Instrument creation day is always a wild one for me. There is a sort of lovely chaos. I have always made this day happen in January or February in previous years, but wanted to have it earlier this time, so that you’ll have the experiences of making an instrument earlier in the year – and maybe you can use some of what you saw (pardon the pun) yesterday in your practicums.  The really big PLUS this year for me, though, was that I did not have to spend all day Saturday in my unheated garage cutting and drilling wood in January! It was WAY better doing this in October.

My ppt. on instrument classifications is HERE. Instructions for instruments that we made are on my Music Education page. . Check out the YouTube links again – and think about the question on page 8 of the ppt.

If you choose to develop your own instrument, - creating something unique - you might get some ideas from ‘www.larkinthemorning.com’ a great source of weird and traditional instruments. I also have a number of books on homemade instruments that you are welcome to peruse.

Should you want to do any of these activities in your own classes, be sure to do a few things: get help from some parents, grandparents, or maybe older grade book buddies… You won’t be able to manage things alone with children – especially younger children. That said, everyone will enjoy the experience of making his or her own instrument – so be sure to find a way to make it happen in your own classes.

Use as much due diligence as you can. Point the dangers of tools, and make sure everyone knows where first aid supplies are. The most dangerous activity yesterday was the flute making one. Most of you did not see that, but we had a supply of gloves, face-masks, and protective eyewear available.  I probably should have insisted that everyone wear earplugs – especially in Section 1 and PJ because we had more hammering going on there. Ears are very delicate and should be protected too. There were earplugs available – good idea to wear them!

Some other thoughts on the processes:

Obviously the more time one spends creating an instrument the more investment one has in not only its aural possibilities but in its aesthetics as well. Many instruments are not only beautiful to hear but beautiful to view or touch, and even smell and taste.  The selection and curing of the building materials can take hours, days, weeks – even years (in the case of pianos for example). The creation is one thing but the decoration is another. Many instruments incorporate sculpture, drawing, painting and carving in order to create some of visual beauty. Some incorporate the story of the builder, and involve a spiritual exercise of  prayer, thought or finding good karma before the process is completed. That is an important piece to recover from your experiences yesterday. By nature of our Con-Ed Professional Year program, many of your experiences are simply arrived at too quickly and perhaps even too fretfully. I will hope that you each will eventually find time to take opportunities to reflect on them all – and with some perspective and calm.

The instrument that I play (pipe organ) as my primary one is not something that I can make myself. Although I have worked for an organ builder and understand some of the intricacies of the instrument, the technology and artistry involved in making a good organ is phenomenal. (If you are interested there is a short Youtube film about the process. See: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_56YpeSLboA.  There are some other related videos nearby that one. ] If not skip these and read on.

I have two really favourite organs that I have been able to play regularly.  One of them was approximately four YEARS in the making: the other took a bit over five. The sheer aesthetic joy of playing a physically well-balanced and lusciously timbred instrument is beyond words.  Sounds are layered beautifully, with clear-speaking, individual pitches that combine into a symphony of perfect sonorities.  The rosewood and oak smell of the keyboards and case permeate the mind, and the keys themselves feel like elegant, natural extensions of the fingers. Playing the pedal-board  (a keyboard played with the feet) is like dancing on air. Spending three or fours daily practicing on such an instrument was absolutely thrilling and compelling. Complex music – needing literally hours of practice – was much easier to achieve on these instruments than in lesser quality versions (and there are lots of those!). In addition , since organs tend to take up a lot of room: some of the pipe-work is 32 feet long, and these instruments would have had about 120, 000 separate pipes and other parts. They were housed in elegant spaces, with charming acoustics. Such instruments are affected by climate, temperature, and their own cycles of drying, tuning and even dust collecting. They need to be tended and shepherded like anything that one cares for.  I do miss these friends.

You might not get the same satisfaction out of playing your Packing Tape Frame Drum or your ABS pipe Didgeridoos, and CPVC Flute or your variously constructed Ugly Sticks, or your double-reed straws, or your hex-nut infested balloons, or your beer cup tiger drums (the things with the strings).  But I hope that somehow you’ll know something of the satisfaction of creating your own instrument - bringing its sounds to life. Be persistent with those didges – you need time to ‘find’ that low-pitched sound!

We have two more classes together before your practicums. I hope that our music classes by then will have equipped and embolden you to do something musical in the classes that you’ll teach.

Perhaps you will have noticed that the arts generally, and music particularly, is fundamentally helpful for creating good karma.  A music game can bond a group way more readily than a session in rule and boundary establishing. A commonly sung, (or heard) and aesthetically pleasing song can open up emotions that lead to powerful reflection and creativity. A listening activity can enhance learning because the minds of learners are engaged. Critical reflection, group dynamics, sorting and processing all take place in music making.  Please read the short article here:. Placing Music at The Centre of the Literacy Curriculum. It has some pertinence for literacy and some good articulation for the value of what I hope you will do in your classrooms.  Don’t worry about ‘teaching’ music, just sing, listen to, play or create some. Do it daily. Some day your students may praise you for that. You won’t likely hear them say it, they may not even remember your name, but they will be better for this.