teaching

DAVID SIMONS

Instrument Building, General Musicianship
and World Music

David Simons teaches music workshops for grades 2-6 designed to develop basic musicianship and performance skills using the following methods:

1. create and build an orchestra of simple homemade instruments:

Percussion, strings, and winds -

using recycled material: played on cans with chopsticks, shakers with dried beans inside, blowing across plastic bottles, plastic soda straw oboes and pan pipes, rubber band harps over styrofoam boxes, nylon fishing string guitars, and many more.

2. ear training and pitch recognition, basic rhythm skills:

3. world music through audio and video presentations:

Demonstration of actual instruments, CDs, cassette tapes and videos of music and dance from around the world from the teacher’s own collection.

Classes collectively compose and conduct original music, which can be recorded in class and made into a CD; collaborate with or illuminate another class subject such as Geography, Dance, Art, or Theater.

In the course of this residency, students will improve their reading, writing, counting, memory, concentration, math skills, and physical dexterity.

List of materials requested (I will provide most of it, but any additional material will be appreciated): styrofoam boxes, cardboard tubes, plastic straws, chopsticks, paper, rubber bands, plastic bottles, aluminum cans (emptied and cleaned).

TOOLS: scissors, tape, paper, crayons
ELECTRONIC PLAYBACK: cassette, CD, video.

Suggested Residency: 2 or more 45-minute classes in each school, 1-3 times a week for 10 sessions.

Also available for school assemblies: A concert of original works and demonstration of each instrument, how it was made, and what gives it acoustical properties, with 2 - 5 members of Music for Homemade Instruments ensemble. The presentation lasts 45 minutes and is a good introduction to a residency.