Linda Lanier-Keosaian
General
Park Ridge High School
Park Ridge, NJ
lanierkeosaian@optonline.net Music
I Can’t Wait To Take This Class
(The Story Of A Music Class They Dare Not Cut)
Through World Drumming. Along with especially the boys. Yet, the way in which we
T
his was a seventh grader who
had not yet cycled into the
music, I insist on their learning the names of learn and establish the beat is through move-
Music Appreciation Through
the countries of Africa, and taking quizzes on ment. We then add speech to the movement
World Drumming course, which every sev-
the map. We discuss the connection between and concentration has to follow, otherwise
enth and eighth grader would take before the
the coastal countries of West Africa and the students get lost. As students learn how to do
end of the school year. This same student
music which traveled to this country and the this, they begin to be independent and even
periodically came racing into my class
Caribbean. begin teaching peers who are having difficul-
between bells to beg me to let him stay.
Without using paper, except for extra ty. A sense of camaraderie develops in each
I teach middle school and high school
enrichment information, my drumming stu- group as individual talents are revealed.
choral/vocal music in a very small district in
dents learn how to create and maintain a Students run to class. I am told they
northern New Jersey. I was told at the end of
steady beat (not as easy as it sounds!), how to practice on the tables in the cafeteria. They
the school year in 2006 that I would be
play existing rhythms in ensemble, how to often come into class with new rhythms they
teaching a course in music appreciation to
play West African instruments, and how to have created. A number of former students
seventh and eighth graders in 2006-2007.
create their own rhythmic patterns. They have said I touched something in them, or
There was no curriculum. I could only think
learn to improvise, and also to speak and that drumming had opened up something
of the kind of course with a similar name
record their patterns on paper in non-tradi- for them, or had lit a fire in them.
that high school and college students some-
tional script. The final project consists of The administration is very happy about
times take, which meant reading a text and
composing for an ensemble of five or six this course, its effect on the students and
listening to music from a recording which
instruments, then teaching the composition their parents, and, especially about the fact
was explained in the guide. The thought of
to those students they have chosen to play that it was my idea.
my students, the ones I had come to know,
their piece.
being forced to read a text about music and
The primary skill which
then writing about it and even sitting still for
made all of this possible, is listen-
a recording of it, at the ages of twelve and
ing. Listening deeply, and with
thirteen, made me want to take up sky-
great concentration. Once they
diving.
were able to do this, they went to
There was a need to integrate the arts
a higher level. They could tell
(visual art, drama, and music) into every
when the beat was not steady,
middle school students schedule. The solu-
when the two students playing
tion was a series of mini-cycles of about six
timeline (cow bells) were Apah-
weeks for seventh grade and about seven
dunking, i.e. not playing in syn-
weeks for eighth grade, with students
chrony. They also had to listen to
moving in groups of seventeen to eighteen
themselves in relation to their
students, from one subject to another. This
own section and the whole
presented a challenge in engaging the stu-
ensemble, including dancers and
dents quickly and teaching foundation skills,
singers.
while allowing them to explore their own
Most of these students have
creativity.
never studied music. The elemen-
I took a course in world drumming and
tary school music program in our
convinced my principal of the need to have
town does not teach music in this
the school purchase for me the set of drums
way. My students consist of the
and instruments which became the materials
entire seventh grade. We start at
of my course. When I was told that the name
the beginning.
of the course was music appreciation, I
Middle-school-aged children
expanded that to the title Music Appreciation
are often poorly-coordinated,
TEMPO 34 MAY 2009
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