I’m here in until the bell

Today during our drum club a student asked if we could continue working on our drum line. 

So we stopped what we were doing and we lined up 4 desks and started doing some sticking exercises that imitate the crazy drum line stuff that we’d seen a video of as started working on last week. 

Last week one of our students finally came back from quarantine after being really very sick from covid.

She’s a new student to me this year. She didn’t take band last year, didn’t show an interest in music classes at all really.  Kind of “ I’m here in until the bell” class member. Which is cool! Not everyone is going to love me or my classes. 

She’s hard to read. A blank affect behind a mask most of the time. 

This year though she got behind a drum kit and suddenly she could do something no one else could. It just seemed to click for her. She had solid time, understood  the role of the drums intuitively and really showed a love for them. 

So I invited her to join up with the drum club and come learn to play with folks who had taken a year of band last year and had a lot of lead time on her. 

She’s had a general music background but really picking up written music and making it happen was new. She spent a lot of time just working through how the symbols worked ( and how the cymbals worked). 

After the first week of drum club she took her music and very seriously put it away like it was something very important and looked at me to say, full of intent  “ I’m going to have to learn this so I can understand what I’m doing” 

She said it in a way like she was predicting the future. Not talking about a possibility the “ have to” was real for her. 

I realized that her affect wasn’t flat it was reserved, intentional, and considered.

Her intensity and drive we so impressive to me that I made a note to make sure to foster whatever part of that I could. 

And then she was out sick, really sick, for almost a month. 

She came back last Thursday and to level the playing field for her I decided to do a 15 minute session of “ drum line” inspired subdivision .

If it’s new for everyone then she won’t be behind and maybe we can make sure it’s a good time. 

We learned to do a little ripple down our 4 person drum line in 8th notes, do some sticking that crosses over to our neighbors drum, Click our sticks together, get different sounds out of desks and combine simple syncopations to creaet cool sounds  etc. 

In order to do that stuff ( even at this low level) you need to be in time with the people around you and counting your subdivisions so your movements line up. You need to be listening, counting, and keeping time together. 

All those skills that are essential for music making. And it worked, this student felt at home working through the new stuff and while some of the things she’d missed ( simple fills and slightly cooler grooves) had been challenging to try to get in one jump, this she could do. 

And she did it in the intentional, reasoned and reserved way that she excels at. Quietly figuring it out and asking the questions she needs answered. 

Today, another student asked if we could go back to that exercise and so I stopped what we were doing and said “ yeah, of course!”

We set it up, figured out some ways to expand our arrangement and practiced it a few times. 

Each time someone would miss something or someone would start early and the excitement and anticipation would build just a little. 

I flipped on the camera and we tried it a couple times and each time got better. 

Then on our third attempt we made it ( however wobbly) the whole way through and when we finished this student jumped up and yelled “ yeah!!” 

And after that point, as we cleaned up, she suddenly was very lively, talkative, excited to explore with the keyboards and other things in the room. 

It was like a switch had flipped and suddenly I was seeing a whole different kid. 

It was the turning point where all of a sudden I was really safe to talk to and the other folks in the club were now her friends. 

It’s that kind of bridge building and shared experience that creates the meaning in making music. 

Like the audience is great, really they are, but It’s the connections we make when we make something together that can be life changing long after the music stops. 

This student, after doing something they thought was great, finally felt comfortable enough to let down their guard with me and their peers in a way I’d never seen them do. That is a gift from her to us and a gift that music made possible. 

Continuing Questions:

In what way does this students affect reflect intrinsic motivation? How can that be fostered?
When this student was “there ‘til the bell” what might her experience of music education have been?
Why might it be important to have student directed opportunities for music learning?
Have you ever experienced a change in affect after a student “warms up” to you? Why might that have happened? What kinds of practices promote that kind of interaction and relationship building?