Music & Orchestra
Meet the teacher
We train the ear in the 1st-3rd grades by playing musical games and singing songs. In 1st and 2nd grade the students play the pentatonic flute and the 3rd grader starts reading music and playing the soprano recorder.
The string orchestra program; violin, viola, cello and bass, begins in 4 th grade. Playing a string instrument trains the ear in a deep way. Students refine their sense of pitch as their fingers create each note. The vibrations of the string resonate near their heart through the flowing movements of the bow arm. Patience is needed to practice and learn an instrument. Skills and synapses are formed through right and left hand coordination and group work brings the children to a greater awareness of others as they strive together to create a cohesive ensemble for themselves and
the listener.
Choir & Music Appreciation
Meet the Teacher
Grades 1 & 2
Introducing and facilitating the children to and through the different joys and possibilities of song and musical communication together, harboring a loving practice of group attention, connection, play, discovery, respect, and classroom presence. Through weekly exposure to simple musical-expressive building blocks of melody, imaginative content, vocal range, dynamics, movement, and rhythm, the children explore and develop a more engaged and regular relationship to the act of experiencing and inventing music together – a precious and unique opportunity for them once a week. Lessons are meant to be fun, inquisitive, supportive, flexible, and adventurous, engaging and caring for the full energetic and emotional spectrum of all the children.
Grade 3
Beginning to introduce lessons in expanding musical reverence and practice – our body as our instrument, music as sound, vibration, energy, and life – supporting the children to begin exploring this interconnected awareness through breath, voice, and coordinated exercises employing both rhythmic, melodic, and spatial elements. These practices engage the entire classroom of students, presenting a fresh and easy physical education towards taking part together in the sound-energy-song spirit which can unfold over the course of 45-minutes. Through conscious group warmup, the children will come to sense new aspects of their expressive musical potential, and arrive at a more embodied state within the singing, sounding experience. Songs both sung and played instrumentally which already play a vital role in their daily classroom environment will be further addressed and explored, as well as the presentation of other possible material in tune with their lessons, the seasons and festivals.
Grades 4/5
Further introduction to an expanded appreciation in the approach to music making and singing – a reverence for this opportunity together to experience sound, vibration, energy, and musical perception. The class is guided and inspired through warmups into the musical elements of breath, voice, movement, and space, which support and encourage the children in their focus, well-being, group attunement, and relativity towards what they are learning in their day-to-day lives at school and beyond. Along with new as well
spontaneous musical material, songs which are already being taught to the students by their primary teacher are reworked and explored from perspectives which help to illuminate the dynamic components and advance their abilities as vocalists and developing artists in body and mind. Further emphasis and instruction on musical notation and group coordination is also approached in ways which help the children both review and gain greater clarity on structural, theoretical, as well as physiological aspects of music and its performance.
Grades 6/7 & 8
In what is the largest combined music class at Wishing Well comprised of the school's oldest students, the physical education and exploration of dynamic sound, vocal, and mixed instrumental music-making, is approached flexibly and inspirationally along the relative lines of the childrens' further vocational advancements in life. Every class is an opportunity in expanding reverence for artistic process, individually and collaboratively, as well as growth in respects to the students' evolving expressive and perceptive potential in life. Coordinated group warmups through musical exercises, energy, and relationships are addressed which help to harbor greater awareness in interrelational experience and expressive initiative. The teaching always strives to adapt to the unique instrumental proclivities and expressive realms of the students to more fully align with their spiritual blossoming, as well as helping to empower and support their understanding of greater collective musical possibilities. Songs and musical/dramatic materials which are already implemented into their daily classes, seasons and school festivities, are further touched upon, reworked, and discussed, as well as new discoveries which can encourage their sense of group collaboration. Greater emphasis is also made on the advancement of their abilities to both read and understand musical notation.
