This past week, my students and I had a great experience as we created a makeshift recording studio in our school and recorded an original piece of music: The Erosion Blues.
It is a great example of integration, collaboration and freedom in structure.
Integration: The blues was meant to be a culminating project for our unit on Land and Water which focuses on erosion. Students were to explain a type of erosion (water, wind or ice) and use some content vocabulary to show they know the meaning of the words.
Collaboration: The music teacher taught the students the form of the 12 bar blues in music class. In fact, nearly all the students are able to play the structure on xylophones (Orff Instruments) and some were even taught it on recorder. In our recording, you only hear piano and vocals, but there may be an opportunity for the kids to lay down another track or two at their next music class!
Freedom in Structure: The 12 bar blues creates one structure in which we sung our lyrics, but there is another structure that helped focus the small groups of 3-4 students to compose the lyrics. They follow a simple AAB form which means there is a line of lyrics (A) that is repeated (A) and then a different set of lyrics (B) completes a verse. The ends of lines A and B rhyme. For example:
A – Rivers can erode rocks, mountains and canyons wear away.
A – Rivers can erode rocks, mountains and canyons wear away.
B – It still erodes, no matter what you say!
The After Effects:
I asked my students to reflect on their experiences as we drafted, practiced and recorded our blues song. Here are some of their words:
“I thought it was fun because everyone had a lot of enery and was able to share it.”
“It made me feel special…made me feel musical and unique.”
“It was fun because when we sang the chorus, everybody was singing.”
“I want to do something like this again. The blues is fun.”
My students, in general, are excited about the blues. In fact I have two girls who are actively writing their own blues lyrics. One is completed and posted here and the other girl is presently writing her own “Moving Blues” about her family’s move to another house.
This lesson transitioned me from our TIC focus last month in “Creating Community” to this month’s “Freedom in Structure”. It was one of those experiences that fed off of my talents and those of my students: from the students volunteering to sing out loud to the boys in charge of the recording device (my netbook powered by Audacity). The smiles were big and the excitement was contagious. There was a lot of inspiring going on!
Here are all the links you may be interested in. Please check them out and leave your comments. I will share them all with my class.
LYRICS
Erosion blues 1 by eliza_peterson
Other posts in reference to this project:
Musical Experiences – Composing in the Classroom
Balancing Testing with Creativity
Related posts:
Elizabeth Peterson has devoted her life to education and to reaching out to other teachers who want to remain inspired. Mrs. Peterson teaches fourth grade in Amesbury, Massachusetts and is the host of www.theinspiredclassroom.com. She holds an M.Ed. in Education, “Arts and Learning” and is currently enrolled in a C.A.G.S. program through Plymouth State University with a focus in “Arts Leadership and Learning.” Elizabeth is author of Inspired by Listening, a teacher resource book that includes a method of music integration she has developed and implemented into her own teaching. She teaches workshops and courses on the integration of the arts into the curriculum, leads an arts integration PLC (PLaiC) and is adjunct faculty for PSU. Mrs. Peterson believes there is a love of active, integrated learning in all children and from their enthusiasm, teachers can shape great opportunities to learn. 
‘Erosion Blues’ seems to be a natural extension for our 6th grade science earth day lesson. Our ecological curriculum based research will link smoothly with the music and community fiber of this lesson. I love the idea of ‘Jazzing’ our science understanding with an art history collaboration.
Rachael Schwarzmiller
Thanks for the comment! I’m happy to share our fun song with you. Would love to hear more about what you do with your science lesson.
I love this idea and I love reading your blog! Even though I’m still a senior in college I keep thinking about how I can effectively integrate the arts into my future classroom. I’m so happy to hear from somebody who is successfully doing so! Keep up the great work and keep posting!
Jennifer, You are so sweet. I’m glad you are enjoying the website. Keep reading and commenting – it’s what keeps the site interesting! Good luck with the rest of your senior year.