Kindergarten has been playing with all the different ways we can use instruments and voices to tell a story. Most of the experiences our kindergartners have had so far is finding the steady beat. But over the last few weeks we have been using the instruments more as sound effects. Egg shakers as rattles for rattlesnakes, drums for footsteps, thunder tubes for scary voices – the possibilities are endless! Of course we have also been applying our new, more subtle understanding of some of the contrast found in the elements of music: high/low, loud/soft, fast/slow.
All of these skills will come in very handy when we work on the new Kindergarten Cornerstone in Music. For a significant portion of the second advisory our students will be playing with different ways to tell a story – through movement and instrumental or vocal sounds. By the end of this advisory, we will be adept at improvising an accompaniment for a story! No small order. Even after planning different ways of interacting with the stories we work on, the final product will still be a little different every time. I can’t wait to see how our Maury Musicians express our stories through music!