Rehearsal Observation PDA Reflection Form

Name: Allison Griffiths Date of Observation: 2/2/13 Presenter: Nick Page PDA Hours: Hour 8 through Hour 12 (5 total) On February 2nd, I went to the Nassau Presbyterian Church to observe Nick Page work with two children choirsthe first, a group of third graders; the second, a group of middle and young high schoolers. Mr. Pages work that day was part of festival entitled Sing with Us, that comprised of a full day of rehearsal and culminated in a sing-along concert in the evening. I was lucky enough to sit in on all of the rehearsals and actually sang with the choir in the performance. The repertoire featured pieces that Mr. Page had written himself, as well as a Holly Near song, a Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young piece, and several traditional pieces from Africa and the Middle East. Continuing in the oral tradition of many of the cultures that were showcased, Mr. Page taught almost all of the music by rote, which was really incredible and effective. The day began with a rehearsal with the third grade choir. To my surprise, Mr. Page did not vocally warm the kids uphe simply jumped right in. While I understand that this might not be the healthiest thing to do vocally, Mr. Page saved a lot of time this way and also stayed truer to the oral tradition (i.e. I doubt that African tribesmen warm up before they start singing). Like he did with Molly Malone in Ed. Lab, Mr. Page began his rehearsal by singing his own piece to the kids and teaching it to them via call and response. This was very effective: the kids had the song down in a very short amount of time. What I thought was particularly effective about the call and response was that Mr. Page incorporated movement in the childrens responses; this got them energized and excited about what they were doing, which Mr. Page later said was the goal of the whole event. From there, Mr. Page taught the children a traditional Jewish song by rote and then tied it all together into a three-part canon. The efficiency with which Mr. Page taught this was really astounding to me; I thought it would take four times as long to even get the kids through the chorus, but he was able to put together the round in less than 10 minutes. I think that his choice to teach by rote and then by repetition allowed him to move quickly through the material. (Ill definitely remember that when Im in the classroom.) After that, Mr. Page taught

the children a traditional South African piece, again by rote, which they picked up very quickly. Then, he taught them a piece of his own, thats based on the Hippocratic Oath. What I really loved about this part of the rehearsal is that he took the time to explain to the kids what the Hippocratic Oath is, and more importantly, what it means to make a promise to others in the name of good. Throughout the day, Mr. Page brought this idea back in different pieces and remarks, and I have to say: this whole idea of committing to others ties in perfectly with creating a feeling of community within an ensemble and is also just really moving. I love that Mr. Page exposes even the younger children to the notion that service to others in the name of peace and goodness is incredibly noble; this is an idea I try to live by, and seeing it applied in the classroom really inspired me to utilize this belief in my teaching. In the afternoon, Mr. Page worked with the older childrens choir. Like with the little ones, Mr. Page taught nearly everything via rote. For some of the pieces, he supplied a lyric sheet and even a little music, but he never gave them an entire piece of music. At first, I thought this was a little odd and would hinder the kids learning, but actually the lack of sheet music didnt impact their learning at all: it really makes me wonder if written music can actually distract kids. I dont think I would ever reject written music completely as a teacherthats not fair to the kidsbut I do think its very important to mix up your teaching methods and use only rote sometimes. Mr. Pages style of teaching honestly gave me a new perspective and inspired me to be creative in my teaching. One method that I really found effective that Mr. Page used was teaching pronunciation via rhythm. Rather than having the kids learn pronunciation and rhythm separately, Mr. Page often taught them in conjunction as a way to introduce a piece and more importantly conserve rehearsal time. This method really seemed to help the kids pick up the music quickly. Often after that step, Mr. Page would use call and response to teach the melody, while holding up the solfege hand signs for the visual learners. This, too, maximized rehearsal time. For harmony, Mr. Page would usually teach by rote as well, but at cadences would often tell the kids to make up their own harmony. He told them that his theory of harmonization is that if it doesnt sound right, pick another note. This empowered the kids to make their own musical choices and again saved timebrilliant. Another method that I really liked was that Mr. Page would often draw a phrase in the air rather than conduct. This gave the kids a sense of line and worked just as well as if hed been usually traditional conducting

patterns. I thought that was a great way to mix things up and will definitely consider that in my own conducting. Overall, I was really inspired by Mr. Pages work and teaching style. Ive honestly never seen anything like it before, but I found myself being very attracted to this non-traditional, nonWestern way of teaching. I know that some of what he does is unorthodox, but thats what I loved so much about his teaching methods. As a student, I know I respond very well to crosscultural music and teaching methods, so I really hope to be able to incorporate that style into my own teaching. This was an amazing experience!