Kids camps teach tunes
Shepherd School offers classes for youngest students

BY JESSICA STARK
Rice News staff

	PHOTOS BY JEFF FITLOW
	Summer music camps at the Shepherd School of Music teach children explore music through singing, rhythm games, creative movement, improvisation, musical storytelling and the building and playing of percussion instruments.

Even kids too young for school are spending time in Rice classrooms this month during summer camps at the Shepherd School of Music. The camps, which began last week, are for children ages 2-9 to explore music through singing, rhythm games, creative movement, improvisation, musical storytelling and the building and playing of percussion instruments.

The activities — some involving balls and other household items — are all hands-on and designed to encourage children to be musically creative, as well as teach them about the wonders of acoustics and the fundamentals of music.

For one exercise, children participated in an ensemble creative movement exercise using bouncing balls. They created moleculer statues to improvised piano music reflecting the register (high or low) of the music.

The classes also allowed for games — the children rotated percussion instruments and took turns conducting one another. The game aims to teach children the power of the conductor. As conductors they learned to communicate fast and slow (tempo), loud and quiet dynamics, start and stop, using expressive body motions.

“The players learned to respond to the signals and to get the corresponding sound from their instruments,” said Rachel Buchman, lecturer in music at the Shepherd School. “The exercise also gives them a physical experience of the relationship our bodies have to acoustic instruments — what we do with our bodies dramatically effects our instruments.”

Created and led by Buchman, the classes are modeled on theory by music educator Emile Jaques-Dalcroze, who wrote, “Musical consciousness is the result of physical experience.”

The camps aim to develop natural musical instincts, sharpen concentration and bolster self-esteem through exercises that promote joyful participation.

Buchman has spent more than 25 years teaching music to young people, from toddlers to doctoral students in the U.S., Germany, England and Israel. Researching the connections between children and music, she found singing encourages brain and language development and is one of the most essential educational activities a parent can do with a child.

To learn more about the Shepherd School’s Young Children’s Division, which makes the summer camps possible, visit http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~musi/ycd2009/index.html.