What’s your Montessori connection? I lived around the corner from a two-classroom Montessori pre-school when a house-mate’s girlfriend sounded me out to be her afternoon assistant there. I was glad to accept a full day position for the next year; undertook New England Montessori Teacher Education Center’s certification a few years later, and remained in CH through addition of a third CH classroom, then lower- and upper- El classrooms, and at last a second building for more elementary space, across 24 years.
How did the children use music in your classroom? We made stuff: paper towel tubes we affixed with jingle-bells for shakers; corn meal cannisters for hand drums. We used small cymbals and shakers and claves at circle, practiced rhythms, salt-and-PEPper, salt-and-pepper. We clapped complicated hand- clapping games, and we were lucky to have two very talented classroom teachers who could come lead us in singing and dancing and shaking tamborines at least once a week. And for a while, we had an in-classroom piano.
Piano was free work, whenever one wanted, one-person at a time until that person is done [a ‘waiting-chair’ became useful]. We talked about ‘playing respectfully’ when the piano was introduced. One day, easily 30 yrs ago, Emmanuel, 6, played the piano during morning work period. Quiet notes went ‘to 11,’ sudden-thundered down in the bass and dissonant ‘chords’ moved up into the treble and so I sat down next to him, to listen. ‘Matt,’ he said. And thunder in cacophony from the low notes. ‘These are the LIONS! and the antelopes they are JUMPING to get away!’ Fingers spread on both hands moved chords in leaps up the scale.
How do you write songs? Used to be I just opened my mouth and said things out loud in literally sing-song fashion, especially when mowing the yard, and if I liked what fell out, I’d play with it, maybe even write it down. Now I walk a lot around our woodland track, 20-30 minutes ’round and ’round, and I just open my mouth and say things and if I like what I hear, I scramble for one of the dozen scraps of paper in my pockets and hope it’s not too cold for the pen to write. Then I spend weeks or years putting the pieces of the song together. Sometimes it’s all but complete at once; sometimes it’s years, rarely ever really finished.
What inspired the song “We Shall Walk”? In the rush of afterschool, my head of school handed me a paper with Montessori’s words typed out on the page. She thought I might like it. Maybe she thought it could be a good song. The second time I read it, I just heard it as sung in my head, with the Stones’ choral backup to “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” and understood that this was a liturgical piece. When I got home, I did the perimeter walk around the yard again, and for a few days afterward, and now it’s even got Tom Knight and Burchie Green doing the vocals. Read We Shall Walk lyrics here.
Where can readers learn more? Songs can be heard for free as ‘Songs for Classrooms,’ on Soundcloud and YouTube, mostly all sung by Tom Knight. Several other songs are also available on Burchie Green’s albums, ‘Taking My Dog to Dinner,’ and ‘Cool Cats’ Café. Many songs are also illustrated on Facebook at ‘Walking Man Comics.’ and ‘Walking Man Songs.’
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