Class doing assignment through music
March 12, 2007
“It’s after school, but about a dozen Jackson Elementary School students are prepared to stay as long as it takes to get this assignment done.Dome, dum, dum a bass drum sounds. They bob their heads, their knees bending at the sound of each beat. They grin and glance at one another as their teacher, Scott Sayre, looks on. For this day, their Altadena classroom has been turned into a recording studio.
‘Gandhi!’ they rap in unison into the microphone as they stand in front of a synthesizer. ‘The freedom fighta, the freedom fighta.’
Sayre, a pianist, wanted to give the sixth-graders an unconventional way to learn their reading material and suggested that they write a rap song. In exchange, their research paper assignment would be shortened.
His songwriting idea has led to the students recording their second single on a recent afternoon.
‘It’s their media, it’s their love, it’s their genre,’ said Sayre, who believes that some students remember information better by singing it, similar to how youngsters learn the alphabet. ‘We frequently teach the linear side but forget about’ other methods of teaching.”
(Via Topix.net)
Things to consider before you choose your digital piano keyboard
March 4, 2007
When you are considering purchasing a digital piano or keyboard there are a number of questions you need to ask yourself to ensure you are buying the right instrument to suit your needs. Do some research and make a list of your requirements, as well as deciding on your budget, before you start shopping for your piano keyboard or digital piano. You don’t want to buy something and then find it doesn’t meet your needs, but at the same time there is little point in paying for high tech features that you won’t use.
The first question might be how many keys do you need? The greatest number of piano keys available is 88, the least around 25. If you are purely using a keyboard for sampling, requiring only a small range, a lesser number of keys on a mini keyboard will do the job. If you are playing complicated piano pieces, however, you will need a higher number of keys. You may think you only need 61 or 76 keys for your current playing level, but perhaps the complexity of your playing may increase and so an 88 key instrument could be a good future invest
ment.
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