Sharing the Wealth

We finished our week of Piano Camp a few weeks ago and I am still flying high with excitement and energy from my students!  If you missed the little video we made of our camp adventures, please take just 2 minutes to watch it.  I wanted to share about something that we did that is a more interactive way we as teachers can help share the musical wealth in our own communities.

From the beginning planning stages of my camp, I knew that I wanted our last day of camp to be one in service to our community. What we did turned out to be a smashing success with the residents that I wanted to encourage any teacher to consider doing this in your own community.

I recently found a local retirement centers that had a digital piano.  I contacted them about doing a little piano recital and they were more than happy to put us on their calendar.  This is not a unique idea I realize, and I’m sure many of you are already giving back to your community by sharing music in your nursing homes and retirement villages.  But, the way we did it was really fun and interactive, and I wanted to tell you about what worked while the ideas are fresh on my mind:

Name that tune challenge

We divided our music into 2 categories, hymns and patriotic songs (this was a summer program, so the kids were more than willing to take a break from our usual classical music).  We did not hand out any programs , but rather announced to everyone that we would be playing “Name that Tune.” I encouraged the audience to sing along if they knew the piece, and then at the end of the piece, I asked them if they knew the name of the piece.  While I was asking them this, the student who performed the piece moved to the table and held their hand over a little call bell.  When someone said the correct name, they rang the bell with glee!  It was quite fun!

If the audience didn’t know the tune, but I knew they probably should know it, I gave them a clue by just playing the beginning of the melody again. We were performing for the “Memory Care” residents, so they needed a little extra help. 🙂

Let the audience be the judge

My students were doing another “Cartoon Motive Contest,” but this year it was a motive contest on a specific animal.  During the Piano Camp week, the students worked on composing a short motive  about a very unique animal.  At the recital, I handed out a few pictures of the animal, told them about its unique characteristics, and then asked them to listen to the students play their motives and try to remember which one they liked best.  As the students came to the piano, I handed them a piece of paper with a number on it.  When they finished playing their motive, they stood to the side and held their number so that the audience could remember which they liked best.   It was rather funny to see them all holding a small paper with a number…it looked a bit like they were all getting mug shots taken, but it seemed to work well.  If we had more time, I would have had them play their motive again, but instead, I asked each student to come to the piano a second time, play their motive, and then asked the audience to raise their hand if they wanted to vote for that motive.  I awarded the 1st and 2nd place student with a $1 box of movie candy.

Get ’em to move with the music

We all know how energizing clapping to the beat of the music with a large group of people can be.  I had completely forgotten about this power in music until my  two youngest students played my arrangement of “Oh When the Saints Go Marching In.”  The audience started clapping to the beat and it was super fun to hear and participate!  I was playing the snare drum for that particular piece and there was the comical little interlude in the middle where they jump up and switch places on the piano, but the audience just loved it all the more and clapped louder the second time.

In addition to Oh When the Saints, these particular pieces were effective in getting singing and clapping from the residents:

• Battle Hymn of the Republic
• Yankee Doodle
• Washington Post March (probably any Sousa march would have been good here)

It was so wonderful to be able to share a bit of our happiness with a group of people who might not have had such a splendid week as we did. I was also reminded that it is such a blessing to make music and this blessing can be magnified exponentially when we share it with others, especially those who may be less privileged or independent as we are.  And so I humbly ask you to consider sharing one of your recitals with an older generation of people this year.  I’m sure you’ll be glad you did!