Session One Complete

Today marks the completion of my first session of the Service Learning Project. I think the session went extremely well, and we got lots of positive feedback from the staff and participants.

We stuck mostly to our original plan, so the session went something like this:

• Stretches
• Review and singing of "Yellow Submarine" and "Hey Jude"
• Scott led a good discussion on how to participate in the musical process - either through singing, dancing, clapping, etc. We had some good contributions from the participants on this one.
• Then we sang, and danced to the Beatles.
• I really liked how Scott led the group after each song in singing the chorus with piano accompaniment, and not CD. I think the participants enjoyed the instruments we brought - I brought some hand drums, Brian played guitar, and Scott played keyboard. This helped the participants to feel like they were part of live music, and not karaoke.
• Then we did a brief session inspired by Delacroze. One of Delacroze's main ideas is that music should be felt very physically. We did an exercise where we would play music and everyone would start moving, and then they would stop moving when the music stopped. We encouraged the participants to move however the music inspires them, so we experimented with different feels to see the results. The latin, blues and double time swing feel all had different movement results. Interestingly, one staff member told use afterwards that one man he works with has trouble moving the left side of his body due to a brain injury, but moved his left side particularily for the Latin feel.
• After this, we went into the percussion section. Between the instruments I brought, and the percussion gear ETS has, we had enough for everyone. The initial plan was to introduce every instrument, but I realized that can drag on a bit, and all of the participants were anxious to make noise. It's difficult handing out instruments however when everyone hits their instrument as soon as they get them. This made for interesting crowd control, but nothing crazy.
• We discussed soundscapes and took a tally of sounds all of the participants are aware of on a daily basis. Subway, streetcars and buses were a common theme.
• We also discussed sounds that occur in a jungle in preparation for in the jungle.
• When everyone had instruments, we worked on some ensemble ideas. I would use my hand to pass over a section of the room which was the sign to play. When I came back with my hand, it meant stop. This was a success. Then I worked on dynamics. Then, both elements were combined so there were dynamics, and different "parts."
• We went from the percussion to "In the Jungle" which I think was a hit. A lot of people knew the song and some really hit the high "A-WEEEEEEEEEE" part in the chorus quite in tune. This got everyone really excited.
• Lastly, we did Raymond's favourite song "You are my Sunshine."
• This was a nice closer.

That's all for now!