Geary St. - Dennis Thompson's NeRien Group

Slootgolven

Finally Spring!!!

A klas v3f final pop presentation

Finally a bit of spring in the Netherlands. And since I just today turned in my 3e report grades, the school year is 3 quarters of the way finished. I must say that the eternal lack of sun had me depressed for many a week. It was not always easy to look forward to my days of working working working. But once in the classroom things always went much better than I had feared.

Actually the teaching end of affairs continues to go extremely well. Overall my third year class presentations have been better than ever. The combination of my being a much better teacher, together with the added possibilities of our ever developing music department and with my simply being more used to my working environment, continues to yield better and better results from the students.

SECTIE-VOORZITTERSCHAP
It’s mostly the non-teaching affairs that are the greatest cause of my current work stress.This year I traded in my contribution to the Christmas festivals for a session as the ‘sectie-voorzitter’. That’s not such a difficult job, but it just so happens that I inherit in my session our greatest debt ever. Our department is now on April 1 of the academic year 2008-2009, already €2,000 in the red for the for next school year! It’s not at all my fault of course, but I feel so responsible for everything. Coming into the section meeting that I yesterday led, I needed to be sure that I’d thought of everything possible to do in order to rectify or at least control our situation. I’m in a constant fear that I’ll somehow be accused of not doing enough to stay on top of my sectie-voorzitterschap.

We’ve decided to have another BandAvond. That’s when the many bands at school may present 1 to three songs on the stage for their friends/family and for the audiences of the other bands. A school concert dus, of the school pop groups. Five or six years, during our first such evening concert we managed to raise some good money, a little of which we’ve even managed to hang onto, thankfully, until now when it is really needed. We need something just to keep the guitars strung, and the drumsticks available, and the speakers always working. . . Hopefully the bandavond will be a suitable temporary solution to our financial woes. And we hope in the meantime to be granted more than €750 for an entire operational year. Wish me luck!!!

My Ideal Music Classroom

We have two main music rooms at Hermann Wesselink College. This is 040, where we keep the keyboards and the acoustic guitars. We refer to this room loosely as the practice room. The keyboards along the two longer side walls make it ideally spaced for classroom keyboard assignments. The students can also sit at the tables in the middle of the room for non-practice, and for guitar lessons. The two walls that are windows give the room a pleasantly open feeling.
I have say that I do really love this room. But that's probably because we had so much less in previous years. We acquired the new space, the keyboards and the guitars all at the same time two years ago. It has all made our jobs 100 times easier and we're able to be much more productive.
Our new space, which used to be an open space under the school, also has our 'theory room', which is 037, plus 5 practice rooms, an instrument storage room, a new office for us, and a booth for the mixing board which looks into the theory room. Our space is not yet perfect so I can’t say that it’s completely ideal, but I and my collegues feel very fortunate to have come so far in recent years.
Room 037
One reason that it is close to being ideal, is that my collegues and I were able to participate a bit in the design and lay-out options during the architectural drawing fases. We think that we’ve made some good choices in our design and the function of the space works as planned. More would of course always be better, but we are working together constantly to improve, and we do so far have wonderful results.

The best part, besides the two main rooms (040 and 037) where most of the classroom learning takes place, is the practice rooms. To be able to let the students practice in separate groups facilitates a lot of music making. And of course having enough equipment and instruments to let several groups practice at the same time has been a godsend. During an 80 minute class we can actually complete integrated lessons wherein both practice and theory are worked upon. The students can practice away on their own while the instructor goes from room to room asissting the groups. After sometime at work in groups, we come together in the big rooms to share what we’ve done. With a short time of attentive practice under my assistance, I can definitely help students to feel success in their musical endeavors. My collegues are all equally adept at promoting a successful experience for the students. It is almost as if we knew all along that we could get such good results, if only we weren’t lacking the facilities, instruments and equipment. Now we have all of those things and our goals are actually being realized. Dare I say that it creates a real feeling of satisfaction.
Having said this, which I think is a daring statement, yes I have to admit that I see my own working space as being almost my ideal classroom.
Trouble in Paradise
The space works incredibly well when 1 teacher has all of the space at her/his disposal. This happens more frequently than one would think when you consider that we are a staff of four teachers at the school. Then you have six practice rooms, all of the keyboards, all of the guitars and all of the electric instruments and percussion available for your one class to use.
But we do for at least half of the time, not have both rooms for our one class. Furthermore, frequent roster changes cause inconvenient changes in the materials that are available for lessons. One day you can be working on guitar with a class, when a roster change switches the day or time of the class. At that new time of day a colleague may also be working on the guitars with her/his class. Then things have to be rescheduled. We usually are very accommodating to one another, and the teacher with the most pressing case is allowed to continue using the room or equipment. The class who gets to continue then must agree to a time when they will be finished. We try to make that time to be within two weeks.The roster changes are the greatest hindrance to the flow of our classes. Of course if we had another set of 18 acoustic guitars, or another set of 18 keyboards, then roster changes would not be as much of a problem.
The same goes for the pianos. More would of course be great. We have one good upright Yamaha in room 037, so that is the room where we conduct most of our choral classes. But if we had a good piano in room 040 instead of just the keyboards, then we could do more choir work as well in that room. Fortunately we can use the grand piano in the aula often for choir singing, and the big practice rooms attached to 040 both have pianos. Singing with the Peruvian Exchange Students in the aula
But those two pianos are older and beaten by the use and abuse of thousands of students over the years. More of the great Yamaha uprights would of course be ideal. But the idea of more, as compared to the quality of the reality still give the sense of satisfaction that we're working in an almost ideal situation. Otherwise stated, for the money and the resources that are at our disposal, and as compared to similar programs across this country, it seems that we are a bit ahead of the curve. We feel fortunate and still try to use our resources to the utmost for the education of our students.

My colleagues have been able to inspire me in our quest for the ideal music classroom. Things that I would not have been first on my list of acquisitions have now become cherished necessities of everyday, and of not so everyday lessons. Some things are quite practical like the mixing board and booth in 037, that lets our mixes, especially with the vocals, be optimal for our classroom presentations. The board and P.A. system have also helped us to make some decent recordings that are now being published by students all over the web.
Other acquisitions such as the djembes that our newest colleague has brought from Senegal are perhaps less often used, but I would certainly feel that our program would be weaker without them. I've enjoyed becoming a better djembe player and teacher because of their presence, and it it simply heartwarming and enriching to see how much the students love the lessons.Djembe lessons with Dix Ans from Senegal
And perhaps the most special inspiration has been our most senior department member, Mr. Cees Rot. Cees has been the most vigilant and forward thinking for many of the progresses in our classroom. Cees takes care of the audio equipment for us in the aula, (since the installation is still too complicated for the rest of us music teachers), and Cees is super handy with the carpentry skills that add the perfect details to the functionality of our classrooms and equipment. When we thought up together how we would ideally like to place the keyboards in 040, it was Cees who found the right keyboard tables, and he even figured out a way to keep the tables optimally in place against the walls. Cees procured and figured out a way to stack the tables for our instrument repair storage. It was also Cees' idea to order the better mixing board and PA for 037, and when the equipment did arrive, Cees set it all up and ran the wiring. Lastly, as I've previously mentioned in this blog, Cees is the expert on gamelan music, which is something that I would never be able to impart upon the students. Cees has made the entire school more interesting with our gamelan work. The entire school feels the richness of its presence.

I can't say that our classrooms are ideal, but I feel that we are in an ideal situation, and that we are using our capacities ideally. Of course to make things better I would simply want still more space, more practice rooms, more nice pianos, and more equipment such as amplifiers, electric guitars and still another drumset. The most ideal would actually be to have a full pop-instrumentarium in every practice room, and to have 10 such practice rooms. Every room would of course have a grand piano, and a premium PA system with good recording possibilities. And I would want to be able to have a choir room with tiered seating, and I'd like to have a full set of band and orchestra instruments, an orchestra pit that raises and lowers at our aula stage . . . . but that is all about more things. I really think that we are on well on our way, practically speaking, to achieving by way of our own ingenuity, the ideal classroom. That is somehow more fulfilling the not realistic dream of having everything.

Peruvian Dinner Music Evening

Primary Goal - To accompany the students toward a successful project.
Subgoal - To discover and learn about as much Peruvian music as possible. Within this goal is of course the idea that I impress upon the students as well the power of music. I know that so much about a culture can be learned through music.

After the Gamelan Week, I went to Perú for two weeks with five of my Hermann Wesselink College students, and with five students from Amstelveen College which is pretty much right across the street from our school.

I was initiated into this project the previous school year when I read an e-mail asking if there were any Spanish speaking teachers who may be interested in going to Perú as a part of a project from the city of Amstelveen. Since I've never in my six years of teaching at HWC gone on a trip with students, I thought that this was my chance. I asked, passed the Spanish test, and was accepted for the task.

What I didn't realize was how much work the project would be. Other teachers at my school have been on ski trips to Austria, to exchange trips to Norway, to Switzerland, Belgium, England, Luxembourg, Germany . . . And they only had to assist their students. This was then my chance to assist students and to take advantage of the European lust for travel. But instead of only assisting my students, I also had to attend meetings and seminars that last until the end of the year! I don't mind that, but it doesn't help my werkdrukte, and since I was later admitted to the Conservatory of Utrecht, it also meant that I had to miss more than two weeks of my own classes.

But that aside, I had of course a great trip. Only there was much less music in the trip than I would like to have experienced. We were scheduled everyday from 8 AM to 6 PM to make visits, tour, and to work on the project, so that there was no time to delve deeply into the musical culture. One of my students who is actually a family member of mine, (by marriage, but it's fun to enjoy the fact that we're related) Maxim Schoemaker is a fantastic and promising Dutch clarinet talent. We had both hoped to be able to do some jamming or at least catch a concert or something. For Maxim that didn't really get to happen.

For me, since I was always so interested in music, and they all knew from their visit to us in the Netherlands that I was the music teacher, the lieve Jersson Campos set up the concert that you see above in the living room of his grandmother, for me. O.k. it wasn't entirely for me, but I was the major catalyst for the concert. I was deeply honored to say the least. The mayor of Villa El Salvador and his wife were also there, and from a previous dinner party they too knew of my almost anthropological interest for the Peruvian music. Indeed I do consider myself to be an amateur anthropologist. With my passion for education, I can't just sit by and let National Geographic tell me via television how the world is. I like to see it and discover and deduce it's mysteries for myself.

Previously in my life I was able to study Cuban music with the Grupo Folklorico de Cuba. There as well I was able to put myself as deeply in the local musical traditions as possible. The same story in Hungary, England, Mexico, etc. . .

So my goal was to derive a rich musical experience for myself and my students and fellow begeleiders. Any intimate experience with music can be considered a success with such a general goal, so I feel that with the dinner concert, my talks with mayor Jaime Zea and his wife, and through other experiences, that I indeed have succeeded.

Aankomst in El Colegio Japonés

This school, the Colegio Japonés had the best music department that we'd seen. I spoke uitgebreid with the rector, and with the band director. The funding is very difficult they told me, but they do their best. Only one other school of the ten that we visited actually even had a music department. I wish that I could show you more of this experience. You can see all of the Dutch flags. They, much like the other school actually, went through so much trouble just for us.

The Peruvians in HWC Muziek

Here the Peruvians are singing with me at HWC. They were here for two weeks before we went there. I asked that they follow a class of mine one day, and we really had fun! I miss my música Latina, so this was so great to get to do with them! If only they had regular music lessons in their schools! They could be such wonderful singers with a bit of practice and training. What they lack in technique the certainly make up for in enthusiasm.

Gamelan Week

Something different about Dutch norms, they number their weeks of the year, and the week begins on monday, . . . Oh and they don't capitalize their days of the week.

In week 41, or, in the week of 6 October to 12 october, (and they don't capitalize their months either) that follows Monday threw Sunday, we in HWC Muziek had our Gamelan Week.

The primary goal is simply to expose students to a different ideas about music. The full set of gamelan instruments allows students to not only hear the gamalan orchestra, but of course, the students are also performing the music. Their rhythmic senses are challenged, and they can viscerally feel the responsibility of playing their part in an organizied orchestra.

It's a shame that not every class may participate, but this year our senior teacher Mr. Rot brought two brothers from a conservatory in Indonesia to help us. I was able to bring the following of my classes to participate this year:

- v3b (vwo 3 TweeTaligOnderwijs)
- t36 (vmbo-t3, gekozen vaak)
- h3a (havo 3)

I find it fun to see how the different classes relate to the not so familiar situation. Most of the students have actually in previous years already practiced and/or performed the same song on the gamelan instrumentarium, so it isn't so new to more than half of the students. For the entire blockuur, 80 minutes, the students literally bang out the strange tinkly-Eastern rhythms.

Considering that the students do keep themselves focused and busy for the blockuur, I feel that this year's edition was quite successful. I did incorporate a five minute break which did help things along, but overal, the combination of experienced and inexperienced students, and my own opgebouwed capaciteiten has made the strange much less strange. It would be good if I knew myself all of the parts and rhythms as well as Mr. Rot does, and I get better every year but , . . . I'll have to tally some feedback from the participating students this year when I'm back from Perú, but hopefully they all take home a richer idea of what and how music and art can be.

Leerdoel: Door het spelen in een gamelanorkest, de leerlingen kunnen:
- herkennen het geluid van een gamelanorkest.
- herkennen de instrumentarium van een gamelan orkest.
- onderscheid maken tussen de verschillende secties binnen de gamelanorkestopstelling.
- met het juiste ritme, en de juiste noten een liedje als gamelanorkest uitvoeren.
- de dirigent (trommelroepen) volgen om de juste dynamiek en arrangement te spelen.

Credo

I'm starting this blog because of an assignment from my Professor Suzan Lutke at the Conservatory of Utrecht. Otherwise, I tend to keep a journal already wherein I spew my feelings, aspirations and anecdotes. I would never leave those thoughts open to the public, but I will try here to submit a tamer version thereof . . . specifically wherein I can share my experiences as a music student, teacher and performer.

Our first assignment is to state a credo. The credo then serves as a basis for the learning goals that we have for our students, which in turn suggest the qualities of our lessons, the materials that we use, and the way that we use our lessons and materials to teach the students in the classroom.

I must say that I feel a bit unsure about my credo, it is not easy to just zomaar your deep beliefs bloetliggen, but here it goes.

I believe that education is perhaps the most important pursuance that human beings can endeavor. One of the conundrums of anthropology is the question why human beings have physically stopped evolving. I believe that our realm of evolution is taking place in our brains, and we must constantly feed ourselves with each successive generation to new intellectual and emotional heights. Indeed the third level cortex of our brains seem to bear witness to my amateur theory.

That may seem like a lofty statement for a mere music teacher, but for me, as an artist, music is but one facet of expression which I choose. I have some talent with musical expression, so it makes some sense that I should share my talents with younger generations in our never ending pursuit in this path of life's evolution.