I was glad that I had any kind of gig to go to, after too many days in the apartment. Gotta play.
I was tickled that it happened to be my monthly TA gig at the Village School in Old Zionsville. It’s a pre-K group of ~8 kids. I did my introductory gig last month, so I was curious to see what reflected from that meeting.
The ultimate goal is to write a song for the school, but it’s good we are building it over the course of several months. It gives me a chance to feel out the group, the age differences, the social skills, the physicality differences, and all those things I’ve been studying about. This is my laboratory and I get to experiment and observe.
Surprise number one was, they wanted to do the Spider on the Floor, one that rarely do, but had really energized last time. I used it as a bridge into a familiar tune, and a chance to explore new rhymes on things that they know – body parts. This is an exact reference to what I learned at my TA session on Monday: common skill, a common process and a good environment. We got creative real fast.
I had the chance to work on basic rhythms with egg shakers. New concepts: counting to four, presenting the instrument (now, not a toy!), counting out loud with the instrument, playing as a group. There was a lot of information flowing my way, while still immensely enjoying the present moment. This is my art.
I mixed in some Christmas songs and was surprised that this age group wasn’t really up to common tunes like Rudolph or Jingle Bells. Cultural slippage or early childhood development? Interesting, in my mind.
I left my session, now a chilly gray winter afternoon at the Village School, with new insights and knowledge, deeper connections with the individual kids and the teachers, a clear nind, and a rejuvinated spirit. This is powerful stuff that makes a difference in a very, very local way.