Week 6

Title: Oats and Beans and Barley Grow

Performer: School Children

Culture: English

Orchestration: Voice with movement

I found this video a couple of weeks ago and just love it. I have always taught Oats and Beans and Barley Grow to my older students with recorders and with my instrumental students, but I never knew the whole song and I had no idea there was movement to go with this classic song. I love teaching songs with my little ones that I can then use in a different way when they are older and I think this one will be added this year. My little ones love to learn songs that have a game to go along with them and I think that this "game" goes right along with role play and socialization. At least for my little ones the socialization of this song is wonderful. The leader in the middle as to choose a partner quickly or the song does't work and then continue to choose different partners each time. My students have a difficult time when playing this type of game because they are always looking for their friends and then slow down the game. I think this would be a great beginning of the year ice breaker because if really does force the students to meet many children. Plus they are acting out the role of the farmer which with the types of items the farmer is planting my students would need an explanation of what they are (I teach inner city elementary students) so I like how they act that part out in the song. I'm not sure how I would end the game though. There would always be students that don't get chosen for the center ring, and I know my students would have difficulty not being in the middle which does help teach how both parts of the circle are equally important to the game. I was thinking that the one student left would be the leader in the next game, but that does;t really work because there would always be more than one student left. Oh how hard in is to please everyone so no one feels like they are left out. 

Week 5

Title: Sansa Kroma

Performer: School Children

Culture: Ghana, Africa

Orchestration: Voice and cup



I have taken many classes on music from Ghana and depending on the year I do a lot with african music. There are a number of wonderful children's game songs that I do with my students. This song is Sansa Kroma, I'm not sure of the meaning, but it is a wonderful song for rock passing. This version is done with cups, but you can use anything really. I use hacky sacks because they don't hurt fingers and they make a nice sound when passing, but really I found them my first year teaching and they came in a 4  pack from the party store and were cheap…so I bought 30! When reading Cambell's chapter on creating music I had a difficult time wrapping my brain around some of the ideas, because they seem more geared toward older kids and I teach the little ones. The lesson on ostinatos is something I do every year and I love doing with rock passing games. My students love passing rocks and when asked to come up with their own ostinato to accompany the song they are always willing to try. So thus this is a staple in my classroom. I feel they are getting the cultural aspect of the music along with learning ostinano and then they are creating witch as we all know can be difficult to get the kids to do sometimes.

Week 4

Title: Morris Dancing

Performer: group of englishmen

Culture: English

Orchestration: Accordion, male voice, bells, sticks

When reading Koops article on authenticity the article reminded me of a lesson I did about 4-5 years ago. At the beginning of the school year during those hated staff development days the music department got together and one of the teachers had taken a bunch of neat classes over the summer at a local university and she shared the highlights with the department. One of the activities she shared was Morris dancing. She explained what she had learned from the course and gave us handouts from the course and then she taught us the lessons she had learned from the class. Granted she did say that the instructor substituted the actual use of sticks with plastic lighting tubes from home depot. Then she taught us the dance and gave suggested music to do this dance with. I thought this was awesome and right up my ally. I teach inner city kids and this was a great active way to learn about another culture. So I really wanted to do the lesson but the tubes/sticks were going to cost me around $120 for all my kids, and my school wouldn't pay for that. So I was at Walmart in September and found pool noodles ON SALE, so I got 30 pool noodles for $15…note: I love a good deal!! So I went and planned out the lessons based on all the info I had received. Well I started teaching the lessons and then I got a smartboard in my room and I thought this would be a great opportunity to show the kids actual Morris Dancing. I found a video just like the one I posted here. When I saw the dances online I was mortified, what I had been teaching was nothing like the video. I ended up doing my own research and finding that what I was teaching wasn't necessarily completely wrong but not really right either. I found out that the pool noodles were a great choice for me, because I can't tell you how many times I got hit in the head and real sticks would have hurt! On the other hand they were so not the right tool for this dance. The tubing that was suggested also was not good for this style dance. The sticks add rhythm to the dance and play a roll in the music. Also, the music that was suggested was not traditional English music. I ended up teaching the rest of the lesson, because I didn't want to quit in the middle. 

So to get back to authenticity…I agree that it is important to give our students as much of the real thing as possible. I wouldn't have taught the lesson the way I did if I had realized how much the instructor had changed it. Though, my kids did learn about meter and a little about Morris dancing and it was a great team building activity which my students really need. So even though the authenticity of the dance was compromised I still feel it was a good lesson. But, was if my fault because the information was tainted before I got it? As teachers one of the best ways to learn about other cultures and music is through workshops and classes. Learning hands-on, at least for me, is the easiest way to learn about music from other cultures to bring back to the classroom and we all do it. I feel that what we teach needs to be as authentic as possible for the age group. Sometimes I feel things need to be modified so I can bring it to the classroom and other times I feel its not worth doing because too much needs to be modified. I think as educators we have to use our best judgement (thats why we have degrees in music) when modifying a piece of music or dance. But, I also feel that its better to modify a little then to never bring it in. I want my students to be exposed to as much as possible, but unless I go to a specific country and study the music of that culture first hand(which we have already discussed in this class) we get our information passed from one teacher to another. Sometimes its very authentic and other times its not. 

Gahu Drumming Packet

I have posted the Gahu drumming packet in the discussion board for this class if people would like to check it out. I would have posted it here, but it is a pdf and I couldn't figure out how to post a pdf on this blog.

Week 3

1. Title: Agbekor-Traditional African Dance
2. Performer(s): People of Volta Region, Ghana
3. Culture or Origin: Ewe people of Ghana
4. Orchestration: 
   1) gankogui: two tone iron bell
   2) axatse: African gourd shaker
   3) sogo: low-pitched accompaniment drum
   4) kidi: medium-pitched accompaniment drum
   5) kagan: high-pitched accompaniment drum
   6) Voice
   
   
   5. So I choose this week to us the Agbekor war dance. I know Agbeker is a more serious style of African drumming from Ghana, but I will admit I do not know much about the dancing. With Agbekor music, just like Gahu, each drum has a specific rhythm that it plays. The cool thing about the different rhythms is the the player can improvise on the rhythm, which is really what makes the music interesting. If you notice in the video all the instruments start off with a specific rhythm in you watch the sogo(biggest drum) that performer starts improvising on his rhythm, but always goes back to the original rhythm. The rhythms are specific to Agbekor drumming as opposed to Gahu or any other style of African drumming. In African drumming the musical structure separates the different style of drumming.

Week 2

1. Title: What Makes you Beautiful by One Direction
2. Performer(s): Piano Guys
3. Culture or Origin: British Pop music
4. Orchestration: Piano and Voice
5. I immediately thought of the Piano Guys when I was reading the chapter in Thinking Musically this week on instrument classification. According to the Sachs-Hornbostel system for instrument classification the piano would be thought of as a zither-type chordophone. Watching the Piano Guys play the piano and seeing them use it as a drum and plucking and bowing the strings makes me think of the classification system. I understand that the system does take into account all the different ways an instrument can be played, but does it really? Would this use of the piano change the classification? Would it also be considered a membranophone because of how its being played? I understand why the piano is considered a chordophone, and agree. Though I don't think the piano is looked at in this way when categorized. 

Week 1: Musics of the World

   

1. Title: Gahu-Traditional African Dance
2. Performer(s): KORYE Dance Theater in Cape Coast, Ghana
3. Culture or Origin: Ewe people of Ghana
4. Orchestration: 
   1) gankogui: two tone iron bell
   2) axatse: African gourd shaker
   3) boba: lead/master drum
   4) sogo: low-pitched accompaniment drum
   5) kidi: medium-pitched accompaniment drum
   6) kagan: high-pitched accompaniment drum 
5. I took an African drumming class last summer that focused on the Ewe people of Ghana. Gahu is one style of music that is performed by the Ewe people and is based on a traditional style of Ewe music but with a much faster tempo and was described to me as "party" music. I feel Gahu is a great example of how "people make music meaningful and useful in their lives." (Wade, 2013, p. 1). The Ewe people took traditional music of their people and "modernized" it to fit their more current needs. They took the music that is "meaningful" to there culture and made it fun and useful for them now. I think this is the case with most music and why people study world music to see how music has evolved in other cultures not just the one they know best.

Reference

Wade, B.  (2013). Thinking Musically:  Experiencing Music, Expressing Culture (3^rd ed.).  New York, New York: Oxford University Press.