TOTALLY TUBULAR! Joia Tubes Make Music Learning Exciting
Help me give my students the opportunity to add another instrument to our instrumentarium. Joia tubes are a unique and wonderful addition to a music program. This can be played with boomwhackers, xylophones, bells, recorders or voices.
The students in this school are on the lower income level. They are often living in shelters or temporary housing. Some are there year after year, but others come and go due to life circumstances. School seems to be a stabilizing force in their lives. They are also a very sweet group of children, and each year they get better and better. When they come to music class they are eager to learn and to try every new experience.
They get to try things that they don't see other places.
When it comes to concerts and performances they are truly excited and proud. They enthusiastically participate in activities that are novel and innovative.
My Project
Joia tubes are very similar to instruments used by Blue Man Group— pitched tubes of different lengths are used to play melodies, bass lines, and harmonies. They can be combined with xylophones, resonator bells, boomwhackers, drums, recorders, piano keyboards and singing.
My goal as a music teacher is to teach kids about “possibilities” for creating new and differing musical experiences— to include singing, accompanying, composing and reading music.
Every new element that I introduce into my classroom is intended to be used as a building block—a tool to engage their attention and imagination. Students are developing improved reading and aural skills by adding instruments with new timbres and ranges.
What’s more, these things are engaging and fun. They allow students to play a different and unique instrument, using skills they have already developed. In doing so, they change “how” the music sounds— it’s texture and depth. This is something they can’t experience when continually playing the same instruments in the same way.
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As a teacher-founded nonprofit, we're trusted by thousands of teachers and supporters across the country. This classroom request for funding was created by Dr. Zawacki and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.