Notation Creation: Enhancing Choral Music with Small Instruments
Help me give my students small percussion instruments that are often used as enhancements in choral music and a small portable white board to write rhythm notation for the accompanying instruments.
My singers come from diverse backgrounds and attend a large urban high school of more than 3,800 students. More than 60 percent of our students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. Approximately 30% of our school are English language learners (ESL), including a large refugee population. Approximately 25% of my students have special needs with an individual instruction plan.
Many students are not able to pay choir fees or provide their own supplies due to financial need so, I try to provide almost everything that the choir students will need for performances, so that all can participate.
Many of the students have language barriers, making it hard to communicate with parents regarding costume needs. Although we have great parent support, it is not possible for parents to pay or donate all the funds needed to train and equip a choral program with more than 425 singers.
Our choirs provide a community and global connection for students. My students are very proud of their performances and want to look and sound their best on stage.
My Project
As a choral music teacher, I teach my students many choral compositions that call for small percussion and woodwind instruments that members of the choir can play using basic music reading skills. Instruments such as recorders, wind chimes, finger cymbals, and triangles are often notated in choral octavos, especially in early music and contemporary compositions.
By having high quality instruments available as well as a white board where rhythms can be notated, I can utilize a variety of talents of my singers and together we can created exciting timbres of sound, thus enhancing the musical experience.
Students will write their own recorder descants to our Renaissance music, wind chimes introductions, triangle and cymbal sounds interludes on the white boards, allowing opportunities for creativity and high level learning. Our choral music tactile learners will have an opportunity to use their skills while singing in choir.
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