Now that I've completed my goal in making many different musical instruments, I am even more curious about the different types of instruments and noise makers that can be made from household objects. I am excited to see what my classmates who are also making musical instruments have come up with, as I'm sure I will add some of their ideas to my music lesson plan ideas book.
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My Reflection
On completion of my goal to make musical instruments, I feel I’ve explored much more than just the fabrication of instruments. I’ve learned that most subjects are cross-disciplinary and that the incorporation of different subject areas often make for more interesting and thorough learning experiences. I’ve learned that plans often change from how they were originally intended, and that accepting change is OK. Of course, I’ve also learned a lot about the logistics in making musical instruments from cheap household materials that both look and sound good.
Initially I had sought out to have all my musical instruments be culturally themed. I wanted to base each instrument and its accompanying ideas for lesson plans on the countries of origin of the instrument. After researching for hours, I found that it was a lot more difficult than I had imagined to find exact origins of instruments, as different sources would conclude different places of origin for certain instruments. I felt anxious to give credit to the wrong country of origin for certain instruments I was planning on making. I feel that as a pre-service teacher, I want to be 100% accurate in anything I might be teaching to students in the future, however; I do not want to shy away from a topic just because I’m unfamiliar with it. I’ve realized that I will have to continue to push myself to not be afraid of coming upon dead ends after I’ve envisioned a project in my mind. With my goal, I solved this issue by allowing myself to stray from my original culture theme by instead choosing to do most of my projects non-culturally themed. I did however stick to country of origin for my Chinese gong (properly named a chau gong), and for my Mexican maracas. Both of these projects I chose to incorporate the countries colours, and for the gong I was able to try my hand at writing Chinese symbols. I would love to use both of these projects in a classroom setting and further research both the Chinese and the Mexican cultures with my students. With the other instruments, I was sometimes surprised, and other times disheartened at the quality of sound the instruments created. I’ve never made a shoe-box guitar before and was very surprised with the nice sound it can create, however; the tambourine I made didn’t turn out how I had envisioned, probably because of the materials I chose to use. I learned that material selection is often a key in determining the sound authenticity. I also learned that percussion instruments were easier to find ideas about online, and often easier to make then string or wind instruments. I had planned to make a didgeridoo but the materials I had on hand to make one produced a sub-par sound.
Another thing that surprised me about making musical instruments was how inaccurate I was at approximating time to complete projects. Some of the projects I chose to make such as my Mexican maracas and my rainforest rainstick took almost double the time of what I had anticipated. While making my instruments, I considered time management in a classroom setting, taking into consideration students that would be finished quickly, and those that would be the perfectionist type and take longer. I know now that I will have to plan my lessons with extensions ready for the ones who are finished quickly, and find ways to help along the ones who take too much time. I could do this by having the ones who are finished quickly help out the slower ones, or make the projects over many short time allotments so that students don’t get bored with an activity.
I exceeded my original goal of making 4 to 5 instruments by making 7 different instruments; a Chinese gong, Mexican maracas, a bumble bee shaker, monster castanets, a rainforest rainstick, a rock star guitar, and a marching band tambourine. I spread out the researching and fabrication of these instruments over 3 months, using a blog (http://helenasinstruments.blogspot.com/) to keep track of my progress. I learned a lot in the process about activity planning strategies, and also about my own notion concerning what it means to be an effective teacher.
On completion of my goal to make musical instruments, I feel I’ve explored much more than just the fabrication of instruments. I’ve learned that most subjects are cross-disciplinary and that the incorporation of different subject areas often make for more interesting and thorough learning experiences. I’ve learned that plans often change from how they were originally intended, and that accepting change is OK. Of course, I’ve also learned a lot about the logistics in making musical instruments from cheap household materials that both look and sound good.
Initially I had sought out to have all my musical instruments be culturally themed. I wanted to base each instrument and its accompanying ideas for lesson plans on the countries of origin of the instrument. After researching for hours, I found that it was a lot more difficult than I had imagined to find exact origins of instruments, as different sources would conclude different places of origin for certain instruments. I felt anxious to give credit to the wrong country of origin for certain instruments I was planning on making. I feel that as a pre-service teacher, I want to be 100% accurate in anything I might be teaching to students in the future, however; I do not want to shy away from a topic just because I’m unfamiliar with it. I’ve realized that I will have to continue to push myself to not be afraid of coming upon dead ends after I’ve envisioned a project in my mind. With my goal, I solved this issue by allowing myself to stray from my original culture theme by instead choosing to do most of my projects non-culturally themed. I did however stick to country of origin for my Chinese gong (properly named a chau gong), and for my Mexican maracas. Both of these projects I chose to incorporate the countries colours, and for the gong I was able to try my hand at writing Chinese symbols. I would love to use both of these projects in a classroom setting and further research both the Chinese and the Mexican cultures with my students. With the other instruments, I was sometimes surprised, and other times disheartened at the quality of sound the instruments created. I’ve never made a shoe-box guitar before and was very surprised with the nice sound it can create, however; the tambourine I made didn’t turn out how I had envisioned, probably because of the materials I chose to use. I learned that material selection is often a key in determining the sound authenticity. I also learned that percussion instruments were easier to find ideas about online, and often easier to make then string or wind instruments. I had planned to make a didgeridoo but the materials I had on hand to make one produced a sub-par sound.
Another thing that surprised me about making musical instruments was how inaccurate I was at approximating time to complete projects. Some of the projects I chose to make such as my Mexican maracas and my rainforest rainstick took almost double the time of what I had anticipated. While making my instruments, I considered time management in a classroom setting, taking into consideration students that would be finished quickly, and those that would be the perfectionist type and take longer. I know now that I will have to plan my lessons with extensions ready for the ones who are finished quickly, and find ways to help along the ones who take too much time. I could do this by having the ones who are finished quickly help out the slower ones, or make the projects over many short time allotments so that students don’t get bored with an activity.
I exceeded my original goal of making 4 to 5 instruments by making 7 different instruments; a Chinese gong, Mexican maracas, a bumble bee shaker, monster castanets, a rainforest rainstick, a rock star guitar, and a marching band tambourine. I spread out the researching and fabrication of these instruments over 3 months, using a blog (http://helenasinstruments.blogspot.com/) to keep track of my progress. I learned a lot in the process about activity planning strategies, and also about my own notion concerning what it means to be an effective teacher.
