Fiddling Away

Back home, Rome is burning and here I am in Rio, fiddling away to a samba beat. Went up to my hotel rooftop and with the beach and mountains of this extraordinary city spread out below me, took my unused bathing suit from the suitcase and had a relaxed summer’s morning at the pool. The Empire is crumbling but why not enjoy what’s at hand why I can? 

 

In the afternoon, after these six large group festive Orff gatherings, I worked with 8 teachers preparing for the first day of school. This is a small number for this work, but it actually was quite refreshing to work with this intimate size with more time and space for questions and conversation. My theme was: “What’s important in the first day of classes? What values and expectations and practices do you want to set in motion? What feels like an enticing beginning to the musical composition of your year?”

 

With a little prodding, we came up with establishing an atmosphere of trust, of fun, of inviting each students’ character to begin to show itself, of mixing up the social dynamic, of learning everyone’s name in a musical way and of course, in making some good music on the very first day where everyone feels successful. I then went on to offer activities that accent each and all of the above. Two two-hour sessions and I believe that each teacher felt better prepared to kick off the year and more enthusiastic about it as well. 

 

I’ve long had the idea of writing another book titled The Humanitarian Musician and this inspired me to get to work. The first part of the book an overall look at what that might mean and the second part, these concrete activities as models to actually do that work in one’s classes. A good February project for my month at home before taking off again for Hong Kong. 

 

Meanwhile, today is my last full day in Brazil and I will actually teach the kids in the school, even if it’s a bit weird for them to have a guest teacher on the first day. Who knows? Maybe one of them will give me another Pokemon card!