introduction

A Walk Through Harlem: Syllabus


introduction -- concept/preparation -- syllabus-- instruments --process/performance

By the time the kids arrived, our 10-week stirring time had been trimmed to 5 weeks, due to organizational difficulties. Luckily, the kids ( Shameena Khan, Igor Zubkov, and Leila Tamari) turned out to be wonderful, as you will see. We set up the following rough game plan:

  1. Weeks 1-2: Have kids play with the instruments we built, see how it goes. Revise.
  2. Week 3: Take a walk through the Computer Music Center neighborhood (Harlem), record sounds of the environment, bring the recordings back to the CMC, listen, discuss. Ask the kids to write stories or poems about the sounds for the following week.
  3. Week 4: Read the stories and poems, experiment, come up with a game plan (with the kids) for a "piece," and begin working on it.
  4. Week 5: Further develop and rehearse the piece.

This schedule emphasized process and experimentation. Rather than entering with a carefully preconceived notion of what the kids should do, we tried to have them show us what they could do, and what was most interesting. This meant that actually working on the piece had to wait until frighteningly late, but we didn't see any other way of doing it that would invite the kids to be collaborators and would really allow for learning on both sides. Ideally, we would have many more weeks for "R&D."


introduction -- concept/preparation -- syllabus-- instruments --process/performance

 

structure
kids.dance
kids.sound
integration
presentations
first performance
Project Updates
First Steps
A Walk Through Harlem
Kids in (Sound) Space
Wind Symphony
biographies
biographies
images from the project
Contact information