This time around, it was a little more successful, with students being convinced that they were hearing patterns that were different from the sung pattern, even if the students couldn't concretely describe the difference.
Yesh Tanu Laish (1st class)	Teach dance outside/td>
Similar to the previous week, I had the students of the 1st class try the dance outside of the music room. They actually did pretty well, even though I tried teaching the class with all of the students from the very beginning. I think we went through the song 3 different times, this time using a faster recording each subsequent time. Despite past grumblings during the year about dancing, the students seemed quite eager to try out this dance.
Sing A Song	Teach, have a few students sing a solo/td>
Every year that I've taught, I ended the year with Sing A Song. I had written out most of the lyrics that weren't echoed on the board, and so I simply taught by asking the class to echo me. When we got to the parts that didn't require an echo, we echoed them anyway the first time through, but subsequent times, I simply gestured and slowed down the song for everyone to sing. When the students were comfortable with the song, I invited three students to come up and sing the 2nd to last line ("Don't worry…") as a solo - which they did splendidly. To my surprise, few students knew this song.

This year was a successful year. These students hadn't had any significant regular music class, and I hope that they came away with a bit of a foundation to build from in later years. We touched on the math/theory parts of music as well, which I hope helps them as they grow as students. And, if anything, if the students every so often find the occasion to sing a song every once in a while, then I'd feel comfortable thinking that they were inspired by what they experienced during the year. See you in a few weeks.