This is formally Mark’s third year as our music
instructor, although he has been actively involved with our music
and theater programs for many years, including substitute teaching
and accompanying our school plays.
Primary teaching points:
1) Music can be really fun
2) The more fun it is, the more we do it
3) The more we do it, the better we get at it
4) The better we get at it, the more fun it is, etc.
Our primary focus for the first month is rhythmic pulse,
as the foundation of all musical endeavors: in our bodies; in our
names; in rhythm instruments; in movement. We will be learning to
mimic rhythms, create rhythms, and improvise rhythms within a metric
structure, e.g. 4/4 or 3/4 time.
The next thing we are adding is chanting in various
languages: English; Hebrew; Latin; Sanskrit; Arabic; Celtic; Lakota;
and more. Interspersed with this are songs for Halloween, Samhain,
Thanksgiving, Advent, Chanukah, Solstice and Christmas.
In the new year, since there are not that many Groundhog's
Day chants (except "I see my shadow, oh oh"), we will focus
more on group songwriting, although we have already undertaken a "Mountain
Road Rocks" song with many verses.
For the pre-K and Kindergarten classes, we focus primarily
on drumming, movement and songs that help us understand the basic
elements of tempo (fast-slow), pitch (high-low), dynamics (loud-soft),
and meter (double, e.g. 2/4 or 4/4, triple 3/4).
With the older grades we hope to use David Grover's
teaching materials for “We're All Americans,” a collection
of songs honoring cultural diversity. We hope to involve David and
his band in some way in this project, as Mark has performed this material
with them on the video, the CD and in the teaching materials.
Mark Kelso has a B.A. from Oberlin College where he
studied composition and music technology at the Oberlin Conservatory,
as well as being active in accompanying and composing for the Theater
and Dance Department. An international recording artist and performer
for 25 years, Mark has produced over 75 CD’s of his own and
others’ music, including "Weaving the Holiday Spirit",
Mountain Road School’s very own CD. Mark teaches piano, composition,
and songwriting privately as well as having been on the faculty of
the Berkshire Music School, the Clarksburg School, and serving as
the Music Director of the Richmond Congregational Church and the Kripalu
Center for Yoga and Health.
