Teaching in Musee Musical

After being in Chennai for 3 weeks, I’m having a better understanding about South India, the food, the culture, the people are amazing. Even though there are not too many places that you can visit and not many things are happening around here, but it has been awesome so far with musee musical and seeing India in such a different perspective.

My school is based on individual learning and it is always taught on a one to one basis. The level of students varies but the majority lies between initial grade and grade 5.  In the school, it is very common for the teachers to be teaching 2 or 3 children in different rooms at the same time. This way, children often only get about 20 minutes lesson and around 40 minutes of practice. I find every day challenging as I can always go to different students at different time and check upon their progress and not one day is ever the same. Going to a room where the student is practising alone help both the teachers and students as I will listen, give opinions, evaluate, and share my practising methods in order for them to know how they can practise efficiently at home.

It has been very rewarding by sharing my musical knowledge and teaching experiences with the teachers too. Some of them are working towards ATCL and we have been discussing about my past experiences, sharing opinions and forming new ideas on advance piano playing. This not only helps the teachers to progress but it also allows the teachers to pass on this information to each other as well as to their students.

At the moment, I’m working on a duet piece, a Slavonic Dance by Dvorak with one of the teachers in here, and I shall upload the video in here soon.  I’m trying to help them understanding the benefits of playing duet pieces and how they can impose this onto the lessons with the students. And I can see how this is helping the teachers and students to learn, so thank you Nadia for introducing this in the Induction session!

The Paul Harris workshop was held in our school. It was great in terms of the new idea that the teachers can be used during their lessons and advices that will help the students to work on their sight reading techniques.

Some students have just finished their piano particle exams during last week and I have been trying to reinforcing the importance of sight-reading to all of them, and start off with some simple pieces that they can be able to play. Telling them different techniques that they can apply into their practice such as understanding the sense of rhythm, try not to look at your hands whilst playing, try not to stop or repeat the same phrases again, etc.

However, there is often a cultural issue and parents would like to push their child for grades and playing pieces that are too hard for them. It’s frustrating sometimes that they only play pieces that are on the grading syllabus and nothing more, so I’m also trying to introduce pieces that both students and teachers have never heard of before such as Bach Inventions. Also, seeing the students with a grade 6 book in next lesson just after doing grade 5 last week is fairly common too!

For these coming weeks, I’m planning to work on a short booklet that will provide some additional suggestions onto their daily teaching by going through most of the common problems that I have seen students have in here, from pedalling to hand postures, etc. Apart from this, I’m also helping the school to prepare pieces and songs that the students and teachers will be performing on their annual day in September!

Throwing stars and l'homme arme

Becky here from Avalon school in Vashi, Navi Mumbai.

I’ve just had a very excited class of second-grade students finishing their musical performance of the princess and the pea then enjoying the bongalow! They have also written lyrics for two songs based on simple tunes, choosing to write about manners and conserving water. All of my four second-grade classes can now clap notated rhythms and seem to enjoy composing their own on the board for their friends to clap! Each class is writing its own lyrics on different tunes and I have copied their lyrics to Scarborough Fair at the bottom of this post for you to enjoy – they have beautiful ideas! One class have been really enjoying the l’homme arme tune so I played them part of a mass by Josquin based on this idea. They then showed me what the music made them think of - more beautiful ideas!  

My grade one classes are preparing presentation of Jack and the Beanstalk to show their parent using instruments, a learnt songs and a song which they wrote themselves. There are some particularly good giants in these classes!

All of the classes are enthusiastic about the ukulele and the flute, often requesting particular tunes which they have heard me play before. A really nice end-of-class activity is getting them to show me with their actions what different tunes on the flute make them think of.

I am about to tuck into a lovely Indian lunch. Enjoy the children’s lyrics below!

Class 2D are journeying,

Through the clouds with the birds,

Through the thunder and the tornado,

Woo, Crash, Woo, Crash,

Class 2D fly through the clouds,

Clouds like cotton and mountains

Climb up the rainbow and slide down,

Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet.

Class 2D plays with the stars,

Throwing stars and jumping between them,

Landing on a rock on the moon.

Class 2D rocks.

We fly high behind the sun,

Feel its warmth and sparkle.

The sun shines on our faces,

Class 2D shines like the sun.

Sam and Duncan in Mumbai Weeks 2-3

After a few trips on the world’s busiest train where we had to leap onto the dubious vehicle as it pulled out of the station and then hang out of the doorless carriage, a magnificent beer tower (no exaggeration there), and an attempt to cook masala where the victims of this dish will be suffering from the amount of spice used in the recipe for weeks, we are back with another blog entry.

We are in full swing at the three schools with interesting lesson plans (the children told us our lessons are interesting so it’s not just me being big headed) and on a broader scale, a working curriculum, which we hope will provide a pivotal mechanism for the music education at Garodia. Within these lessons we have encouraged more intelligent listening where the pupils can link music to emotions/ideas through aspects of musical events, and have purported the effective technique of Kodaly which in turn has led to children developing rhythms with notes and then eventually Western notation.

Sam teaching students rhythmic notation

We have also jumped deep into piano and violin lessons where we are able to provide the students with a wholesome idea of technique and more importantly lots of sight-reading, which was a major aspect to the Paul Harris workshop which we both attended and received a few intriguing ideas. We also met Josh and had a beer but that is another story.

Violin lesson!

 

Because this is a cultural exchange we braved another few trains and watched the ‘Megh Malhar’ festival which consisted of three nights of Indian Classical Music to welcome in the monsoon. The monsoon was already in full swing but never mind! There were some phenomenal performances from extraordinary singers and sitarists accompanied by fantastic tabla players.

On an extra-curricular note, we are still helping put together the musical for the International school by auditioning the children in each year and filtering out an effective choir. On top of this we are working with the P.G School to put together the popular piece ‘Jai-ho’ for India’s Independence Day in August.

 

We have also been sight seeing around Mumbai! We have visited Colaba and been to the impressive Gateway to India, as well as the famous Leopold cafe for some great food. Marine Drive is beautiful, especially at night, and even on cloudy days the sunset is lovely.

Marine Drive

On a more serious note the two girls we were living with have left the apartment and we have realised that there is another floor which has two balconies! With this, the supposedly unusual amount of rain for monsoon period, and the realisation that our train station is surrounded by goats and pigs, that is all from us this time.

Sam after a hard day's work...

Cat Avalon Update - Mumbai

This begins our fourth week at Avalon. The children are learning the songs well. After starting off with simple songs to gauge their ability, I’ve moved on to longer songs with more words to challenge some of the older kindergarten classes.

One of the ‘hits’ that always goes down a storm is a variation on the favourite children’s story book ‘We’re going on a bear hunt.’ Add in a drum beat and you have immediately introduced the concept of beat and pulse and the kids are speaking rhythmically without realising it. I say a line and they repeat it. I’ve realised that to get the most out of the kids, you have to give 100% every time. This may seem obvious but if I’m the least bit tired I try not to show it as this rubs off on them and they become disinterested. For this reason, I have perfected my bear growl and facial expressions for the disgusted look I need when having to go through ‘thick oooozy mud.’ Having a class of 20 or so 5 year olds screaming their fiercest bear growls back at me is an exhilarating experience…no lie!

‘Drop in the ocean’ one of my most memorable songs from school is perfect for the senior kindergarten children. I have acquired a backing track for it so this adds a bit of interest and texture for them. I’ve come up with actions for it which helps them to remember the words and I’m sure that when it’s showcased next month the parents will enjoy it. I’ve received great feedback from both teachers and parents so that’s really promising.

With the junior kindergarten kids, I’m taking things slower as they are slightly younger and it takes them a while to remember longer phrases. Consolidation is key with the younger age group and I worried at the start that doing the same thing over and over would become tedious, but it’s necessary for them to put on a good show at the open day. I’ve mixed ‘Oats and Beans’ with a variation on the bear hunt to ‘we’re marching through the jungle’ for these little ones so they have a varied repertoire and are also learning the basics of rhythm and pulse.

Nursery progress is slower again but as they are still learning the basics of English and also in a different accent, there is a bit of a barrier. By now they are familiar with me, however, and my slots are shorter. We’re singing ‘Kum Ba Ya,’ ‘Little Johnny Dances’ and ‘Kye Kye Kule’ -  a West African traditional song, a bit like head shoulders knees and toes. I’m hoping to expand their song repertoire a little further but for now we’re just having fun making silly faces and singing at ‘little johnny’ to dance on different parts of our bodies. Such fun! 

Update from Gurgaon, Delhi

Maria: I’ve been really busy here in Gurgaon and think I’ve settled down well. Teaching classroom music at Shri Ram School secondary school is my main activity which I do most weekdays from 9 till 2 then afterwards I usually have classes at the private music school IMD.

Since music is such a new subject at Shri Ram, only having been introduced a few months back, the children have no knowledge of most of the basics of music. I am busy providing a course to cover the rudiments of rhythm, harmony, texture and form with them in a way which I hope will be fun and engaging. I find that I am teaching in a way which is very different from how I might teach the equivalent age group in western school because the culture is so different. For example, the children although are keen on western favourites such as Justin Bieber and One Direction, have no familiarity with for example western scales or instruments other than pianos and guitars.

Shri Ram School has an impressive extra-curricular life and the teachers have decided to stage a production of ‘Oliver’. This musical will be performed in September after I leave but I aim to prepare students as far as possible. This is a tricky task as this is the first musical the school has done and it seems to be an organisational challenge. In particular, as yet there is no separate rehearsal time other than music classes which means that for half of the lesson I am teaching, for example an introduction to rhythm, and for the other half of the lesson  they need to learn how to sing ‘Food Glorious Food’. I am working to introduce a separate practice time for those taking part in the musical but this might take some time. Still, it will be good to have all the children who are performing in one space at last.

After the hectic pace of Shri Ram and the 500 children I teach there each week, I’ve really enjoyed coming to the IMD in the afternoons to teach individual lessons. I’m covering vocals, composition and some piano too. IMD has a blossoming composition section but the students are primarily working by arranging existing music using a software programme. I am working to allow them to compose their own music away from the software so that they can do some work at home too. I have some adult pupils and this has been particularly rewarding because they are so keen to learn!

Outside of work I’ve been doing quite a bit of yoga, visited Qutb Minar and India Gate and successfully survived a bout of Delhi belly. Looking forward, Shri Ram has plans to stage Happy Feet the musical for its younger students, so I will have my work cut out with that no doubt.

Áine: We are currently deep into rehearsals for the OWCM Independence Day concert, which is taking a lot of preparation, and late sessions fuelled by kitkats and samosas!

My days are broken down into lessons for my intensive course pupils (a lot of whom are already showing really pleasing progress), group singing classes, theory classes, composition workshops, Preparation to Perform ensemble and theory classes, as well as band and choir rehearsals. Most pupils are near-beginners, but there is a smattering of (mainly pianists) up to about Grade 8 standard. This presents its own challenges in that the differences in the standards of players means that more advanced students may not always be as engaged during the group classes.

I have now arranged twice weekly meetings with the teachers as a forum for discussing pupils and the teaching system. I aim to have written a tiered curriculum by the time I leave, as well as a system for judging what level a student is at, to ensure students of a similar standard are grouped together, make it more clear to teachers what they should be doing in these lessons and to provide a bit of continuity. The teachers are all very enthusiastic with bringing up suggestions and issues, as well as asking questions and sitting in my classes, and are all eager to work to improve the school.

Tuesdays are OWCM’s day off, but I use this time (as well as Thursday mornings) to work at Sankalp, a local NGO run school. I teach a class of around 30 primary-age pupils, and we have been learning We Shall Overcome in Hindi (Hum Honge Kamyaab), Vande Mataram and a marching song to sing with one of the OWCM bands. Transcribing some of these songs into Western notation, learning Hindi, and getting my head around the Bengali and Sanskrit pronunciations has been a bit of a challenge!

I was touched to find in my last lesson that my Sankalp class had all been devotedly practising their do re mis and sa re gas in the playground. As a school for the immigrant population of Gurgaon, all of the classes are led in Hindi as the children don’t really understand English, but we do our best in class. This has provided plenty of hilarity with my broken Hindi and dodgy interpretations of the Indian head wobble (usually leaving me feeling a tad dizzy and in need of a sit-down).

The biggest challenge so far though has probably been the weather. Firstly the heat; frequent power-cuts mean that a/c and ceiling fans cannot always be relied on, and my last class in a windowless Sankalp classroom culminated in one child wandering priest-like down the aisles, flicking cooling water at us all. Secondly, the rain. The drainage is so bad around here that one day the other week, no rickshaws could access the roads to OWCM, and so I had to wade to work. The water almost reached waist height at points, so I waded out with my skirts knotted up and a towel turban (to keep my hands free and the towel dry, to use at school), much to the amusement of many onlookers...

Avalon, Cat and Becky.

Really busy here preparing for musical presentations for parents. We have just been presented with a lovely pile of handmade cards, carpet and model pinochio from lovely children we don't even teach! It's a real testimony to the caring nature of all children and staff at Avalon school.

We have yet to teach a single piano lesson! At Avalon, the teaching is classroom based. Cat is working in nursery and kindergarten classes, teaching them songs and basic rhythmic techniques. It's more important that they have a good time though, and Becky is teaching grade 1,2 classes, the British equivalent would be year 2 or three I think. We are working full weeks, in school from 8am - 3pm Monday to Friday and Cat has emailed around Ryan's contacts regarding outreach work. After a good first response however, she hasn't heard much except from Ayush, a teacher at a local school called Muktangen. Unfortunately, we don't have days off during the week which would be the perfect time for us to go and do workshops in the school but we're hoping that after presentations, we can have a bit more freedom to go elsewhere!

We were thinking of organising a fundraising concert showcase in Mumbai to raise money for local charities. If anyone in Mumbai would be interested in getting involved, don't be afraid to drop us an email.

Speak soon!

C & B xx

Josh in Mumbai 2

Well I’m now 12 days down but it feels like a month. Not a bad thing of-course, I just seem to have done an awful lot in the last 2c. weeks.  I’m starting to get my bearings in the local area, and the shopkeepers have started to recognise me. Especially the postman, but that’s another story.   I’m really enjoying it here and I’ve managed not to be ill (yet). I’m sure it’s only a matter of time before Mumbai catches up with me… not wanting to sound pessimistic!

The week observing was very enjoyable, I think I’ve learnt most of the names of the staff and teachers at the foundation, quite a feat considering there’s at least 16 names and only a couple are remotely English sounding.

Although it’s been an observing week I’ve actually taken part quite a lot, holding my own individual piano lessons for 7 students.  I’ve also accompanied the senior choir, attended a couple of theory classes and played in the string ensemble (that starts at 8:30 on a Sunday morning……..).  Also on Wednesdays and Thursday’s I travel with Rael to a school called Aseema, a good 50 minute drive north of the Foundation (apparently it’s only 25 mins in lighter traffic) where we provide music workshops from 10am-2:30pm for students attending the state-funded school.

I’ve already been to 3 different dinner parties, all of which were lovely and I can only praise the friendliness of everyone I’ve met. Photo’s will follow shortly, though I always seem to leave my camera or phone in my bedroom whenever something spectacular happens

I also managed to bump into Duncan and Sam at the Paul Harris ‘Piano Teaching’ presentation on Monday (my day-off, I’d like to point out.), it was good to see a couple of friendly faces from the WAM association, as the last time I saw them was the interview process in February.  We had a good catch-up and plan to meet again sooner than later.

I could carry on talking but I’ll leave it until my next blog  - mainly cause I’m going to head to bed… I have the possibility of a lie-in tomorrow, as I’m only busy from 11am, (I’m being worked hard here, but I’m classing it as a compliment) so want to make the most of it!

Josh