Post-Session
Notes for
Wyoming
Music Educators Association
Thursday,
January 19, 2012
Tulsa,
OK
STORYTELLING,
LITERATURE, PICTURE BOOKS AND MUSIC
We
really enjoyed your enthusiastic participation in this workshop;
especially
your great acting!
We would
like to give a special thanks to Mary Beth Singleton who
has
been working with us on the details of our visit for months, and
who
took great care of us while we were here.
Below
are notes about everything we did in the workshop.
The
post-workshop notes for our Teaching Traditional Dance workshop are at
http://www.amidonmusic.com/NotesOklahomaDanceJan2012.htm
and
for our All-School-Sing
workshop are at:
http://www.amidonmusic.com/NotesOKAllSchoolSingJan2012.htm
Your
homework is to tell stories to your students!
Going
to storytelling festivals and conferences can have a profound
effect
on your storytelling. Here is
information on the annual
Oklahoma
City Storytelling Festival:
http://www.artscouncilokc.com/oklahoma-city-storytelling-festival
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To
get on the Amidon mailing list (notices 2-3 times
a
month on upcoming music teacher workshops,
choral
singing workshops, new publications, and
new
choral arrangements (both treble voice and
SATB),
please send an email to
saying
you would like to be on the Amidon mailing list.
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MEET
OUR BOYS:
Stefan
(with his band ÒThe Sweetback SistersÓ)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btpUPk6ldwE&list=PL106068EE434419C7&index=3
Sam
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R19BBsMvwQk
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AMIDONS
SUMMER WEEK-LONG 3-CREDIT COURSE
RICH
TRADITIONS AND NEW CREATIONS: DANCE, SONG, STORYTELLING AND LITERATURE IN THE
MUSIC CLASSROOM
(or
ÒEverything we knowÓ)
We do
this every summer. Our next course
is
Monday
- Friday, July 2 - 6, 2012.
Hartt
Summerterm, West Hartford, CT
general
info:
http://harttweb2.hartford.edu/summer.php
The
foundation of this class is the wealth of songs, dances, singing games, and
folktales that spring from the Anglo American/African American oral traditions.
Each participant will write a song and tell a folktale.
Contact: Dee Hansen * 860-768-4128 * dehansen@hartford.edu
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AMIDONSÕ
SESSION NOTES FOR Oklahoma Music Educators Association
Storytelling,
LIterature, Picture Books and Music
Nyangara,
the Python -
a folktale from Zimbabwe
http://www.amidonmusic.com/Nyangara.pdf
This is
a great! story to act out with children.
Have them help
you
figure out how to choreograph Nyangara coming out of the
cave. You can have ÒchildrenÓ running to
different ÒadultsÓ and
asking
them what is wrong, and the adults shaking their heads
or
dissembling.
PICTURE
BOOKS (See
bibliography in handout - pp. 5 & 6)
I
Call My Hand Gentle
Have
done to background music - have children repeat the words.
Day
is Done
Sing
the song in the book with the children.
We
All Went On Safari
Read
the book while you drum; have the children repeat the numbers.
WangariÕs
Trees of Peace
We
acted this out with you using as background music
cuts
from Micky HartÕs ÒPlanet DrumÓ CDÓ
ÒMigrationÓ
for beginning and ending and
ÒBonesÓ
for the middle section.
Here is
more information on Wangari Maathai and
her
Greenbelt Movement:
Chiney
Doll (p. 2
in handout)
We
learned our version of the song from traditional singer
Almeda
Riddle from the Ozarks of Missouri.
We find that
introducing
a song with a story is a great way to more
fully
involve the students in the song.
My story has
Eliza
run out to meet the peddler, and to ask him
if he
has any toys. When he pulls a
chiney doll
out
from all of his pots and pans, she runs back
to her
Mama to ask to buy the chiney doll.
Later I
played a recording of 2 1/2 year-old Sam Amidon
(now
30) who was unable to sing the song without telling
the
story. His grunting efforts in
telling the story were
not
because he could not remember the story, but that
he had
to put great effort into changing the vivid images
of the
story into language, which is the essence of storytelling.
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Do tell
your students stories!
Best,
Peter
and Mary Alice Amidon