Tonight was Tanner's recorder concert. The first time I heard about the recorder program at the elementary school I decided that the music teacher was nuts. Who on earth wants to listen to children play the recorder, let alone 125 of them? Well, when you get 125 of them together, they actually sound really good. (I'm sorry the video is so jiggly; I was holding McKay on my lap.)
The entire 4th grade learns several songs and for each song they pass off, they earn a different color bead. Mrs. Lemmon (pronounced Luh - mawn) uses an incentive called "recorder karate" with the kids and the goal is to work up to black belt. Tanner made it all the way to the brown belt (one step below black) and he did it all on his own. He was motivated to practice the recorder, which is more than I can say for piano.
As the program continued, more and more kids were sitting while the few who played continued to dwindle as we passed the black belts, then the silver, and finally the gold. Tanner was getting very tired.
But he persevered and I managed to get a picture of him with his amazing music teacher, Mrs. Lemmon. It amazes me how much she motivates these kids. She must be a saint to teach them how to play the recorder. I am grateful because Tanner is excited about the piano again. And this year, I actually looked forward to the recorder concert.
2 comments:
Ouch! I too have had to endure 2 recorder concerts so far. I am with you on the who would want to listen to that every day in class! The karate bead thing is exactly what Taryn's teacher did. She too was far more motivated to learn the recorder songs than her piano songs. Why is that? Hmmm...maybe I should have their music teachers give them piano lessons.
oh man, don't even get me started on that stupid recorder. UGH! I dread the words "mom can I practice my recorder?" I know I shouldn't, but really I just want to cry when she asks me. OUr school does the recorder karate thing too. But I haven't heard anything about any concert so maybe I will dodge the bullet there!!
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