Last sunday was our Church Sunday School Christmas Pageant. Normally this is a pretty innocuous event where the children put on a small play, sing a few songs (usually out of tune), and the bells play their Christmas music. This year, however, the program was an exercise in "how loud can you scream" when you"sing". Now, I'll be the first to admit that I am a music snob, but the mere fact that the Sunday School teachers kept shouting "sing louder, sing louder" and "oh that was beautiful" proves to me that America is going deaf. These kids were even mic'd so there was no reason to scream. If there is one thing that I have learned this year from watching other master music teachers and watching my own classes with my student teacher it is that kids need to sing SOFTLY in order to produce a healthy and age-appropriate sound. My 1st graders at school were having so much trouble matching pitch and finding their singing voices until I asked them to sing softly. Bam! Problem fixed. I have now transferred this to all my classes. Whether it's singing, playing recorders or xylophones, or even just saying a poem and clapping a rhythm...when it's done softly and gently it become musical. Now if only I had time to work with the Sunday School Kids. ;)
No comments:
Post a Comment