I went to though school today to begin working with the marching band. We were supposed to begin at 2:00pm, but didn't "start" until 3:15pm. The teacher and I went into the room, and he asked me what I needed to teach. Up until this point, I had no idea what I was supposed to be teaching; I had been told I was part of a staff helping to form a marching band, and I assumed that there would be a plan, that I would have music to teach, and that I would receive direction in what the performance would be. I was wrong.
After much confusion, I learned the following:
1. These children had never received any musical training. At all.
2. We have a performance on August 10th for Independence Day
3. I'm teaching on my own.
4. There are 50 kids, ages 13-17.
5. I am the one responsible for creating a theme and writing music for the performance.
6. There are only percussion instruments, number unknown. Instruments include bass drums (all of the same pitch), snare drums, larger snare drum meets tom thing, and marching xylophones.
7. The music I have to write should include Ecuadorian folk music, a popular Ecuadorian song, and a song in English.
When I discovered all of this, I honestly felt tears welling up in my eyes. As a flute player, I have a very limited proficiency in percussive instruments. Sure, I could BS my way through teaching it using what I've learned in my percussion techniques class and what I've picked up along the way thus far in the musical career. It wouldn't be great to start, but I'd work on it and figure it out; you learn more when you teach, right? However, this was different. Not only am I starting from scratch, but I also have to write the music for the percussion ensemble. I'm also completely on my own and have no direction whatsoever.
Once I left the school, I immediately went home to ask for help from my peers and faculty at KSU. I am humbled by the encouragement and assistance I have received already! I cannot thank these people enough. Thank you for calming me down. Thank you for allowing me to see that there is hope in this situation. Thank you for showing me that I already have many of the tools I need to be successful. Thank you for sharing warm ups and exercises with me. Thank you for being creative and providing me with incredible ideas to use resources I never thought of! Thank you for everything.
I now have a theme and music selections. Our theme will be "Celebrating Life." My transcription will (hopefully) include musical ideas from "All You Need Is Love," "A Mi Lindo Ecuador," and "Celebra La Vida." I'm very thankful for my host sister, Karlita, for helping me find music that people of all ages enjoy!
This week I will begin by teaching with an Orff methodology, mainly lots of experiencing, repetition, and body percussion. Hopefully by the end of the week we will get to how to correctly hold sticks and some basic 8s on separate hands; we'll see, though. This will also buy me some time to figure out the Spanish tunes and then piece everything together!
The experience I have ahead will definitely be challenging. However, the more I think about it, the more I realize that all of these unknowns in teaching are extremely common! When you start at a school on day one, you really don't know what you're walking into. Sure, you have more of an idea of your resources and you have a generic plan, but you don't know the kids' abilities and to what they will be receptive. Although I'm extremely overwhelmed, I know that I will gain exponential knowledge throughout this process, particularly in problem solving, teaching percussion, and arranging. I came into this trip hoping to find confidence in myself; hopefully I'll leave with some when this is over!!
Before I go, I just wanted to reach out to you all. If you have any resources, ideas, pedagogical suggestions, etc. PLEASE comment with them below or send them to me in an email! I absolutely cannot do this alone, and I sincerely appreciate any and all assistance and encouragement.
Stay tuned for updates... 😳