Musical Learning with The Three Bears

  By Liz Buchanan | January 14, 2017 - 10:06 pm | , ,
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images

Paul Galdone’s book is a great accompaniment to this musical lesson.

The story of the Three Bears is a fun way to help children learn about high, medium and low pitches. This idea is not original to me (I’ve referenced some lesson plans below), but I found a way to involve students playing different instruments and repeating lines of the story.

The drums, the lowest instrument, are for the Papa Bear. Next comes Mama Bear, represented by tambourines and/or smaller drums. The baby bear is represented by the highest-pitched finger cymbals and bells. I’ve abbreviated the story line slightly so that there’s less talking for the teacher and the kids have the maximum opportunity for playing instruments.

The rhythm is as follows (88 = paired eighths, 4 = quarter, R = quarter rest):  88-4    88-4   4 – 4 – 4  R

Spoken lyrics with the rhythm:

Papa Bear, Papa Bear, Pa-Pa-Bear.

Mama Bear, Mama Bear, Ma-Ma Bear.

Baby Bear, Baby Bear, Ba-by Bear.

Goldilocks is represented by the glockenspiel. She has the same rhythm as above and her melody is:

Mi-So-La, Mi-So-La, La-So-Mi, with the lyrics: Goldilocks, Goldilocks, Gol-di-locks.

The teacher reads or tells the story using the suggested script that follows. Students can be invited to join in the repeating lines. Each part above should be played on the instruments when that character is underlined.

The script

Once upon a time, there were three bears, Papa Bear, Mama Bear and Baby Bear. One day, their breakfast porridge was too hot, so they decided to take a walk and let it cool.

While they were gone, along came a little girl named Goldilocks. She knocked at the door but no one was home, so she thought she’d check out this little house in the woods.

The first thing she saw was the table, laid out with three bowls of porridge. There was a big bowl that belonged to Papa Bear. There was a medium-sized bowl that belonged to Mama Bear. There was a little bowl that belonged to Baby Bear.

Goldilocks tasted each bowl, and the littlest bowl tasted just right, so she ate it all up.

In the next room, she found three chairs. There was a big chair that belonged to Papa Bear. There was a medium-sized chair that belonged to Mama Bear. There was a little chair that belonged to Baby Bear.

Goldilocks tried out the first two chairs but they were too big. The Baby Bear’s chair looked just right! Except – oops! It broke apart when she sat in it!

Then she decided to go upstairs, where she found three beds. There was a big bed that belonged to Papa Bear. There was a medium sized bed that belonged to Mama Bear. There was a little bed that belonged to Baby Bear.

She tried the first two beds but the Baby Bear’s bed was the one that felt just right. She soon fell fast asleep.  I wonder what will happen to Goldilocks.

The three bears soon came home.  They saw their porridge bowls. (Tap instruments on the bold syllables, as indicated in the lines that follow.)

Papa Bear spoke first. Somebody’s been eating my porridge.

Mama Bear spoke next. Somebody’s been eating my porridge.

Then Baby Bear piped up:  Somebody’s been eating my porridge and they ate it all up!!  (Go crazy on the instruments on this last part.)

Next they went to their chairs.  (Repeat similar taps for each line.)

Papa Bear spoke first: Somebody’s been sitting in my chair.

Mama Bear spoke next: Somebody’s been sitting in my chair.

Then Baby Bear piped up:  Somebody’s been sitting in my chair and they broke it to bits!

Finally, they went up the stairs and saw their beds.  (Repeat similar taps for each line.)

Papa Bear spoke first: Somebody’s been sleeping in my bed.

Mama Bear spoke next: Somebody’s been sleeping in my bed.

Then Baby Bear piped up: Somebody’s been sleeping in my bed and here she is!

Goldilocks awoke with a start! She jumped out of bed and out the window!

(Glockenspiels play and voices sing.)

Goldilocks, Goldilocks, run away! (Play and sing several times, getting faster).

Goldilocks ran away and never, ever came back again to the house of the Three Bears.

The end!

I’ve written a full song about the Three Bears. It’s a great way to end this lesson. You can download it and find the lyrics here at Songs for Teaching.  You can hear the song here.

Here are some lesson plans that helped inspire me:

http://www.learnnc.org/lp/pages/3193

http://www.teach-nology.com/lessons/lsn_pln_view_lessons.php?action=view&cat_id=6&lsn_id=21063

Here’s a youtube of the Paul Galdone book, emphasizing high-low pitch differences.  Have fun exploring pitches and instrument sounds!

Seek & Find the Joy in Music!

  By Liz Buchanan | December 26, 2016 - 1:51 pm | ,
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CMN has made a big difference in the work I do in Boston's public schools.

There’s nothing like getting up & singing and dancing!

Seek the joy! It’s one of the guiding principles of the elementary school I helped to found in the summer of 2015. It’s the core principle of my music classroom. Recently, at a pre-holiday gathering, our school staff all wrote shout-outs to each other. I saw “joy” repeatedly in the comments for me, so I know I’m doing the right thing!

Sometimes when I get muddled up in thinking about curriculum and benchmarks and those academic-sounding terms that govern our lives in education, I shake it off by returning to singing, dancing, and storytelling. I summon the joy.

Joy can mean a lot of things. Here are some images of joy in my world:

Joy is when I get out as many instruments as possible and let as many people as possible play them.

Joy is watching the mouths of our students fall open when I bring my friend who plays double-bass to the school and they think it’s a giant violin.

Joy is dancing just to the edge of losing control (and sometimes a little beyond it).

Joy is joining the kindergarteners in trying out the simple circle dance that I just taught them. Then they push me out of the circle saying, “Ms. Buchanan, let us do it ourselves.”

Joy is kids throwing colorful scarves in the air and catching them on various body parts (or not).

Joy is singing, yet again, the song that I think everyone’s sick of, but then someone yells, “That’s my favorite” or “I love this one!”

Joy is when a child is so excited to tell me, “I listened to your CD on the radio!”

Joy is when I bring my fellow children’s singers to the school – one African American and one Latino – and so many children (and teachers) are thrilled to see musicians who look and talk like them.

"Culture Queen" Jessica Smith visited my school in early 2016, bringing joy and cultural understanding.

“Culture Queen” Jessica Smith visited my school in the spring of 2016, bringing joy and cultural understanding.

Joy is telling simple stories and having the kids play instruments for all the characters.

Joy is seeing the kids take over the glockenspiels during play time and use the simple notes that I created to play the songs over and over again.

Joy is the excitement of getting a new xylophone! Purchased on a whim on cyber Monday, it still  wasn’t cheap, but it looks and sounds so beautiful.

Joy is when I hear a first-grade boy sing solo on “This Land is Your Land.” His skin is brown, and it IS his land. His teacher has tears in her eyes.

Whatever else you resolve to do in the New Year, resolve to seek the joy. And find it!

Thoughts on This Surreal Election

  By Liz Buchanan | November 11, 2016 - 4:54 pm |
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Mural from Memphis, near the hotel where Martin Luther King was assassinated.

Mural from Memphis, near the hotel where Martin Luther King was assassinated.

What follows is a brief departure from my usual postings. This year’s election affects everyone of every age, and for the moment, it’s overshadowing my passion for making joyful music with children.

First, I just need to know if there’s a parallel universe where Hillary got elected. If so, how can we go there?

Assuming this isn’t an option, please read on.

Like most of people here in my liberal/progressive bubble, I have a strong personal revulsion toward the President-elect. His looks and voice make my skin crawl. I’m outraged, incensed, and deeply saddened not only that this man repeatedly expressed such bigoted, sexist, hateful attitudes, but that millions of Americans were willing to cast their votes for him. How could they have watched the ad with the images of children watching Trump’s hateful behavior and still think this guy was a remotely acceptable choice? No matter how many explanations I hear about Trump voters’ mindset, I can’t get my head around it.

But I’m not going to stop following the news or get off social media. I wouldn’t even think about leaving the United States. It’s my civic duty as an American to educate myself and advocate for what I believe in, not run away. It’s especially my responsibility as a privileged white person to be an ally to every single one of my friends, colleagues, students and all the people I don’t know who are not white, not straight, not American citizens, and not economically advantaged. They are the most vulnerable to the likely effects of the coming Republican regime.

So as Donald Trump begins his march toward the White House, here are a few ways I hope his feet get held to the fire.

Will the public & the media continue to pressure him to release his tax returns? He said he would release them when the IRS audit is over. It can’t go on forever. It would be useful to examine in detail all the ways Trump admittedly used the system to legally escape paying taxes. Maybe there were illegal ways, too. Let’s hold his feet to the fire.

Trump declared he knows so much about the tax code from his own experiences that he’ll be the most qualified to change it. Does this mean he will propose massive tax reforms that will eliminate loopholes that benefit super-rich people like himself? He excoriated Hillary for failing to do so during her many years of public service.  Now he has his chance. Let’s hold his feet to the fire.

Trump is on record saying that he supports many of the services that Planned Parenthood provides for women’s health.  Since abortions only account for 3 percent of the services provided by Planned Parenthood (not 94% as Republicans in Congress have contended) will Trump resist Congress when they vote to de-fund Planned Parenthood?  Let’s hold his feet to the fire.

According to a Sept. 4 report on Trump’s visit to a black church in Detroit (one of his few events with black voters), Trump said the nation needs “a civil rights agenda of our time,” with better education and good jobs. In typical fashion, he said his economic plans will be “so good for Detroit.”

As a teacher in a school that serves at-risk children, I have a very personal stake in seeing if and how Trump will make good on this promise. It’s so easy to stand at a church or rally and promise everything will be “so good” and everybody will have great jobs and great schools. Actually doing something is one of the most difficult challenges of our time. Let’s hold his feet to the fire.

The current level of economic inequality is mind-blowing, and its effect on our poorest citizens is profound. Trump repeatedly asked African American voters what they had to lose by voting for him. The cynic in me says it was all just demagoguery, and in fact African Americans and all people of color have a tremendous amount to lose. Trump could prove the cynics wrong. Let’s hold his feet to the fire.

I’m impressed by the civility that Democratic officials, including President Obama, Senators Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, and the Clintons themselves, have shown toward Trump since the election. Given what Trump said very loudly before the election about the rigged system and perhaps not conceding if he lost, I doubt he would have been so civil.

In a speech to union members, Warren expressed understanding and empathy for the millions of people who voted for Trump not out of bigotry but “out of frustration and anger – and also out of hope that he would bring change.” She went on to say: “When his goal is to increase the economic security of middle class families, then count me in. I will put aside our differences and I will work with him to accomplish that goal. I offer to work as hard as I can and to pull as many people as I can into this effort.”

Contrast Senator Warren’s sentiments with those of Republicans, most notably Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, who swore in 2009 that his number one goal was not to work with the newly-elected President Obama to counter the effects of the worst economic downturn since the great Depression, but to do all he could to secure Obama’s defeat four years later.

McConnell and his fellow Republicans repeatedly and brazenly repudiated Obama’s initiatives, not just to address economic misery, but to enact policies that had previously enjoyed significant Republican support such as immigration reform. The basic tenets of the Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare) – a system that provides universal healthcare mostly through private companies – originally had strong support from Republicans. Mitt Romney ran away from it in 2012, but it was his signature achievement as Governor of Massachusetts.

Fortunately, like the 1980 election that brought Ronald Reagan to power, Trump’s election will have a galvanizing effect for progressive causes. My December contributions this year will go to organizations that fight bigotry, defend women’s reproductive rights, demand action on climate change, and aim to overturn Citizens United, redraw congressional district lines and end the charade of “voter fraud” measures that disenfranchise people of color.

And while I’m sympathetic to Sen. Warren’s desire to work with President Trump to accomplish his goals, I am a loyal Democrat and will do everything in my power to help elect Democrats in the midterm elections and end Trump’s presidency in 2020, if he doesn’t get driven out of office before that. I’m excited about the Democrats who did win their elections this year, especially the new women in the Senate, and I’m confident that many new, fresh faces of Democratic leadership will arise. The present is heartbreaking, but the future looks far more progressive in many, many ways.

Exploring Musical Opposites: High & Low

  By Liz Buchanan | October 30, 2016 - 1:53 pm | ,
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flowersI’ve been teaching my students in kindergarten and first grade about musical opposites. Right now, we’re especially focused on how pitches can move up and down, high and low. I learned the following finger play from a friend; the author is unknown. I adapted the words to teach more clearly about musical themes.

As you say the rhyme, you can emphasize the changes in pitch by featuring a slide whistle or another instrument, or simply use your own vocal inflection, showing the sounds going from low to high and high to low. Wiggle and Waggle are your two thumbs, moving up and down. “Home” is down by your side.

This finger play can be followed by singing a major scale on “do-re-mi” as student move their hands or bodies up and down with the notes.

The Story of Wiggle and Waggle

This is my friend Waggle and this is my friend Wiggle

They like to walk together and they like to talk and giggle.

And so one morning on a bright sunny day

My friend Waggle goes out on her way

She goes up up up the hill and then goes down.

Up and down all through the town.

She goes up high high high and down low low low

High and low all through the town.

But she can’t find Wiggle no matter where she roams.

So my friend Waggle goes up and down, high and low, back home.

 

And then, the next morning on a bright, sunny day

My friend Wiggle goes out on his way

He goes up up up the hill and then goes down.

Up and down all through the town.

He goes up high high high and down low low low

High and low all through the town.

But he can’t find Waggle no matter where she roams.

So my friend Wiggle goes up and down, high and low, back home.

 

But the next sunny day, Wiggle picks up the phone

And makes a call to Waggle, who’s at home – Hello!

Wiggle says, shall we meet

On the street?

Waggle says, yes, let’s meet

On the street!

 

And together, they go up up up the hill and then go down.

Up and down all through the town.

They go up high high high and down low low low

High and low all through the town.

And then, they say: that was fun, going up and down, high and low.

Let’s do it again tomorrow!

For more up/down and high/low activities, you could also have children sing and move to Nancy Hershatter’s song “Once I Was a Seed,” featured in another post on this blog about learning about sequence and narrative.

Why We Need Music in School – A Response

  By Liz Buchanan | October 8, 2016 - 4:53 pm | ,
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16685614_SSMusic education is good because it helps raise students’ test scores. I recently read an article by teacher and blogger Peter Greene that adamantly contends we should not use this argument to justify music education.

Hmmm. Why not? If test scores go up when music is part of the school curriculum, doesn’t this tell us something important about the power of music?

It seems to me we have a “both-and” situation here. I agree with Greene that we should value music in schools because of music itself. Music is universal, it’s beautiful, it helps us get in touch with our deepest feelings. It’s transcendent, builds community and helps everyone participating feel like a winner. And for many students, it’s one of the highlights of school.

But wait, there’s more! Music also has this incredible effect on the brain. Let’s celebrate that the field of neuroscience has been very busy documenting the beneficial impacts. Bestsellers such as the late neurologist Oliver Sacks’ Musicophilia and neuroscientist Daniel Levitin’s This is Your Brain on Music have brought scientific research on the human experience with music into the popular culture.

Levitin’s book contains elaborate brain diagrams showing that nearly all parts of the brain are utilized in processing musical experiences, not just those related directly to listening and language, but also the memory center in the hippocampus, the timing circuits in the cerebellum, the planning centers in the frontal lobe, and the motor, sensory and visual cortexes.

Sacks noted that these many different parts of the brain often work together when one is making music.  “For the vast majority of students,” Sacks wrote, “music can be every bit as important educationally as reading or writing.”

Shouldn’t the fact that music is good for your brain be one of the main reasons for teaching music in school? Why not make a connection between musical aptitude and many other abilities?

As Harvard’s Howard Gardner explained in his landmark work on multiple intelligences, musical intelligence “should be viewed differently from our other intelligences, because it carries more emotional, spiritual and cultural weight than the other intelligences. While also helping people organize the way they think and work, it helps them develop in other areas, such as math, language, and spatial reasoning.”

I’ve been particularly drawn to the connections between music and learning to read. Music is a natural fit with learning about sound, about rhymes, about language. I often say that music is actually the best way to learn many early literacy skills. But you don’t have to believe me, just consider some of the many studies out there that confirm this conclusion.

Studies going back nearly fifty years show a correlation between instruction in the Kodály music system, a folk song-based method which originated in Hungary, and improvement in students’ reading ability. This relationship was tested first in the Hungarian student population (Kokas, 1969), and again in American children during their first year of school (Hurwitz et al., 1975).  The Hurwitz study found significant differences in academic achievement, including reading, between children who had received the Kodály music instruction and those who had not.

Additional studies specifically focused on early literacy showed that:

  • Children who could tap a regular rhythm achieved greater success at early phonological awareness activities. (1)
  • Children who had regular music instruction scored better on pre-reading assessments. (2)
  • Children who were taught pre-reading skills using music had higher assessment scores than those in classes that didn’t use music. (3)
  1. David, D., Wade-Wodley, L., Kirby, J., and Smithrim, K. (2007). Rhythm and reading development in school-age children: a longitudinal study. Journal of Research in Reading, 30 (2), 169-83.
  2. Gromko, J. (2005). The effect of music instruction on phonemic awareness in beginning readers. Journal of Research in Music Education, 53(3), 199-209.
  3. Fisher, D. (2001). Early language learning with and without music. Reading Horizons, 42(1), 39-49.

Sure, let’s absolutely enjoy music for its own sake, but let’s also connect music to literacy, math, science and social studies. Why limit the benefits of music to the music classroom?

Perhaps, as Greene suggests, it’s unfortunate that we need to use improving test scores to justify anything we do in schools. But I’m coming to accept that education is increasingly data driven, and in many ways that’s not a bad thing, as long as it’s kept in the proper perspective. (And yes, I know that it often isn’t.)

The bottom line is I’m not surprised at all about the correlation between studying music and achieving higher test scores. And if that’s what it takes to keep music programs in schools, by all means keep using that argument!

Writing a Song About Flying!

  By Liz Buchanan | September 13, 2016 - 7:18 am | ,
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Photo on 9-4-16 at 12.01 PM #2 (1)Ever dream of flying? Not flying on an airplane, though I love that, too. I mean letting your body catch the wind as you rise up into the air, soaring and gliding and seeing the sights far below.

The classic Peter Pan fired children’s imaginations about flying. Just a little fairy dust, and off you can go, to a magical land beyond the horizon. A contemporary picture book about a flying adventure is Abuela, by Arthur Dorros, illustrated by Elisa Kleven.

I first read this book at part of an “Adventures” reading unit for kindergarteners; it’s a wonderful book for ages 4-7. An added bonus is that it includes many words and phrases in Spanish, as a young Latina, Rosalba, goes flying around the city with her grandmother, her abuela.

My song “Flying High,” from my new album Amazing is the perfect complement to this book, or to any book about flying. This song is available at my web page through CDBaby or Songs for Teaching.

CDThe chorus goes:

I wish I knew how to fly, like fairies, birds and Superman!

If I could fly, I’d go so high, and with magic, I think I can! I think I can!

Two of the song’s three verses pose open-ended questions about flying:

  • If we could fly, where would we go?
  • If we could fly, what would we see?

The song answers the questions, but of course, there are many other possible answers. Writing a new verse to the song could be a creative extension of the Abuela story for the class. It is also a way for students to learn and practice writing in the genre of poetry.

Students could start with a writing prompt, answering one of the questions in their own words, starting with prose rather than poetry. They would need to use their imagination to think about where they would go or what they would see when they’re flying! (By the way, there is also a song called “Imagination” on this same CD!)

Once everyone’s done with their writing, the teacher could review the papers and help students transform their prose-writing into poetry in order to construct a new verse to the song. The first line would be the question. Let’s say the question is, “If we could fly, what would we see?”

Here are some possible answers:

  • A plane flying through the sky
  • A bird swooping and gliding
  • A white, fluffy cloud
  • A kite with a long tail
  • The top of a skyscraper
  • People walking below, looking small
  • The arch of a bridge
  • A river looking like a snake
  • The moon rising
  • The sun shining bright
  • A dragon breathing fire! (why not, it’s already a magical story!)
  • A superhero flying by

Especially when working with grades pre-K through first, I’d recommend helping students write the verse as a group. First, let the students know the basic structure. Each verse has four lines. The first two and the second two are rhyming couplets, so the rhyme scheme of the verse is A-A-B-B. You already have your first line, “If we could fly, what would we see?” so the end word of the second line must rhyme with “see.” Brainstorm rhyming words with “see.” These could include me, tree, bee, be, free, sea, whee, glee, three, tea, knee. The original text uses the line, “An eagle soaring proud and free.” Here are some possible alternatives that keep close to the rhythm of the original:

  • The bright green tip-top of a tree
  • People walking far below me
  • A plane is gliding right near me
  • A gull that’s heading for the sea
  • A kite that catches wind so free
  • A bright red bird, what can it be?

The next two lines must rhyme with each other, so be sure that the end word of line 3 has some rhyming possibilities. You might come up with a great line, but then have to rule it out because of the lack of rhyming options.  Here are some possibilities:

Couplet 1:

A tall building scrapes the sky

How did it ever get so high?

Couplet 2:

A river winding through the city

Up here, clouds look so pretty!

Couplet 3:

A kite that’s bobbing in the wind

The blue sky never seems to end.

Couplet 4:

A river winding like a snake

Flows into a bright blue lake.

Writing rhyming lines can be tricky, so it’s good for the teacher to practice it ahead and have some possibilities in mind (plus be familiar with end-words that might not produce a great rhyme for the song).

Songwriting with students is one of my favorite teaching artist activities. With a little practice, teachers can also help students be the songwriters and poets!

I Learned About Orff This Summer!

  By Liz Buchanan | September 4, 2016 - 5:13 pm | , ,
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Pitched percussion instruments are an important part of the Orff approach to teaching music.

Pitched percussion instruments are an important part of the Orff approach to teaching music.

During the summer of 2016, I had lots of adventures. While traveling through the American south, I stopped at the University of Memphis for two weeks to take a course about an approach to music education called Orff.

Orff isn’t an acronym, it’s the name of the founder, Carl Orff, a 20th Century German Composer. Composer Gunilde Keetman was an indispensable partner to Orff in the development of the teaching approach, called Orff Schulwerk. Perhaps because of her gender, she didn’t get credited in the name!

The American Orff Schulwerk Association (AOSA) describes the approach as follows:

“In Orff Schulwerk classrooms, children begin with what they do instinctively: play! Imitation, experimentation, and personal expression occur naturally as students become confident, life-long musicians and creative problem solvers. The Orff approach to teaching is a model for optimal learning in 21st Century classrooms.”

Here are a few important things I learned about Orff during my two weeks. Orff uses pitched percussion instruments such as glockenspiels and xylophones to help students create their own music that really sounds good! For beginning students, instruments are often put in a pentatonic scale (by actually removing the non-pentatonic keys), so that whatever the student plays will blend with other notes being played.

For those non-music majors who don’t know, a pentatonic scale is a scale with five pitches instead of the usual seven in the typical octave. The notes “fa” and “ti,” are omitted. The result is a sound that is often heard in ethnic folk music such as Irish music, as well as in the blues. As mentioned above, a pentatonic scale permits a blend with whatever other note is being played, often creating a lush sound. Orff also uses non-pitched percussion instruments of all kinds to add various effects to the music being played.

A second important thing I learned about Orff is that body percussion plays an important role in teaching. Students often echo a teacher’s body percussion movements to begin learning a rhythm pattern or song. Body percussion might be on several levels, including a stomp, clap, tap on the chest or thigh, or snapping the fingers. Body percussion for younger students is kept simple, either with a simple combination such as tapping thighs and clapping hands, or keeping to one level, such as stomping feet, marching or clapping hands.

One of the Dancing Masters' many publications.

Folk dances and movement activities from the New England Dancing Masters are often part of Orff class activities.

Indeed, feeling the music in the body through movement is also an essential part of Orff, as is the case in the other musical pedagogy I’ve studied, Dalcroze. We spent 75 minutes of each day during our 2-week Orff course on movement activities, including moving freely to various types of music, choreographed movements and folk dances.

There’s much more to tell! I hope to post more on this blog about how I’m using Orff in my music classroom this year.

New CD Features Friendly Dragon

  By Liz Buchanan | June 23, 2016 - 11:26 am | ,
2 Comments
CD cover art by Molly Knobloch, with graphic design by Mel Green.

CD cover art by Molly Knobloch, with graphic design by Mel Green.

My new CD is here! It’s called “Amazing!” It has a happy, musical dragon on the cover, drawn by my talented artist daughter, Molly Knobloch. The dragon is featured in the song “No Fire, Dragon!” which I wrote 10 years ago while working in a preschool classroom of children aged 3 and 4, in Lexington, MA.

For a limited time, you can hear this song for free on my SoundCloud site. The recording features the excellent sax playing of Billy Novick, who’s brought his multiple musical talents to several of my CDs.

But back to the song’s origins. I was just starting to write songs based on the reflections of children in the classrooms where I taught. I brought in a dragon puppet and asked the children what kind of song I should write about my dragon. A little girl held up her hand and shouted, “No fire, dragon!”

With those words, a song was born. I worked from the comments of the children, who wanted a friendly dragon they could play with. In practical terms, they wanted to be sure that the dragon wouldn’t breathe fire, or eat them or their pets. They also liked the idea that the dragon could fly them around the sky, rather than playing its more traditional role of getting into duels with knights.

While I never recorded the dragon song up until now, it has served me well over the years. For ten summers, I produced original plays at the summer camp at the Arlington Center for the Arts, where I now serve on the board. These plays were freewheeling affairs where I would present a story, then let the cast decide their roles. We’d make up some songs and improvise scenes that would get written into the final script. We’d also sing some songs that I came up with in advance, both my original songs and a few from other sources.

One play that we produced twice was the story of The Reluctant Dragon by Kenneth Grahame, written in 1898. Grahame’s dragon seems to fit right in with the “No Fire” message; it prefers to hang out in its cave and write poetry rather than getting into duels.

Unfortunately, the nearby townspeople are locked into their preconceptions about dragons and hire St. George, the knight, to slay it. But good St. George gets to know the dragon, thanks to a sensible boy who’s become the dragon’s companion. They secretively work out a mock duel to satisfy the fearful town. In the end, the truth becomes apparent, and the townspeople accept the dragon for what he is!

The song “No Fire!” was a great addition to that play, as well as a play we did based on the myth of the Golden Fleece. The dragon in that story is not so friendly, making the message of “no fire” even more appropriate!

The dragon on the cover of my new CD represents the soul of the album, in a way. The songs are about the world of imagination – with its ties to magic – and wonder that’s part of childhood. Another song, also written with reflections from several classrooms, explores what it would be like if we could fly. The tag line of the song is “With magic, I think I can!”

It makes me smile, to know that children, the people I work with every day, are a subset of our population that believes magic is real. That’s the kind of wonder, optimism and excitement I want to channel into my own work and spirit.

A Musical Comedy for All Ages Celebrates … Music!

  By Liz Buchanan | June 1, 2016 - 12:10 pm | ,
1 Comment
Music Island art by Karen Roehr.

Music Island art by Karen Roehr.

“Music Island” is back! My full-length musical comedy for all ages will be staged by the Youth Choir of the First Parish of Bedford, MA on June 10 and 11, 2016, directed by Janet Welby.

I invite everyone to sample the delight of Music Island. The show opens on an island governed by an ignorant buffoon, where music and other forms of artistic expression have been entirely banned. Life is dull drudgery until the island’s children experience a magical moment on the beach and begin singing.

The show features a diverse cast of birds, cats, silly grown-ups, delightful kids, musical muses, and a few would-be pirates. It’s a perfect show for young actors, with a variety of significant roles and songs appropriate to young singers’ voices. Not to mention the timeless message about the power of music and the arts!

To give you a taste of the music, listen to what the birds of the island have to say about a ban on singing here!  Later in the show, when the kids of the island and their musical muse companions get thrown into jail for singing, they drown their sorrows with an uplifting gospel number.

At the last staging of Music Island, here’s what some people had to say:

I saw Music Island last night – WOW!! I really enjoyed it!! Congratulations on the premiere – it was fun, engaging, musically sophisticated, and charming!! – Adria Arch, artist and former education director at Arlington Center for the Arts

 Music Island is just a delight. The kids loved it. They just can’t stop singing the songs! The feedback on the show has been so positive. We feel so fortunate to have been part of the “premiere.” The show is a gem, wonderful for children’s theater to perform and enjoyable for all ages. Love that music! – Nancy Gilday and Roberta Zimmer, producers of the Arlington Children’s Theatre show in 2007

Thank you for writing this awesome play! – Maisie, former cast member

If you’re associated with a school or children’s theater, I hope you’ll consider Music Island for a future production!

Cultivating Young Musicians – Part 2

  By Liz Buchanan | May 10, 2016 - 12:50 pm |
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Singing in the classroom can have a strong connection to enhanced early literacy skills.

Singing in the classroom can have a strong connection to enhanced early literacy skills.

“If we inspire you to do anything new at all in your [music] classrooms today, we hope it is this: Tell stories to your students! Read to them, use picture books or just tell them stories from your heart. Children NEED to hear them!”

Peter & Mary Alice Amidon of New England Dancing Masters, at an Orff workshop, quoted by Sally Rogers

 

I led a workshop entitled “Cultivating Young Musicians” on April 30, 2016 at the New England Conference of The Children’s Music Network. I highlighted songs that I regularly use in my music-teaching practice to help children learn about basic musical concepts such as scales, pitch, beat, rhythm, tempo and dynamics.

We spent the second half of the workshop learning some story songs to help children get engaged with playing instruments, singing simple parts and moving their bodies to dramatize a song or musical piece. I love to use stories for music teaching. Stories are often used in the Orff-Schulwerk and Dalcroze music-teaching methodologies.

Here is a wonderful video that demonstrates a musical story using the Dalcroze technique:

Bunny Story link.

I got especially excited about telling musical stories after taking a workshop in March with Andy Davis from New England Dancing Masters. If you missed my post about that workshop, read it here.

The first story we acted out in my workshop was my version of The Three Billy Goats Gruff. We not only have three children play the parts of the billy goats, we also usually have several trolls and a group of children to play the river. We also have a different group of kids play instruments to dramatize the characters: rhythm sticks for goats (to make a hoof sound on the bridge), thunder tubes or drums for the trolls (if you don’t know what a thunder tube is, google it), and rain sticks for the river. Here are links to the lyrics and my recording of this song:

Billy Goat Lyrics

Billy Goat song

The second story we acted out was my version of The Little Red Hen. I heard about acting out this story from my CMN colleague Joanie Calem of Columbus, Ohio. I loved her version but also felt inspired to write my own. You can use different instruments for each of the animals in the story. If you’re doing this in a classroom, you could have two or three students portray each animal. I followed a friend’s suggestion and have each “animal” wear a picture of their animal around their neck. There is space after each “Not I” for the animals to tap an instrument, clap, or make their animal sound. The red hen and chicks can use red and yellow scarves for wings. Here’s the link to the song:

Little Red Hen Song.

We finished our workshop with a rousing rendition of a perennial favorite among many of my students, Bob Messano’s “Rockin’ in the Rabbit Hole.” Kids love to dance like hopping bunnies, then get down and “hide” when the farmer approaches. In the end, some of the kids play “kids” who are much kinder than those angry farmers and cows! You can see my “peeps” video of the song here:

Rockin’ in the Rabbit Hole.

Have fun acting out and singing all your favorite stories with kids. They love it!