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The Math of Rhythm: We’re going to create a World Music orchestra and use this experience to create a bridge between rhythm and the world of mathematics. The details: It takes mathematical awa... Read more

The Math of Rhythm:
We’re going to create a World Music orchestra and use this experience to create a bridge between rhythm and the world of mathematics.

The details:
It takes mathematical awareness to build sound into rhythm and rhythm into songs. This high energy hands-on workshop uses music with visual and auditory examples, so students of all learning styles and levels of proficiency can understand, participate and experience math concepts in a new way. And like just about every musical activity, this is a great team-building experience.

We'll learn and perform a World Percussion rhythm-song by using call-and-response techniques that layer together five different parts. And yes, your students can easily handle this because they are avid listeners in a world filled with more music than ever before.

First time players and longtime musicians will each have a chance to use and challenge their skills. Tony will "illustrate" this rhythm in a series of super-size graph paper charts. The charts allow us all to "see" the patterns, shapes and sequences of each part and their relationships to the music. When assembled these parts become a complex and amazing percussion experience. At the end of the workshop we’ll talk about how this "sonic math" relates to their math class experience and we'll have some time for questions.

About these workshops:
I can accommodate up to about 40 students in each workshop session, with the ideal being 20-30. I typically do between 2 and 4 workshops in a day, so depending upon the number of students involved, I could see all three grade levels in one day, or on back-to-back days. I enjoy customizing these programs to work well for students, faculty and administrators, so just let me know your vision for this. I’m pretty sure we can make that happen. Our primary focus will be on having the students enjoy their experience, be involved in hands-on playing on professional instruments, and on what they might discover about the math of music and the universal power of music to connect us all.

Goals:
-Provide an alternative to written numbers to introduce and reinforce math concepts with concrete and conceptual strategies for classroom use.
-Develop creative and critical observational skills.
-Use rhythm to hear the patterns and sequences within music.
-See the geometric shapes that represent or illustrate a rhythm.
-Connect fractions and musical time signatures to a common awareness of patterns.

We will spend time with the students on technique instruction and the vocabulary of music. Language and drum playing skills will be age appropriate. The difficulty of the rhythms will also be geared to the ages of the students.

TRANSFERABLE SKILLS: Critical and creative thinking and problem solving. Collaborative responsibility. Self-regulation. Conceptualizing and reading music in chart and graph formats. Transferring knowledge across disciplines often thought of as being separate.

For the Grade Level Program: -Tony will be in one location all day and one or two classrooms of students will come to him for an hour at a time. This can be a two visit workshop. That gives your s... Read more

For the Grade Level Program:
-Tony will be in one location all day and one or two classrooms of students will come to him for an hour at a time.

This can be a two visit workshop. That gives your students more time with the music and the webwork of connections to math.

-If you have scheduling difficulty, please let us know. Tony may be able to work with 2 classes at a time depending upon the class numbers, or we can be flexible and work for 1.5 hours if the school schedule would benefit.

Let us know your vision for this. We'll do all we can to make that happen.

Tony will provide all professional musical instruments necessary for the students to have a hands-on experience. (Music instruments include: djembes, gongs, drums, bells, balafon, bongos, dun-dun drum... Read more

Tony will provide all professional musical instruments necessary for the students to have a hands-on experience. (Music instruments include: djembes, gongs, drums, bells, balafon, bongos, dun-dun drums, rattles, etc. and a small sound system for the workshops).

A link to the charts used in the workshops is available.

-On Day 1, Tony will arrive 2 hours before the first workshop. The school will need to reserve the dedicated space. The auditorium is always the best space for these workshops. It's a hands-on per... Read more

-On Day 1, Tony will arrive 2 hours before the first workshop. The school will need to reserve the dedicated space.

The auditorium is always the best space for these workshops. It's a hands-on percussion experience and the volume of sound would likely disturb any nearby classroom. Any space that's large enough (at least 20' by 50') and out of sonic range of nearby classrooms can be used.

Students will applying the "sonic math" involved in dividing a steady beat into varying fractions of a measure of beats. Students will experience and express the confluence of patterns shared by ma... Read more

Students will applying the "sonic math" involved in dividing a steady beat into varying fractions of a measure of beats.

Students will experience and express the confluence of patterns shared by mathematics and rhythmic percussion.

Students will learn how to navigate the overlapping responsibilities of collaboration and playing their part in a constellation of interconnected patterns. It's a mind and body integration.