I have never forgotten the first time I walked into Music Class as an assistant for Mr. Scott. I saw kids sitting neatly on their chairs and others running towards their seats. They reminded me of when I was in middle school, joyful and free. For the first few classes, I showed them the types of instruments they were going to play for the year. They were fascinated with everything compared to us high school students, who got so used to the instruments that they no longer seem that fascinating. Considering the various types of instruments that we have, I decided to introduce one type at a time. My goal is introduce various instruments to the students and help them choose their own to practice with. For the first workshop, I showed everyone how to play the flute and had them all tried the mouthpiece. Many of them were able to make perfect sounds while others couldn’t. One interesting thing that I noticed was that most of the perfect sounds were made by the boys. The girls were a little bit shy, so they didn't give their full efforts. However, I managed to pick out six students to practice the flutes. A few days later, Ms. Elizabeth (our librarian) came in to help us out. She is a great flute player and together we showed them how to make a good embouchure, tone, tonguing and fingerings for the first few notes. Most of the kids had trouble holding the notes. Sometimes, they whined when they were out of breathe, saying it was so hard to make a good sound. Other days, they were very focused and made great efforts. Some kids were falling behind, so I spent time helping them individually. One advantage that I have compared to Mr.Scott is my ability to understand and speak Vietnamese. Therefore, whenever the kids have trouble understanding anything in English, I could translate the instructions into Vietnamese for them to understand.
They were the most enthusiastic students that I have ever had. I am very excited to continue practicing with them and showing other kids the other instruments.
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AuthorAnh Nguyen
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