General Music Blog: MIND, BODY, SPIRIT

BEFORE I BEGIN MY BLOG I WANT TO RECOMMEND TO PARENTS WHO READ THIS TO COME VISIT ME DURING CONFERENCES. IF YOU WOULD LIKE A CONFERENCE WITH ME JUST EMAIL OR CALL ME. I HOPE YOU CAN COME SEE ME AND LOOK AT ALL THE WORK YOUR CHILDREN HAVE DONE THIS PAST QUARTER IN MUSIC.

MIND, BODY, SPIRIT IN LEARNING TARGETS

Yesterday I had a wonderful time with my classes teaching a song "Farewell to Tarwathie" which relates to the history of whaling in Scotland, and in America as well. I love teaching a lesson that hits several learning targets head on, and relates to many national standards for music. The learning targets on the whiteboard are, "I can sing a song with correct notes and rhythms with a group", I can talk about the history of the song, (analyze art forms)" and "I can conduct in 3/4 time with a group." At the beginning of each class, I direct the students first to the "Do now" and then after a few minutes to the learning targets. I began to explain them a little bit yesterday morning, and realized in the middle of my explanation, wow, these targets work symbiotically together! I told my students that "I can talk about the history of the song" uses their MIND and makes them relate history and culture to music. "I can conduct in 3/4 time with a group" hits the BODY part of learning, because conducting is a very physical activity that uses your whole body, plus your mind too, because you have to count and remember where to direct your arms in which direction. Finally, "I can sing a song with correct rhythms and notes with a group" hits the mind and SPIRIT part of this idea, because you are connected to your breathing, your emotions and your thoughts together when singing the song.

It was a wonderful realization to have, and it is important to note this for many reasons. First of all, how many other classes can you say that you are expressing mind, body and spirit parts of yourself? Second of all, how often in music are you touching on all these parts? In fact, most of the time! We sing often, we dance and move often, and we are always using our thoughts, minds, creative problem solving skills, as well as collaboration with others almost every day in music class. It is essential to see this, to note this, to remember this, when so many schools are looking to find more time for the "core" and are ready to dispense with music and the other arts in the classroom. Can we just remember that music hits the "CORE" and also hits the "coeur" (heart), as well as teaches skills that are not offered in any other time of the day or week.

I leave you with this link to my favorite version of the song which includes the beautiful songs of the whales as accompaniment to the song.. Link to Farewell to Tarwathie by Judy Collins