Adventures in Making Music
In our Adventures in Making Music classes, children learn how to sing or play a woodwind, brass, percussion, or string instrument. This program engages students creatively, cognitively, physically, and emotionally. Our teaching artists, professional performing musicians who are well trained in the pedagogical methods of music education, design lessons that cultivate children’s instrumental technique, understanding of music fundamentals, and appreciation of instrument care. This musical engagement also nurtures their self-confidence, communication skills, and— through the experience of ensemble playing—their sensitivity to others.
For many of our students, this program represents their first experience playing an instrument, so they are brought from total unfamiliarity to the ability to play beginner music in six months. This means that even our inexperienced students can begin to make music, and often it is music that they and their friends know and like.
No matter which instrument they are exploring, students show progress in individual expressiveness, discrimination between tempi and pitches, cooperation as a group/ ensemble, and the ability to read notes and rhythms. All students perform in spring recitals at their schools.
The Midori & Friends Guitar Program
Adventures in Making Music also features a whole class guitar program that actively engages children and their classroom teachers in learning how to play the guitar. The Guitar Program, which was inaugurated in 2006 with generous funding from the John and Joan D’Addario Foundation, is now in 7 schools and community centers, reaching over 500 children. Students experience individual pride and satisfaction while belonging to something greater than themselves – their classroom guitar orchestras.
Check out some recent press about our guitar programs:
- Classical Guitar magazine - September 2010
- The Manhattan Times newspaper - January 2011
