Service Learning 2

So our group got to go down to the service learning center a second time and this time we were a little more prepared. Not only did we know exactly what to expect, we also knew what worked and what didnt'. We opened the session up with a stretch followed by a Dalcroze exercise in order to get them moving. We knew they liked the Beatles so we stayed with the classics, Hey Jude and Yellow Submarine. The crowd remembered us and and the songs and got right involved. We also knew not to worry so much about teaching the lyrics, particularly for songs like yellow submarine. We were fortunate to have Will Snodgrass with us this time to help lead a percussion session for the second half. We passed out the instruments and Will directed the group to play either loud or soft according to his hand gestures. He also walked around the group pointing to people who he wanted to play. It was a good exercise because it got everybody to pay attention and focus on what the leader was doing.
Overall the experience was very positive. On a personal level it was quite rewarding to help cheer up the faces of these young less fortunate ones. You can tell that their motivation to participate and have fun is very high, much higher than your average fortunate high school student. I know I was like that. I think a greater lesson to learn from the whole experience is not to take for granted what you have, and that the best way to express this is through community service. We happen to be a group of musicians so it is only natural for us to lead a music session. I appreciate the efforts of my fellow group members and look forward to working with them in the future.
Ciao for now,
Brian

Service Learning Journal

Well, my group (group C) went to the work station last week on March 13, and none of us new exactly what to expect! What we found was: approximately 60 participants ranging in age from 20 to about 40 with most people in their young 20's. There disabilities ranged from a minor learning disability (being a little slow) right up to fully incapacitated in a wheel chair. The first five or ten minutes were pretty intense because we didn't know how they'd react to our program.
The good news is they responded very positively to our program! We were prepared to teach three songs, Yellow Submarine, Hey Jude, and Lean on Me. They seemed to love the idea. We wrote the lyrics of the chorus on a large sheet of paper and than played the song a few time while singing along with who ever wanted to. Hey Jude went so well, many of them got up and danced while the song was playing. Some of them were quite the dancers! So after playing and singing and dancing to Yellow Submarine and Hey Jude, we decided to pass out the percussive instruments. We decided to stick with Hey Jude for the rest of the session because they responded so well to it.
Overall the response was very positive and once we got started it felt easy and quite natural to continue with whatever worked best. Simple ideas work best.
The next step for us is to create a more organized format of the program so that the participants learn 4 or 5 new musical terms. The terms could be orchestra, or conductor etc. Also I hear there has been a request for some African music, so I plan to look into so good examples for the group. We'll be back in the first week of April. Good luck!