Students in elementary school music class should have access to and play tone-bar (Orff) instruments. When I came to this school last year, I found a big deficiency in basic elementary school instruments. A class of twenty five students only had two xylophones to play! This is not ok.
I teach all of the students in grades 4k to 5th grade, over 700 students in my school.
Over 85% of the students receive free and reduced lunch and come from a background of poverty. The students are great kids, eager to learn and grow and show great potential in music achievement. Like other school districts, there has been a big push in technology in my school, neglecting basic materials needed for a quality music education. Last year with the help of 41 great donors, I acquired a full set of African drums which the students love to play. We are now in need of a class set of another basic elementary music instrument, xylophones, which the school will not purchase. For the students sake, I am hoping that some great donors will step forward and help fill this void in our music program.
My Project
The first South Carolina State Standard in elementary music education is that the students should play instruments alone and with others. Throughout the students elementary music career, they should have experiences playing percussion instruments, including tone-bar instruments (xylophone), wind instruments, and string instruments. The students participate in instrument readiness activities as early as kindergarten. At that point they should and will be playing xylophones in many music lessons up through fifth grade. If we are lucky enough to receive a class set of xylophones, all 700 of my students will have many opportunities to benefit from playing these instruments. At first the students will learn playing position and technique, progressing to playing harmonic parts, and eventually improvising and creating their own music. This will improve the students musical aptitude and lead to greater music understanding and appreciation.
One might think that in this digital age, technology will be the greatest benefit to young students.
Technology is a great tool, but in the music classroom it can not come before basic instruments that date back thousands of years to music in its earliest forms. My role as a music educator is to give students an opportunity to learn music, understand its parts and complexity, and leave students with a basic foundation on which to find their full potential in music making. Help me help them.
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