Musicians and Middle Schools (original) (raw)
  Biography UCSD Music Professor George Lewis hosts renowned percussionist Steven Schick in a discussion of creativity, musical and otherwise, and how such skills as improvisation can benefit students in all aspects of life.  Watch it now in RealPlayer |
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USING THE PROGRAM IN THE CLASSROOM
Themes
- Experimentation--playing instruments in alternate ways
- Creativity--finding instruments in everyday life and hearing music in the world around us
- Improvisation--using play as a way to discover new things about instruments, yourself, and the world
- Accessibility--understanding that music is available to anyone
Topics
- The percussion instrument and its importance in music
- The relationship between performer and audience and how one inspires the other
- The origin of percussion dating back to ancient Egypt
- What it takes to be a percussionist including memorization, dexterity, and building muscle-memory through repetition
- The international aspects of percussion
- Rhythm
Discussion Points
- Do you like percussion? If so, what do you like about it?
- What are the ways percussion can make you feel? What kinds of sounds can percussion make?
- What are some percussion sounds that you find in nature?
- Can anyone play percussion?
- How do you feel when you perform in front of an audience? Has the reaction of the audience ever caused you to perform better or worse?
Activities
- Using everyday objects, create your own instruments--don't be limited to percussion. Improvise using your new instruments. Get together in group to create a more complex piece that involves multiple instruments. How do these instruments work together?
- Replicate the "Rain" performance demonstrated in the program or try to create a new setting with sound. For instance, try to recreate the sound of breakfast being prepared in the morning.
- Read a piece of poetry and improvise a percussion piece based on it.
- While one student improvises a percussion piece, other students perform an improvised dance based on the sounds.