DaCapo Teachers’ Convention

DA CAPO CONVENTION 2011

 Da Capo Saturday Music School is a welcoming place for teachers as they arrive before the students early on Saturday mornings and last Saturday it had an expectant atmosphere as well as the enticing smell of coffee and croissants.   It was the Staff Convention and we were going to explore Listening Children.

Da Capo was founded 21 years ago by Jane Cutler.  Her ambition was to unify the approach of her teaching staff, based on the ideas and philosophy of Kodaly and Jacques-Dalcroze.  In order to do this the staff undertake training days at different , progressive levels and once a year they all join together in a Convention.

Jane set the ball rolling in asking us how we choose music for listening.   We need to know the purpose of the listening exercise; we need to work with our  own likes and strengths; we need to look above all for music which children will respond to, which may be strongly rhythmic, encouraging them to move.   Do children listen to music at all these days?  Are they exposed to serious music or is this thought inappropriate for their undeveloped palates.  Although Jane’s love and leaning is towards Germanic orchestral music, she doesn’t believe in defining music except as good or not.   Quality will be recognised instinctively by all ages.

How do we know that when we play something to anyone, that  they are hearing what we want them to hear? By the end of the day after all the listening exercises we had done, I was listening in a more perceptive way.   So the games and exercises we give to children as they listen should be designed to guide them towards understanding.  Some of this will be conscious and some will just happen at a deeper level of the brain.

Nearly all listening exercises we used at the beginning of the day, involved establishing the beat and metre of the piece through walking and tapping different body parts.  This proved to be much less easy and straightforward than it sounds and one has to choose pieces carefully, but if some children pick up on a faster beat and some go for an alla breve feel; go with it, acknowledging that both are correct.  Don’t explain that 3/8 can be in one or in 3, just find a game to illustrate it.  This is often done just by walking the beat, tapping any obvious faster sub divisions or beating time in the style that Jacques-Dalcroze taught.  Try to let each child learn at their own speed, going through the due process rather than copying someone else.

Jane Cutler demonstrated an example session with Mozart’s clarinet concerto for different ages.  Da Capo colours represent the ages of the children.  Pre juniors are Reds: After establishing the beat and metre, walk forwards when you hear the clarinet and backwards when you don’t.  For Yellows, that is young juniors, after establishing the pulse and metre, find a 4 action pulse.  Let a few children suggest this.  Then let children keep time with quaver and then semiquaver body actions.  Give pupils the written music with some pitches missing.

Greens are older juniors.  Here we listened to the slow movement and rolled balls to try and make them last a whole bar.  This requires some judgement and skill.  Then we beat time and listened to the cello part.   We received a printed sheet with the violin and the cello part laid out in stick notation but as a score.  We sang the cello part with solfa and hand signs.  We had a go at singing one part while hand signing the other.

We attempted to reproduce the rhythm of the opening of the first movement, first just by clapping and then by differentiating between the different rhythmic values by reproducing them on different parts of your body.

Blues are young secondary children.   After the preliminary work with pulse and metre and an attempt to name the rhythmic solfa of the opening of the first movement, children are given the first 8 bars in 2 formats.  The first is conventional but with articulation missing and the second is in stick notation with some solfa and bar lines missing.  Sing through and decide as a group how to fill this in and then do it individually.

Purples who are older secondary children, had a copy of the score and discussed why there was no clarinet playing at the beginning, although it was in the score.   (The solo part may play the tune in the tuttis but does not have to).  Then we notice that the clarinet and violin parts are written starting on different notes. The process of transposition is discussed.

Before a delicious lunch the staff went off into groups to play through repertoire.

This included the Beethoven septet, a piece by Mozart, for glass harmonica arr. for 2 violins and flute,  a trombone, cello and tuba playing a trio, a guitar duo and a piano duet.

After lunch we were asked to plan how we would share this music with our pupils in 5 activities.   We were directed to think of mood, time/tempo, rhythmic solfa, solfa pitches, harmonic progression, identifying particular instruments.  The Beethoven Septet exploited the fact that 7 different instruments were being played and in groups representing each instrument facing away from the players were instructed to stand when their instrument was playing.

The guitars lined us up on one side of a swamp.  We could only take a step across when a fa was played.  Then we were asked to click our fingers every time they played an acciaccatura.   The brass and cello group handed out balls to mark the phrases with, and so on.  This process of developing games and then playing them took up the whole afternoon and much fun was had by all.

The pieces that the staff rehearsed will be performed to parents and children by the staff at the weekly 5 minute café concerts.

I was surprised when I got home how open my ears were.  I was listening in a different way.  Being able to sit and listen is such a gift.  If this were all we were ever to offer our students, we should not belittle it.

Jane Gillie

Violin Teacher