Re: [Harp-L] HELP!!!

["michael rubin" <michaelrubinharmonica@xxxxxxxxx>]

I say get them playing.  Do you have a guitarist?  Explain to them you
can never make a mistake in music.  Have him play while they jam.  If
it is a small enough group (8 or less) give them solos.
Then you can explain about keys being families of notes and the tonic
being the head of the family.  Tell them when they meet a guitarist,
they can say, "let's play in the key of C"
Then have them jam again.
Then say, let's get the guitarist to play in another family, C#, while
we stay in our family, C.  Play.  Then say, "Did it sound like the two
families were not getting along?"
Then play in C again.
You can talk about emotion thru music.  Get them to name some
emotions.  After each time they say "sad!" "angry"  you play sad or
angry, etc.  Then say "Okay, everybody play sad" and then jam with the
guitar.
I also think the train is great.  What I experience is some kids have
trouble saying Ta Ta thru the harmonica.  As long as you do not make
it important that they play it just right, trains are great.
Michael Rubin
Michaelrubinharmonica.com

On 8/8/08, Roger A Gonzales <gonz1@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Hi Trip,
>
> Wow!  I do this in school everyday but with recorder flutes.  30 minutes goes real fast so keep
> it going.  Stand when you teach and move around a bit when you are in front of the kids.
> This will help you keep their attention.  Remember they're kids and the attention level is what
> it is.  I agree with teaching them the train thing but also teach them the difference between
> getting a chord and a single note.
>
> I think its real important to make sure you teach them the correct way to hold the harmonica,
> right from the beginning!!  Show them to hold it with both hands or you will have them
> holding it all different ways.
> If you want to teach them the train whistle, prepare a simple handout to give the kids AFTER
> the lesson, don't hand it out at the beginning or they will be distracted looking at the paper
> and not paying attention to you.  I am assuming the kids get to keep the harps after the
> lesson.
>
> More important than anything else is make sure they know YOU ARE having fun and they will
> have fun.  Keep their attention and make sure that you expect them to be on their best
> behavior, if you don't do this at the beginning of the lesson, you will spend the entire 30
> minutes practicing classroom management techniques and not much more.  Set the tone for
> the lesson RIGHT AWAY!
> I am a elementary music teacher and teach band and choir to 5th and 6th graders and
> general music to 4th grade kids everyday so these are things I do when I have my recorder
> (general music) classes which last 30 minutes.
> Best of luck.  If you have any further questions, contact me off list.
>
> Teaching kids to hold the instrument correctly will hopefully prompt them to want to play
> long after the lesson with you and the handout will give them a reference to help them
> remember what you taught them.
>
> regards,
> Roger Gonzales
> Fresno, CA.
>
>
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