It begins

This semester, I had the unexpected opportunity to be an Arts Bridge Scholar for the second time. I was assigned to work with Carolyn Hamilton's class at Deerfield Elementary. Mrs. Hamilton wanted to have her class perform the short play, "Freedom Train," by Dr. Jerry Jaccard. This is basically a reader's theater about the Civil War, featuring several African-American spirituals and other American folk songs. Since we only had about two weeks to prepare, we abridged the play significantly, but still included as many of the songs as possible.

My first day in Mrs. Hamilton's class was an exercise in flexibility. I had some delays in getting the car I had rented from the BYU Motor Pool and ended up getting to Deerfield Elementary about 40 minutes late. I felt so bad, but I was so happy to see that they had started rehearsing without me. Mrs. Hamilton had started teaching them "This Train is Bound for Glory." I decided to scrap my original lesson plan and work on this song instead. We warmed up, talked a bit about vocal technique (posture, using your air correctly, listening carefully to pitch) and then jumped back into learning "This Train." I was amazed at how much that quick warmup improved their sound. These kids are QUICK learners. When I talked to Mrs. Hamilton after class, she told me that the librarian could hear us through the walls and mentioned how much improvement she heard over the course of our 20-minute rehearsal.  It constantly amazes me how much encouraging students to "listen as loud as they sing" and showing them how improves their tone and their pitch. It's incredible.