End of the 2nd Week

As Music Teacher at the charter school, I have 83 students in five classes.

This week we covered "syncopation", which is the basic rhythm of most African American music in common or 4/4 time, including some jazz and blues compositions, R&B, Rap, Hip Hop, Reggae, Soul and Rock. We also explored these rhythms:

2/2 - March
2/4 - Ballad (Also, known as cut time)
3/4 - Waltz
6/8 - Latin (Salsa, Clave, etc.)
5/4 - Irregular Rhythms (Also 9/4, 11/4 and 13/4)

While classical music in 4/4 looks like this:
1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and

Syncopated Rhythm looks like this:
1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and

Also, we identified key signatures in the songs in the Music Book that the school has. Students learned that there are three accidentals: sharp, flat and natural. They completed Quiz #1.

On Friday, I had each class read my articles in the Broward Times on B.B. King and Al Green; Mary J. Blige and Macy Gray. This exercise revealed the students who read well and those who do not. They were impressed that I'd met B.B. King and written these articles on him and the other artists.

My goal is to show the students that there are many careers involved with music and that concert reviewer or critic is one of them.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK:

"You and I are made for goodness. You and I are creatures who are made for transcendence, were made for love, were made for caring, were made for embracing one another. I have look out of door but I mean, although God looks down and sees all of the ghastly things and God says oh, dear.

"Whatever got into me to create that lot?

"And then God sees and God sees the others, the ones who wipe the tears from the eyes of the many, the ones that say we want to do something about poverty eradication. We want to do something about the HIV pandemic and God begins to smile through the tears. And a little angel walks up to God and wipes God's tears from God's eyes. And God says, yes, they have vindicated me. Because you and I are ultimately made for goodness. And that is what is going to prevail."

-- Archbishop Desmond Tutu at Clinton Global Initiative

Video and transcript of this moving panel on "Managing Diversity"
with Fareed Zakaria, Editor, Newsweek Internationa, Queen Rania
Al-Abdullah, Queen, The Royal Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan
and Hamid Karzai President, Islamic Republic of Afghanistan

Day 4 - Musical Careers

Today, we discussed capital, business, free enterprise, products, services and Careers in Music:

Vocalist, musician, composer, lyricist, publisher
Producer, Engineer, Booking Agent, Manager, Marketing,
Graphic designer, manufacturer, distributor (bar code)
DJ, Critic, reviews

One class of 8th graders was very responsive. They sang my song "Dreamin'" in the Reggae style, while one young lady and young man beat the drums.

In the last class, someone raised the thermometer to 80 degrees and the room was very uncomfortable. Students were out of their seats, talking uncontrolably and very rude. They were throwing things at each other. I wrote up four young ladies and asked them to leave the room. I called the mother of one of the young ladies whom I asked to leave the day before for cursing at the security guard and announcing to the class that I was the next to be cursed out. Her mother was not happy to hear from me.