Monday, May 02, 2005

The sounds coming from the music room at Wintergreen Intermediate are not like anything Ed Jacobs has ever heard before.

And that's exactly the way he wants it.

Jacobs, an associate professor of composition at East Carolina University, is working with sixth-graders on composing their own pieces of music. It's an idea that is helping to turn music class on its ear.

"This experience has really helped them to use music terms and to build a vocabulary for writing music and expressing themselves musically," said Wintergreen music teacher Robin Loy. "(It has) opened up a better understanding of music for my students and has given them a whole different way of experiencing music."

Jacobs, who is director of the NewMusic@ECU Festival, began visiting Wintergreen's general music classes last fall, volunteering his time once a week to work with students on their compositions. He feeds their suggestions into a computer that allows kids to hear a simulation of how their notes sound on different instruments.

The teaching technique Jacobs is trying at Wintergreen is similar to what he uses with his advanced music students at the university. But he thought even inexperienced students could benefit from the hands-on approach.

"With children, the simple act of making things is a huge learning process," Jacobs said. "We take small children and we give them a pile of blocks. We give them no instructions and they play and, in the process, they learn a tremendous amount.

"I think there is a tremendous benefit out of simply saying, ‘Play with sound,'" he said. "Not that technique is unimportant, but wouldn't it be great if music is presented, along with the technical aspect, with a creative aspect? ... Not just play the piano but play with the piano."

Student Matthew Whitford remembers the first day his class played around with writing music. "We just started naming notes out of the blue," he said.

Jacobs enters the notes into his computer's Sibelius software program, which plays them back for students to hear. The program allows students to alter their composition by adding or deleting notes, rearranging them or selecting different instruments to change the sound.

"(You) guess, check, then erase when it's wrong" is how student Robert Fendley described the process.

To be sure, composing is a trial-and-error experience for the students. Many of them are just beginning to learn to read music.

"At first, the kids don't really know what's going on," Jacobs said. "Once I play for them what they've created, the sense of participation really snowballs."

What starts out as a one-line melody ends up as a two- to three-minute piece of music.

After trying their hands at writing music for the computer to play back, students work on a second piece. This time, they are writing music that they will play using percussion instruments available in the classroom.

"We just started pulling out all the instruments," Loy said. "We've immersed the children in music."

On Thursday, students will perform one of their pieces for parents and teachers. The audience will also have a chance to hear a computer simulation of music the students have written.

Loy hopes parents will feel some of the same excitement that the students have experienced.

"They've just got such a high level of energy," she said. "They keep saying. 'When is he (Jacobs) coming back? Is he coming today?'

"The last time he came, they were walking in the door saying, 'I've got an idea for our composition,'" Loy said.

Jacobs takes time to hear every suggestion, encouraging children to try whatever they like musically without worrying about making a mistake.

"You can always change it," he said, during a recent class.

Though he is an award-winning composer, Jacobs refrains from incorporating his own musical ideas into students' work.

"I think this probably comes from my training as a parent more than anything else," he said. "Kids know when you're messing with a project. They don't take as much pride when it feels like they helped you.

"There's very little that reflects anything I would write," he said. "But it's inconsequential."

What is important, Jacobs said, is that students collaborate on their composition so that the music is the work of an entire group and not just a few students.

"This is like a United Nations," he said in a recent class. "We've got to satisfy all of you."

Students seem pleased with their compositions, which they have titled "My Band" (computer composition) and "The Bilfor" (rhythm composition).

"You know that it's your own piece," student Justina Clark said. "It's ... like nobody else's."

Jacobs is hoping to expand his unique musical composition program to other schools. He is working to secure funding for the project.

"The next phase is to take a few hand-picked students of mine at ECU and have them do the same thing," Jacobs said. "We would spread out to several different schools."

Wintergreen Intermediate Principal Pat Clark said she hopes to see the partnership grow.

"It's far beyond just general music," she said. "The things they gain ... definitely stretch into other programs."

Wintergreen is studying groups of students involved in the composition project to see what effect it might have on issues such as attendance and discipline.

"When they feel successful ... it carries over into the classroom," Clark said, adding she thinks the music activity will help students with critical thinking, as well as creativity.

Jacobs hopes the effort will help students learn teamwork as well as an appreciation for all kinds of music. Whether or not it encourages them to become composers or musicians is less important to him.

"I'm just trying to get them to play," he said. "Play is the essential word. In this case, play leads to learning.

"There's no reason sound can't be used in the same way crayons and blocks are used," Jacobs said. "It's not about trying to turn a generation of children into composers. It's about playing with sound."

Kim Grizzard can be contacted at 329-9578 or kgrizzard@coxnews.com.