I will start with Temple Prep because that was my biggest triumph of the week. I am firmly entrenched in my goal to have the students sightread the concert in the spring. The director of the program told me that some of the students feel a little uncomfortable about the idea of sightreading the concert. But, I think that discomfort is a good thing. It means I am pushing them to leave their comfort zones and stretch a little. I hope that I can always keep them a little uncomfortable. Though, I do know that I need to balance the discomfort with success. Goals should be rigorous, but not unattainable. This week, we did our first real sightreading. I must say that it wasn't a total disaster. Rhythm still seems to be the major tripping point. But, I think the work I am doing with the students in my Musicianship class is really helping with the rhythm. In musicianship, I approached rhythm from a different angle than I have in the past and it seemed to work really well. I started with this rhythm:
I asked the students to clap the rhythm. I counted them off and... disaster! Not to fear, though. We hadn't counted or subdivided it yet. (Side note: I am pushing for "subdivode" to be the new past tense of the verb subdivide). So, I asked the students how many eighth notes take up the same space as each of the notes in the rhythm. Why eighth notes, you ask? Because that is the smallest note value present in the rhythm, of course! And we ended up with something that looks like this:
So, I asked the students to just say that series of numbers without pausing between each one. "1 2 1 1 2 1 1 2." Then, I asked them to clap everytime they said "1." Wouldn't you know it: subdividing worked and they could clap the rhythm together as a class, and pretty accurately as well. Bam! "But," I asked the students, "why do you think we might want to use standard counts instead of 1s and 2s?" (Standard counts being 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 +). Well, because while the 1s and 2s give us the subdivision, the standard counts also give us location and help us stay together when doing it as a group. So, we substituted the 1s and 2s for standard counts and we ended up with this:
Guess who can count rhythms and clap them without much error? That's right my Temple Prep kids!
*Patent pending!
*Buy my book. Pre-orders accepted now, no delivery date guaranteed in the near future.
Statistics still makes me want to jump off a building. That is all on the subject.
I read an article this week about President Obama's plan to start taxing tax-free college saving accounts on the grounds that the people using those accounts aren't really the target audience for them; that rich people are using them as tax shelters. My question is: why does saving for your children's college education have to be class-specific? Can't we just say that education is important and saving for it is something America values, regardless of the saver's tax bracket? I always feel like, when I read an article on education and politics, that education is being used as a pawn or a smoke screen for some larger political initiative. But, let me set your fear aside and say that the article noted that the plan to start taxing these accounts was abandoned and college savings are still safe for the time being. But, how can we really be mad at a guy who, if we are to believe the Super Bowl pregame show, brews his own beer in the white house?
Speaking of the Super Bowl: Gaaaaahhh! Why does the league keep letting the dirty, cheating Patriots play the game, let alone win championships? On the bright side, how about the pregame commentary by none other than Coach John Harbaugh? Gotta love it when Ravens get some national attention!
Well, that is all for now.
Until next week, Future Doctor Mitch, out!
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