Parent: “What did you do in class today?”
Child: “I was a cat.”
Parent: “Oh.”
It is difficult for children to express exactly what they are ‘learning’ in a Dalcroze classroom. Having heard many exchanges which ended like the one above, I am writing to keep you more informed about what exactly we goes on in the room after we take off our socks and shoes.
Of course, in the mind of the child the most important thing we did probably was that he became a cat. And not just any cat, but one who plays, prowls, chases mice and catches one for dinner. The class attempts to take every possible advantage of a child’s passion for drama and role-play. While he was busy being a cat, he was also moving to music that moved very softly (the prowl), music that moved very quickly and lightly (the chase), and music that slowly crescendo-ed to a loud accent (the pounce).
Experiences like these are meant to align the child’s sense of music with the way she naturally moves. This will, hopefully, inform the way she perceives and responds to music, and the way she might engage a musical instrument.
The work for the 4-5 year-old groups is sometimes different from that in the 5-6 year-old groups. But there are some general things that all ages focus on, especially in the beginning weeks.
In a eurhythmics class sound equals movement, and vice versa. Many initial experiences are meant to help the student begin to discover this for himself. Students will hear music that walks, runs, skips, gallops or marches. Most do not need to be asked to move appropriately to what they hear – it is most often their natural impulse to do so. The students also are given opportunities each week to have the piano match as closely as possible their own improvised movement to give them a deeper experience. To build on these experiences at home, put on music that walks, runs, skips, sneaks, slides, rolls, marches… and see what your child does!
In this first semester, the 4-5 year-old groups will have classes built around basic oppositions: slow and fast, long and short, heavy and light, for example. In the first 30 minutes of class, we will experience the subject in as many ways as possible: songs, stories, and games requiring the students to follow changes in what they hear on the piano or drum. In the last 15 minutes, the students have an opportunity to play or conduct the music themselves. For example, if they have experienced soft walking and loud pouncing, individual students can try these sounds out on the drum while the class responds to what they hear. Or student conductors will create gestures for loud and soft, while the class responds on percussion instruments.
The 5-6 year-old groups will work with these same concepts but within a more structured musical context that will include beat, duration and meter. Games and activities will ask them to recognize and respond to quarters, eighths, and sixteenths. I have begun to teach them a rhythmic ‘language’ to describe what they hear, and we have begun to work on recognizing the notation.
I welcome all questions and comments throughout the year. If there is something specific you would like me to address in a future post, let me know! I look forward to hearing from you!
Michael Joviala
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