Guitar

The children of cohort 6 are in the middle of a musical explosion.  All day they are singing and making rhythms with and through their work and play.  They are making up songs, miming playing instruments on sticks outside, singing together, asking for new and favorite songs and enjoying the instruments we already have in the classroom : a wooden drum, a gourd shaker and a kalimba. With my own background in music this new interest is highly exciting to me and we have been talking about how music makes us feel, that music can tell stories, clapping simple rhythms and basic music theory such as tempo. 

I have been wanting to bring a guitar into the classroom and the school for a while, so the next step in expanding our musical knowledge is very exciting to me.  I have always had close ties with music and even studyed it in college.  Any way I can share this love is important to me.  During our last group time we talked about what a guitar is. Many of the children shared their knowledge from home and the excitement is growing. 

"My brother has a ukulele!  He plays Oh My Darling!" - Z

"The top is sharp. You gotta watch out." - V

"My daddy has a guitar. But he doesn't play it." -C

"We need to get a violin and wear it on or back, then have a guitar in the front!" - H

I then played a bit of classical guitar music. We listen and everyone fell silent. I held my phone close to everyone could hear. 

"This is guitar music."  Then I turned my phone around and showed them all a video of a many playing the guitar. I explained about the parts of the guitar and their functions: the head, the neck, the body and the strings. 

"I have a neck!  Right here!" Z said immediately. 

We ended our introduction to the guitar by talking about how fragile it is and how it will be so much fun to enjoy making music together with this new instrument. 

This will be a very fun exploration for us! I look forward to seeing where it might take us!