Friday Meeting

Hey gang. Wanted to post my feedback on what I thought to be a very progressive meeting with the crew on Friday morning. Here's how it went...

Big Idea: To meet with the heads of each club and Carlos to discuss the planning of January's cycle: Music, Midi and Madness

Date: Friday, December 16, 11am to 12pm

Dates of Next Cycle: January 9 through March 1o

Attendance: Carlos, Sammie, Jonathan, Saafir and myself

Materials: Pens, calenders, dry erase board and markers, our brains

Associated Concepts: The meeting helped us to establish concepts needed to be covered and in what order, therefore leading us to organizing a well established lesson plan BEFORE the Music, Midi and madness cycle begins in January. A few things I took note of...

- For Panther, we will start with building sound sculptures for 2 weeks, then move into midi for two weeks. Its almost like we'll be seperating the idea of creating music through IT into 2 concepts; rhythm and meledy. I'd like to keep the two reletively seperate in order to keep them focused on one concept.

- For sound sculptures, the periods will contain smaller goals to achieve by the end of each period instead of simply giving a 2 week goal. For example, to teach tool skills, it may be best to spend one period on a challenge of building a structure that holds a certain wieght by the end of the period. Then the next period, create various gears and motion machines out of woodworking. Then the next class would be to find a sound that most interests you, then using the motion machines and crickets and motors, try to create a rhythm with it, not just sound. Then finally construct all of this onto the stands built to create a sound sculpture. I think with this after school crew, they work best with focused goals which can be accomplished in a single period.

- I'd like them to work in pairs to keep them focused on each goal.

- For midi, the same concepts applies, where we'll need to establish short term challenges. Such as exploring a differant handout per period. One being the instrument handout where they should find thier favorite. Next the notation handout where it shows them what numbers coorilate with which pitches. Follow this with assigning each student to find the pitches for a simple tune. Finally, have them bring in a song, and pick which instument would sound best to mimic it, then try to copy it through midi. Another idea for a final challenge would be to have them work in groups of four or five and create a five piece midi band with five seperate instuments playing the same tune. All of these ideas brought up the discussion of meeting the needs of those who lack skills verses those who need more intense challenges (See the photo of Saafir's graph). The lesson plans shall be carefully wieghed before proceeding to stay on the axis and keep all those who participate interested and having fun.

- We also found there are ample opportunities for guests, and it needs to be decided soon when they should visit during the cycle. Some include Justin Pate, a local musician who uses digital looping techniques in his music to create entire songs with only himself. Another includes Eddie, the head of Mondo drummers at 5th street arts. And Augie, who could bring in some of his instrument inventions. And finally another idea would be to have the kids watch the film "Pulse" which explores the rhythms and music of cultures around the world.

Best Part: When Saafir caught us off guard with some fantastic adjectives.

Worst Part: Getting our thoughts to be on the same page-but it did eventually happen.

Overall, we've got a good start for ideas on the next cycle, but I want everyone to remember this was all talkin the talk. In the next two weeks BEFORE January 9th, we gotta walk the walk through prepartion. In fact I would like to make it a personal goal for myself to have a lesson plan entirly laid out with guests already schedualed by Friday, January 6th. Rock!

Myles