Will Richardson

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Playin' PVC

February 15, 2008 By Will Richardson

Before I did some evangelizing in Moline this morning, four very creative students from Lewiston High School about 90 miles away from here put on a 45-minute mini concert playing, wait for it, a collection of pvc and rubber tubes that, depending on length and thickness, created different tones when thumped on with a drum stick or a spatula. It was amazing, and I managed to snag a minute of Flip video from stage left.

Here’s what was so cool about it. First, these kids were just totally engaged in what they were doing. They had created a funny little PowerPoint that ran in the background, asking the audience to hoot and holler at certain points, and they did a great job of playing to the crowd. Second, they were playing these tubes because the had seen Blue Man Group and were inspired to create their own instruments and write their own music. Their efforts were supported by a band director and principal who encouraged their creativity and let them take their show on the road. Finally, they gave me a great example (check out their videos) of why we should be including MySpace and Facebook in our thinking and learning to the crowd that had just watched them perform.

Nothing beats kids who find and share their passions and talents with adults. Where is the assessment for that?

Technorati Tags: Lewistown, tubeband, music, schools

Filed Under: The Shifts

Comments

  1. Diane Main says

    February 15, 2008 at 8:12 pm

    See now, I thought you had typo’d Tuba in your tweet. You really DID mean Tube.

  2. Bradjward says

    February 15, 2008 at 10:42 pm

    I grew up about 30 mins from Lewistown! Weird little place. Spelled Lewistown, pronounced Lewiston. I never got that. Very cool video, thanks for sharing! Don’t you just love your Flip Camera?

  3. Laurie says

    February 16, 2008 at 2:12 am

    I was in the audience of this performance. What a talented group of students!!! As a former music teacher, I can appreciate what they did to get where they are today.

    I thoroughly enjoyed your performance, especially the Ozzy number!!!

  4. Denise says

    February 16, 2008 at 10:11 am

    This was a great day all around! Our church does a Creative Christmas program at IWireless and uses the Blue Man colored drums with water idea with Little Drummer Boy.
    These kids were great, your presentation was great. Way to revive our interest in teaching. Rewarding creativity has not been the norm in light of teaching to the test!

  5. Henry Pawlus says

    February 16, 2008 at 5:31 pm

    It was a good day at Moline. The Tube band was a good kick off for the day. I enjoyed you presentation. I have already started a eblog on google for information for my students and their parents. http://hpwilson.blogspot.com Thanks again for the info.

    Henry

  6. scott hudson says

    February 17, 2008 at 10:31 am

    Not a big fan of MySpace. I am not real sure of the value in it.

    I loved the video.

  7. Pam Hansen says

    February 19, 2008 at 5:30 pm

    I saw these amazing students perform at Normal Community High School for a freshman orientation with my son. They customized their power point for the occasion. It was a wonderful way to get dry information across in a manner that the kids would pay attention to and remember. There must be a way to create and use some sort of assessment system for this kind of creativity and learning. In my opinion, if creativity was assessed with equal weight as the facts we want the students to learn, they might actually learn not just memorize and enjoy learning for the rest of their lives.

  8. patrice hill says

    February 23, 2008 at 2:41 pm

    This is so cool! I’m going to share this idea with our performing arts dept.

  9. Jessica says

    February 24, 2008 at 4:36 pm

    What fun! Who knew that PVC pipes and rubber tubes could be so much fun! When reading about the experience, it reminded me of watching STOMP, where they make music out of everything! What a great lesson for students … you can make music with anything and don’t need expensive musical instruments to do so!

  10. Juli says

    March 2, 2008 at 4:18 pm

    As a music educator, I appreciate so much was goes behind the product that you see. This is the kind of thing that administrators need to see when they think of cutting music programs from the schools. Think about the advanced skills that went into this production: math, science, problem solving, multi-media presentation, not to mention the musical skills involved. The performing arts truly are important in giving our students a well-rounded education!!

    • Dani Wilkins says

      March 9, 2008 at 6:37 pm

      This is very true. Students need a variety of subjects throughout school and not just the basic math, English science, and social studies. It’s sad to see many subjects are being cut from schools, even though they help students branch out and be creative. I’m a student majoring in physical and health education. I get upset when I hear schools cut subjects like physical education, music, drama, and art before all other subjects. Personally, these classes were much more interesting than the general classes I was required to take. Administrators need to see these subjects are needed and wanted in our districts by parents and students.

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