La empatía pilar de la inteligencia emocional

As participants arrived they reconnected warmly with each other. The children gravitated quickly to the instruments and I delayed the start of the session to allow for this exploration by the children and the community building of the parents.

My eyes are scanning the room to see who has come back and who hasn’t. I’m really disappointed not to see Kye and her mother.

Andre arrived for the first time with his parents, Sylvia and Tony, who brought the required signed ethics forms.

Me: That’s fantastic that Mum and Dad are here so why do you think that both of them decided to come.

Andre: Well I think they want to learn how to do some music and see how it’s done.

Me: Do you think that maybe they want to support you and do things with you.

Sylvia: (To Andre.) Yeah we come here for you mainly.

Andre: They just gave me the answer. They come here for me. (Smiling.)

I am really interested in what these two boys are doing. They are making music. Has Barnaby taken the idea of echo from last week and is now teaching Andre who has only just arrived? Has Barnaby seen some value in this as a technique for music making? As the camera pans to Sarah and Callum, I see they are also echoing each other.

We united in the circle again, the atmosphere still one of slight trepidation, and I felt the pressure of needing to ‘deliver’ to keep the participants coming back. The non-return of a mother and daughter had really brought home the unstable nature of my relationship with this group.

Some of the children stood with their families, but the four boys who attended the After School Care Program stood united together. Aiden’s father Sean tried to intercept these boys by standing next to his son, but Aiden gently pushed him away. Sean did not seem overly bothered and moved back to his position in another part of the circle. Everyone was a bit unsure of protocol.

Despite the cameramen asking again for a formation other than a circle, I stay firm to my beliefs of the importance of this as a sign of us as one community. But at least they know now that we will not stay there for long.

Straight away I started saying the rhyme from last week, ‘We Say Hello’ and clapped my own hands in the rests. The group did not hesitate in joining in, and I sensed a relief from the adults that I was not asking too much of them at that moment. I introduced the melody of the rhyme through imitation and immediately feel a tension, a holding back by parents, their lack of confidence and inhibitions about singing on display. As I accompanied the song on marimba with the most simple of chordal accompaniments, we sang the song while they remained in the circle, clapping one neighbour’s hands and turning at the end of each phrase to clap their other neighbour’s hands.

At the end of the rhyme, partners walked together while I played just the simple chord on the marimba to make the length of the B section very clear, and they stood in a different part of the circle by the end of my playing. I wanted to see who could sense the return to the A section.

I asked the group what else we could do instead of the clap and Hamish offered ‘shake hands’. His demonstration showed the clear two shakes within the rest period and I noticed all participants were able to do this action precisely on the beat.

I’m glad that I used the same repertoire as last week as the jump to singing is enough. I really want to gain their trust that I won’t demand too much of them musically.

Although this activity may not have presented a best-practice model of creative, imaginative and artistic expectations of an Orff Schulwerk lesson, I believed it was necessary to build on the experiences from last week and introducing singing seemed a major step. Although a couple of parents felt quite comfortable, the majority did not. The children sang but were somewhat taken aback by the deep voices of the males. Their reaction tended to be to soften their voices and to sing through grins. This five-minute activity seemed necessary to

Coco: My dad’s problem…it’s very embarrassing. Me: What’s embarrassing?

Coco: Because he likes to sing and when he sings he sounds like he’s an opera singer. It’s really weird.

It seemed important that names featured again this week to allow people to address each other, either in the session or casually in the schoolyard.

Me: I’ve got my own name here as a parcel in my hand. Can you put your name in your hand? I can bounce it or throw it, and I can say my name like it moves.

(I demonstrate using pitch Sa a _{rah as I throw my name up and then} ‘catch’ it.)

(Everyone explores this idea with their own name.)

Can you please put your parcel with your name in your pocket and we’re going to use this ‘magic’ parcel.

I began holding my name in my hands and I said my name following a pathway as I passed it to my neighbour where it ‘magically’ turned into her name. I encouraged much more use of the whole body to pass rather than just the hands. This took more concentration but there were lots of smiles. Aiden was demonstrating somewhat inappropriate behaviour and Linda, Barnaby’s mother, poked Aiden in the back. He was well aware that he was being told off by this action. Linda understood that this was not the context for Aiden to be disrupting the flow of the activity.

Linda is ‘parenting’ Aiden, and he ceases this behaviour. This activity is playful and allows for exploration of the voice and movement of the body. I believe the more experiences I can offer taking small steps, will eventually free everyone to be more creative. The trouble is I’m not sure I have time for small steps.

After this initial activity I still felt I needed to reduce anxiety about our music making in this setting so I repeated the ‘Names can be Strange’ rhyme from last week with the enthusiasm of a speaker at Hyde Park Corner. Instantly the group joined in.

We said the rhyme together and I gestured to them to imitate me. As a B section, I said my name ‘Sarah’ using a variety of pitches and rhythms over 8 beats with movements. They echoed with amusement and I repeated this modelling exercise. My example was the same length as the rhyme planned to provide further experiences and understandings of the concept of phrasing and form while not changing the basic structure. We returned to the A section and I modelled again saying my name using dynamics, pitch and rhythm. It was a typical rondo form.

I’m torn between trying to model various ways of using my voice and movement in a way for the group to fully grasp the idea, and offering some more creative ideas with the hope that some may extend themselves. I don’t want to be explicit about the length of the different sections—I want them to feel it.

I asked Olivia if she would like to take the lead and use her name. I explained that we would all say the rhyme twice and then she could create/improvise a pattern using her name and we would imitate her. I picked Olivia because she is one of the older children and more

confident than some. As she was standing next to me it didn’t seem unreasonable or favourable that she was my first choice, although some may question why I choose a name with an anacrusis.

Of course I did choose Olivia particularly. I really wanted to select a child rather than an adult and I feel most confident in Olivia’s musical ability. I feel annoyed with myself that I’ve given in to my beliefs of inclusivity for the sake of capturing a ‘product’ that will likely be ‘right’.

She understood, but with the break at the end of her improvisation it meant some began echoing too early not allowing for that last beat of rest.

What a shemozzle! I believe so much of this is because most do not show their feeling of the pulse through any movement of their body. I encourage them to embody the pulse but it seems so unnatural to some that it becomes a hindrance rather than a help.

Andre volunteered but before he performed his version of his name, I articulated the structure more precisely. Regardless, Andre said his name slowly once, in a deep voice, with no evidence of any rhythmic component at all. There was no choice but to echo Andre’s offering.

Andre learns drums but his lack of rhythmic response here might be because he has never had to think musically in this way before. But why do I have a problem with this? Is it that I’m thinking of the musical learning of beat, rhythm, phrasing and form, and that my objectives aren’t being met because I'm not being explicit? If I model too much and am overly explicit this disallows the kind of creative response that Andre has given. I do not want to hinder his creativity by having such tight structures that few options are available, but learning about structure is important. Should I change my objectives to welcome any response, particularly one that steps outside of the structure I’m presenting? I feel that Andre has not made a conscious choice between his arrhythmic response and the rhythmic response I have implied.

I was enthusiastic in my response in order to send the message to Andre that his idea had value, despite the fact that it was not what was expected or requested. I was also aware that this was his first session. I asked him to create another way of saying his name but before I could refine my request to encourage a rhythmic response, he said his name with a direct contrast to his first—quickly and in a very high squeaky voice.

I realise that we say the rhyme, and for me this sets the tempo and the phrasing and the expected length of responses. But at no time do most of the participants seem to expect or recognise the connection between the rhyme (and the musical components within the rhyme) and what they are then asked to do.

Dylan saw that Andre’s example was acceptable, and was in fact reinforced by my positive comments, and so offered to be the soloist. Christine, his mother, looked at him with eyes that suggested she was unsure of Dylan’s capacity to do this.

Perhaps she doesn’t want to be embarrassed by him. I’m wondering about Dylan’s contribution because he has not yet shown clear understanding of musical concepts.

We all said the rhyme first then Dylan said his name whilst doing a small jump on the spot and punching the air in front of him, towards the inside of the circle. He had offered a rhythmic phrase and a movement, within the structure that I had presented.

It took Dylan a second to respond to my request to perform another one and he repeated the words and rhythm but changed his movement to punching towards the outside of the circle.

I’m aware that the demonstration of understanding of musical elements and concepts is fluid. In some contexts children, and adults, can demonstrate clearly and in other contexts or at other times, this is not shown. It confirms my thinking that classroom music educators need to continually assess rather than rely on a one-off

performance of particular or specific abilities. This fluidity must also be relevant to the standardised testing that children do in literacy and numeracy. Parents here can see how Dylan had been struggling to present understandings of musical concepts, but now he has. I wonder if such observation allows them to consider the fluidity of their own children’s learning patterns.

I asked the participants to work with their families and to join together with previously unknown families to make groups of four or five. They were reminded of the task from the previous week where they put their names together into a rhythmic sequence. Being more directive, I requested that they again create a rhythmic pattern of their names to fit into four or eight beats, and that they repeat this pattern twice. Once they felt secure in their rhythmic patterns they created a movement sequence to accompany them.

My planning had been for the small groups to create their own rhythmic pattern of their names and then have an improvised section. But I changed this after the clear lack of understandings needed in order to be able to improvise.

The final piece had everyone saying the rhyme ‘Names can be strange’ repeated twice, and then in turn the small groups presented their rhythmic patterns from their names. This performance in rondo form is very typical in Orff Schulwerk.

We have been doing a variety of movements all session: using our bodies to pass ‘parcels’; using our bodies when saying our names with various pitches and rhythms. I’m hoping they’ll think about how they can say their names in interesting ways and then demonstrate that through movement.

The groups worked on the task but there was a level of politeness amongst parents placed together who obviously did not know each other well. Some parents appeared to be doing very little other than making vague, uncreative suggestions about the order of the names. Some of the children were having no input at all and leaving it to the parents. Some seemed keen to work on the movement whilst most of the adults seemed more concerned with how the names could fit together.

Tonya: Last week we merged two names together. Christine: That’s right, I remember your group doing that.

Last week I specifically pointed out to everyone that it was difficult for Tonya’s group because they had 5 people and so they had to somehow work out how to fit all those names into the 4 beats. Christine and Tonya are now together with Dylan, Hamish and Maya—and it takes some time before they transfer the learning from last week. Should I have said ‘Some of you have more people than beats so you’ll need to work on merging some names together’? Even on reflection I would answer no. Somehow the learning process needs to include how to transfer learning from one situation to another. But this reflection has brought to the fore a deeper reflection on my set of values and beliefs about my teaching and how to facilitate learning. I am very aware that I have expectations of learners problem solving themselves and I believe people rise to a challenge. There are those who don’t share my beliefs and focus more on ensuring success through slower, more directive teaching. I personally find this style somewhat frustrating. Perhaps this has something to do with how we like to learn ourselves. I think children in schools embrace the differences.

Christine and Tonya’s families presented their rhythmic pattern.

Delighted as I was that they were able to create an appropriate rhythmic pattern, the flow of this repeated pattern was made difficult due to the movements they had selected. As one of the children had made the suggestion of bobbing down before jumping up, perhaps the adults felt that affirming that was more important than the musical product. This example

highlighted a difference between teaching children as a cohort in schools, and teaching families who were invested in the care of their family members.

5. Portrait Hyperlink: Names With Movement

Sarah again took the lead in her group, very confident in her music skills and knowledge. As the other members of her group also believed this, they accepted her ideas without question.

I’ve struggled to even notate their pattern and am bewildered. Sarah is in her fourth year of violin lessons. She seems to have a very unusual sense of the music concepts we have been experiencing as a group. There is no collaboration here as she is seen as the ‘expert’ and it makes me wonder what happens in schools when the teacher acts as the ‘expert’.

Peter asked his children for their ideas and pointed out any difficulties that their suggestions may have had. It was Peter that suggested saying one name twice and the children then explored various ways of doing this. Their resulting performance demonstrated

understanding of rhythm and phrasing by all the children. They have had him as a model and were learning from him.

Is this very different to learning in a class with varying degrees of knowledge and experience?

Their movements were very structured and on ‘Pete’ they stretched right up and also lifted their voices to a higher pitch. They stood in a circle and Peter leant forward so that they were all at the same height. He watched Dan the whole time and his eyes and eyebrows supported his son throughout.

Susie: Well I found it interesting that there were some people who had absolutely no sense of rhythm (laughing).