Student's take on Aaron Copland and Success - An Exemplar

    Aaron Copland

         -&-`

Performing Artists

Aaron Copland  (1900-1990) was known as the leader of classical american music for over 50 years. He showed persistence, focus, practice, talent, and a cheerful attitude that won others over. Many of these talents are key to being a successful performing artist. A performing artist is someone who performs their own act for an audience. In this case a musical act, such as the many Aaron Copland performed.

A performing artist must have a sense of persistence and focus. Aaron Copland showed this in several ways. For example, he showed persistence when he begged his parents repeatedly for piano lessons. His mother and father had provided piano lessons for their older four children, but decided against it for Aaron. Eventually, however, they rewarded Aaron with lessons, too. He (Aaron) also showed focus by practicing and working hard to be submitted to Fontainbleau. Again, when he studied privately with Nadia Boulanger.

As a successful performing artist, Aaron Copland also had talent and showed it frequently. He composed music that originally showed America’s history and land. This is one of the main reasons he was credited the leader of classical american music. For example, he composed and played a piece of music called Lincoln Portrait. In this song, he used American stories and folk songs to capture America’s spirit.

Aaron Copland also had a cheerful and positive attitude. This showed in his peppy, powerful, proud and regal music. He won people over and helped everybody get along. He also gained appreciation by teaching many other young musicians. He also organized several performances in his life. Aaron Copland was a very successful performing artist. Aaron once quoted “To stop the flow of music would be like stopping time itself, incredible and inconceivable”. He wrote over 40 pieces, each of them amazing. One of his compositions, titled Billy The Kid  is conceived as peppy, cheerful, unpredictable, and complicated. His other pieces are confident, flawless, layer full, and powerful. He truly was a great person.

You could compare Aaron Copland’s success with Franz Schubert, another amazing composer and performing artist. Franz was considered the first of romantic compositions, and the last of the classical pieces. Born 1797 and died 1828, he created several works. As a young musician, he was forced to quit college because of money, and then got a job as an assistant at his father's school. Even then, he was interested in music. Franz was persistent and a hard worker, even though he was never rich. He had strained friendships and a tough life, then fell sick and died when he was about 30. Regardless of this, he was a very talented musician and is appreciated. Franz and Aaron are alike in some ways. They were both talented musicians and performing artists. They both showed persistence and focus. Both faced obstacles on their journey. They were both very talented musicians, composers, performing artists, and people.

As shown, Aaron Copland was a very successful performing artist. He showed many needed traits that performing artists have, including persistence and focus by gaining piano lessons and working hard. Also, talent by capturing America's spirit, plus a cheerful temperament. Being a performing artist required many things, but Aaron Copland was very successful and talented.

Aaron Copland Writing Across the Curriculum

This week we are reading and writing across the curriculum.  We are reading about Aaron Copland, the great 20th century American composer who created that inimitable wide open spaces sound with open fourths and fifths, lots of brass, intense and sudden dynamic changes, and folk songs to tell the great American stories- Appalachian Spring, Fanfare for the Common Man, and Billy the Kid, just to name a few.

This morning I have asked the students to write twenty words to describe the excerpts of these pieces that we are listening to: Now I have to do it too.  1) Quintessential American, 2) dynamic changes, 3) fortissimo, 4)pianissimo, 5)folk songs, 6)stories, 7) chasing notes, 8)bangs and booms, 9)horses, 10)clip clopping, 11)bells, 12)rhythms, 13) syncopation, 14)jazzy, 15)romantic, 16)freedom, 17)contrasting brass with strings 18) poignant 19) orchestration classic, 20) high and low
21) thoughtful 22) welcoming 23) accessible 24) repetition 25) legato/staccato contrasts 26) Crescendo/decrescendos subito! 27) solos/duets 28) dance with instruments 29) Billy's plight 30) Gift to be simple 31) Folksy 32) Western movies 33) Movie music 34) Disney

Children say: 1) Original, 2)Inspiring 3)soft 4) Light-hearted 5) soothing 6) amazing 7) Loud 8) Slow
9)distinctive 10) peaceful 11) joyful 12) jumpy 13) complicated 14) flute 15) trumpet 16) calming 17)quaint 18)snug 19) breezy 20) intense 21) chime 22)violin 23) trombone 24) gleeful 25) spirited 26) Somber 27) piccolo 28) calm 29) magical 30)

Appalachian Spring - from Youtube 

 Fanfare for the Common Man- youtube- James Levine conducting



Billy the Kid Ballet Suite

Thoughts on Creative Drama Class

Students had spring fever last week, and refused to listen to directions that I wanted to give for a game.  I pulled out my favorite discipline tactic- It is time to think about what you have gained so far from this class.  What have we done?  What have you enjoyed?  What should I do differently?  Get out your chromebooks and write for the next forty minutes!  This is what I learned from them..

   What i’ve learned in creative drama is that you are going to have to make choices in your life that you don’t want to make. I also learned that you have to make quick decisions in life as well. I also learned that if you want to be good at creative drama you have be quiet when the teacher is talking. We also played a game that involve helping people besides you so they can survive not you like people,shelter,storm. We also played a game where you have to say the alphabet with the whole class but one person says one letter so you had to be patient and wait your turn to say a word and a letter.

Dear Creative Drama

Creative drama is is when you express your feelings in acting. The games we played help us in life and in acting. Like in the beginning of the year we played a game called mirror where we pretended to be the other person by mirroring them. That can help you a lot in acting when you have to pretend to be another person.

What I have learned from drama class this year is you play games  to help you get good at drama/acting class. I also learned in some games you have to be serious and in some games you have to be funny to help you with the game. My favorite game we played was bippityboppityboo it was fun. Another cool game was a game that you do sports poses or whatever category the pose was in so if the category was school you do poses you make at school. We played a lot of fun games like shelter island and games like that. At the first class you drew how you make toast on a piece of paper and share the way you did in front of the class.

What I learned in Creative Drama
Be yourself and no one else
I learned to share.
I learned to pay attention to other people
I learned different ways to communicate.
I learned to work as a team and by myself.
I learned how to use my imagination
I learned to make sacrifices.
I learned a lot of fun games.
I learned to talk to people.
I learned how to make toast.

Things I learned in Creative Drama
I learned different ways to communicate.
I learned how to share.
Be yourself.
Don't be someone else.
I learned how to pay attention to other people.
I learned how to cooperate without talking.
I learned how to get interviewed.
I learned how to use my imagination.
I learned to not talk at the same time as others.
We also learned fun games.

The reference to making toast has to do with a project I had the students do early in the quarter. You draw pictures to show how you would make toast, and then you share this step by step process with the class. It shows how different people think, how different people see the world, how different people process, and can contribute in different ways to a class, a community, an office, a business, an artistic endeavor, a world.

Composers of all ages

How impressive this group is!  I have fifth graders this week composing songs in C position.   As usual, I have been trying to use the same procedure that I have been implementing all year:  the gradual release of responsibility.  I have been working with these students for two weeks on playing songs in C position, and they have this position down well.  Some of them write the names of the notes in their music, which works well for them, some use the numbers, which doesn't work as well, but they have to figure that out for themselves.  Others have memorized the notes.

Now is the most difficult transition, to go from playing pieces to taking even just those ten notes and creating their own piece with them.  Also, trying to create it correctly on the paper is a challenge.  So I created a page with ten steps for creating your perfect composition, and I went through it with them slowly.  It has everything all planned out.

They looked like they were listening when I went through it.  Then, we created four of the sixteen measures together.  Now here we are today, and most of them have had to re-write their manuscript at least once, if not several times, but they are now all in the piano lab playing their pieces and practicing for our big concert at the end of the week!!

I still struggle sometimes with them wanting to create a piece at the piano, because they cannot successfully write down the notes if they are given carte blanche.  I want them to use the vocabulary that they know, that they have learned, (C position in this particular case) so they can re-create it and play it for the class.  That being said, now that they have done that, I have told them that for the rest of the time, they may create any piece they want, using the black notes, the white notes, chords, all the high and low ones at the end, and they won't have to write it down!  They were very excited about that! I look forward to our concert, which will include both the songs they wrote in C position and maybe also some of the songs they have just created out of whole cloth and memorized by practicing them - not having to stick with convention!  A good compromise has been struck for the first time in my teaching life!!  Have a great week everyone, and play the piano if you get a chance.  So many notes sound wonderful when you put them together no matter what you do!!

TEN STEPS TO A PERFECT COMPOSITION

1.  CHOOSE A PIECE OF COMPOSITION PAPER.

2.  WRITE A TREBLE CLEF AND A BASS CLEF, ADD BRACKET TO MAKE GRAND STAFF.

3. WRITE  4/4 TIME AFTER THE TREBLE AND BASS CLEF.

 USE QUARTER NOTES, HALF NOTES, WHOLE NOTES, IN YOUR COMPOSITION.

USE RESTS AND EIGHTH NOTES IF YOU WISH, AND IF YOU KNOW HOW TO PLAY  THEM.

4.  USE C POSITION NOTES: C-D-E-F-G IN RIGHT HAND (TREBLE CLEF) C-D-E-F-G IN LEFT HAND (BASS CLEF)

5.  BE SURE TO ADD A MEASURE LINE EVERY FOUR BEATS. MAKE SURE YOU HAVE AT LEAST SIXTEEN MEASURES WHEN THE COMPOSITION IS COMPLETE.  BEGIN AND END ON C!!  

6.  BE SURE YOUR STEMS ARE GOING THE CORRECT WAY.  DOWN ON THE LEFT ABOVE THE MIDDLE LINE, UP ON THE RIGHT BELOW THE MIDDLE LINE.

7.  BE SURE YOU ARE USING NOTES YOU KNOW HOW TO PLAY, SO YOU CAN PERFORM YOUR PIECE.

8.  IF YOUR LEFT HAND OR YOUR RIGHT HAND IS NOT PLAYING, YOU MUST ADD RESTS TO SHOW SILENCE IN ONE HAND OR ANOTHER.

9.  FINISH YOUR PIECE FIRST BEFORE YOU PLAY IT, THEN WHEN YOU PLAY IT YOU CAN CHANGE WHATEVER YOU WISH TO MAKE IT BETTER OR MORE INTERESTING.

10.  PLEASE ASK QUESTIONS IF THERE IS ANYTHING YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND!  ESSENTIAL FOR SUCCESS IN ANY PROJECT IS ASKING QUESTIONS OR ASKING FOR HELP!!  I AM HERE FOR YOUR SUCCESS!!!

Creative Drama Games

Occasionally, I write about my creative drama class.  It has been too long since I wrote about them, so I shall devote this entry to the wonderful stories that have occurred recently during creative drama class.  We have been playing many drama games that I received free from the Beat By Beat Press and David Farmer's website.

One of the games we played is called "On the Spot".  It is a creativity game, and it is all about thinking on your feet and moving quickly.  For example, I choose a topic or a theme, such as sports, and each student takes a turn moving to represent something that goes to that topic.  They also use an expression or make a sound to go with it.  I did this game with fifth graders, and they were very excited to try it.  Some students are shy, and tentative about their movements, but others throw themselves into the movement and enjoy the creative time.

 Either way, they get out of their comfort zone, and it is a great way to think about creating a tableau, a great way to think about categories and work within them, and a wonderful way to get kids moving and thinking all at once.

Do Unto Others

Everyone knows this golden rule.  Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.  Children come to middle school having been drilled on this all the way through elementary school.  They don't always follow it, though.  And everyone knows that middle school children can be cruel.  They can be cliquey, they can be competitive, they can be insecure, they can be worried about their place in the world.  They are also changing by the day, physically and psychologically, and there is an imbalance in their biology for those years, so we need to be patient and understanding of these many challenges on a day-to-day basis.  This means we need to help them, we need to teach them each day what kindness is, what compassion is, what it might feel like to treat someone kindly as opposed to cruelly.

I recently worked with some teachers on some anti-bullying strategies for kids, and it was a very positive exchange amongst the group, and a very diverse group as well.  There were classroom teachers, the librarian and media specialists, the music teacher (moi) the gym/health teacher and the guidance counselors.  We read an interesting article about how it doesn't help to punish students for their cruel behavior towards others, it works much better to work with them on taking responsibility for their behavior and helping them see how what they do isn't just about them, but it affects others in a negative way- if they turn it around they can see how it helps them to help others, it can help them see the beauty in a positive cycle rather than a negative one.

Here's what I see, though, sometimes, on the teacher level or adult level as well.  Think about how people work in their classrooms and think about themselves and only themselves.  Think about how they have so much pressure on them for their students to succeed, (test scores affecting teacher's evaluations) and how that affects how they interact with colleagues.  I find that there can be some complicated emotions around all this- competitive natures, grave insecurities, worried about their place in the school, and "in-groups" and "out-groups".  What does THAT sound like?  Middle school you say?  I would tend to agree.

So- the next time you complain about how rude or cruel a student is in the school, think about your own behavior as a teacher.  Are you modeling compassion?  Are you modeling patience and kindness?  Are you paying it forward?  I can say it about myself too, am I getting sucked into gossip and pettiness?  Am I not being honest with others around what my needs are and how that affects my teaching?  Am I insecure about MY place in the school as a less important "fun" subject teacher?  HMMM...be the change you want to see in the world, and don't forget to show hope, grace, and love in all that you try to accomplish..otherwise, what is it all for?  And why do we even imagine trudging into the front lines every day?  Because children are our next generation, and they learn so much from how we walk the walk and talk the talk.  I rest my case. Have a great day, and see you next week!!!