Learning About Nature Through
Music and the Arts
Be Curious Be Inspired Create and Share Through Music |
Be Curious Be Inspired Create and Share Through Music |
I am so so sooo excited to have the honour of presenting at the upcoming Outdoor Learning Conference, about teaching music and the arts outside: I just cannot wait to be in this beautiful space, surrounded by other educators from around the world who also love to be outside, and share that love of nature and the environment with students.
I absolutely adore every class and webinar I have taken with the organization Take Me Outside/Outdoor Learning Store so I know this conference is going to somehow catapult me into another level of transformative learning, and change who I am yet again for the better, and for the better of nature, and the environment and the land... It's just so amazing how many educators that I know who are going to this conference... more soon... but it will be a lot to process...
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This is one of our first outdoor projects this year. By bringing the classes outside, we are following the Manitoba Music Curriculum: Oh wow... just found this one anew: And the new Louis Riel School Division Multi-Year Strategic Plan: Students went outside, using a sound map paper, to listen to sounds around the school field, and create lines and shapes that connected to what they were hearing. Inside, we watched the first few seconds of the NFB documentary, Listen, about composer R. Murray Schafer, who spent much of his career thinking about soundscapes of our environment. We also watched a bit of his composition, Miniwanka, about water, to see how he creates his compositions and the notation for them. Then we tried to recreate our soundscape inside, standing in the spaces that would match the maps. We created a second page for notation, putting our 'instruments' (the sounds we heard outside) at the left side of the screen, so that we could create a timeline of the sound story, or composition we want to create of the outdoor environment. We watched various videos of composers - past and current - who use natural sounds that they studied and incorporated into their music. Peter and the Wolf was helpful for showing how to play a melody that represents a person, or animal. We watched performers discuss how to play music to represent a story. Then, before playing, I shared a paraphrased line from the 'Listen' NFB documentary above: 'The whole world is a composition that has no beginning and, presumably, no ending... and we are the composers.... ' And then I would start the groups to play... Various interesting things happened throughout the playing of each groups' pieces: - Sometimes classes would overlap, and one group would play for another, and they would see that quote in real life in that even though they were all in the same school yard for the listening portion, they heard different things at different times of day, or animals in different locations. - We talked about how, if we did this for years, we might start to notice changes in animals etc which is a helpful part of 'soundscape ecology'. - One group didn`t have anyone playing the wind, so I played the beginning of the Arctic Symphony by Vince Ho to show that there can be a mix of instruments and recorded sounds for compositions that is very effective and beautiful. - I offered the chance for some students to conduct the sounscape composition themselves. Very interesting to watch how carefully they need to watch their classmate. - We had to learn to listen very carefully, which is a huge, new section of the Manitoba Music Curriculum: - Some groups are going with their teacher and myself to a local forest, and it will be exciting to discuss the differences in sounds we heard from our school yard, compared to the forest. I'm so excited to be doing these forest walks with students this year, after several days learning about plants and trees from various experts in locations inside and outside of our city. I'm so excited about what I have been learning through a program with the Manitoba Métis Federation called 'Stewards of the Homeland' .. this program has helped me learn so many plants and trees that are an important part of Métis culture, which is a part of my heritage that I am re-discovering. It's also amazing to learn about the connection to the land for the upcoming Li Keur opera, which is an opera about Louis Riel in Michif and Anishinaabemowin languages and more. I've been helping by preparing the children's chorus. So many plants are included in this opera as connection to the land is huge. Cannot wait to see it. As well, I have learned so much from various workshops, such as Project Wild and Below Zero from the Canadian Wildlife Federation, and am happy to continue collaborating with the facilitator, Ashley Adams, who came to work with the Environment Club, planting in the butterfly garden. So many sections of the Manitoba Music Curriculum are addressed here, while also nurturing student needs to 'connect purposefully with nature and their environment', which is a section that is part of almost every employment advertisement in my school division, even for music positions. For music itself: - listening skills - playing in an ensemble - watching cues of the director - playing a variety of instruments using proper technique - behaviour as a performer and audience member - listening to music from their own community and from other times and places - examples of music careers - reading notation (I actually have decided I don't like the terms 'traditional' and 'non-traditional' notation. Who decides which is traditional? Why?) - Using movement to explore concepts - balance and blend in an ensemble - play or sing by ear, reproducing melodies - understanding of melodic design (various bird songs, plane sounds - Doppler Effect) One of my favourite new additions to the Manitoba Music Curriculum is the following: This above phrase is so important. With everything in the world, we need to open our minds to new ideas, new challenges, which helps us develop our creativity and imagination, and therefore helps us learn and grow. A student asked me to play a musical work in class to see 'if it was worth it'. This started a discussion about what the purpose of art is. It is our ability to express ourselves. It's not about liking or not liking it. In our commodity-based culture, there is so much around us about what is good or worth it... but we need to learn to suspend this judgement to experience new things. This attitude about if something is 'worth it' or not also has a detrimental effect on students' growth mindset; why would a student even start to think they can use music and the arts express themselves when the first thing that happens is others deciding if it is good or not? The remorse on children's faces and even adults who visit my room when they say they aren't 'good' at music or 'good' at art. It's a form of expression. I gave a made up example of a child explaining to someone why they are sad/happy etc
At the end of these experiences, I heard students saying this was fun, and had a student make a point of coming up to me to thank me for doing this, and that it was interesting and fun.... Hopefully it established a stronger connection to nature for that student and others.... As you can see in my previous post, using music and the arts to nature can create a very rich and emotional connection. I have, again, spent all year using music to help students in all classes relate to so many elements of nature: water in our province, animals and their habitats, seasons, and many more. This is not unusual; many composers create music about nature, so we are doing so, too, and often connecting the music curriculum with the science and social studies curricula while we are doing so. The environment club itself has been creating activities, plays, songs etc to help reach students in the school, to get them to form empathy and care about the environment. Their projects have been amazing and engaging for other students in our school. Here, I will be focusing on the experience at Henteleff Park that the school environment club had back in May, and how we have been using the arts to add a more deep and personal response to that park visit. I have been collaborating with Ian Keenan, a member of the board, for many months leading up to this experience, which we hope to be the first of many, as students in our school develop a relationship, a reconnection, with the natural world around them. There are so many people, and podcasts, and books that built up to how to start to create a deep connection through the arts to this nature walk. First, let me start with The Environmental Musician, Emily Thoroski. Emily's education in Environmental Science, combined with a passion for music is explained so well in this video: To develop the connection with, and the care for, which leads to action for the environment, Emily shares that we must communicate the importance of acting for the environment, and a way to get people to feel deeply is through arts, which touch our spirit. Then, there is the EnviroSongsters, who speak on this podcast about touching hearts of children to get them to care about nature through music, on Earthy Chats. Give it a listen as it's amazing. I am so very inspired by Tiiu Strutt, of Land Heart Song, who talks about how singing, and using our voice creates a personal and emotional connection to the nature around us. I also very much loved listening to this podcast, in which Susanne Heaton is interviewed about the many healing benefits of forests. I also wanted to think about soundscapes themselves, with the field of bioacoustics. Students created sound maps, and were also encouraged to draw, and write phrases they felt inspired to write about what they were experiencing around themselves. This webinar from The Ontario Society for Environmental Education was fascinating for this: In the webinar above, they talk about composer R. Murray Schafer: "“Soundscape” has an origin in Canada. Composer R. Murray Schafer built his academic and professional career on the popularization of soundscapes. He founded the “World Soundscapes Project” in 1969 at SFU in BC with the goal of raising public awareness of sounds through active and careful listening, and a goal of recording and documenting changes of sound in the environment. All with an overarching purpose of creating an ecologically balanced soundscape where the relationship between people and the environment is in harmony." Before we left on our walk to Henteleff Park, we read the book 'Écouter': After we returned, over several days, we started to pick phrases and sounds that they had written down at the park that stood out as shared experiences. I shared some ideas of how to play instruments with their phrases, and how the melody would work. Then we put the words into a framework of verse and chorus. Then I played that first verse and chorus to see if they liked it. They did, and so we picked more phrases and ideas. We also talked about how to include some of the sounds of the park in the music itself. We thought about the sound of the chickadee song -2 notes played on a flute near the beginning. Then later, at about 2 minutes (in the video), there is the sound of the Red Eyed Vireo, who sounds like they are asking themself a question, then answering it over and over at different pitches, also played by the flute. There is also a double bass throughout, for the drone of the bee, and a rolling guitar accompaniment for the rise and fall of the wind. These motifs are techniques that composers use with symphonic poems, to create the sounds of environments, stories. In the future, I hope this piece, and their experience in nature, inspires other students to want to visit as well. It is my hope that other classes get to have the benefits of forest healing next year. This is where my reading of the important teachings of Natural Curiosity, and Braiding Sweetgrass, The Walking Curriculum, and Land Heart Song's encouragement to create music about what we are curious about during our visits has led us. There is quite the disconnect between humans and the natural world, where - I find - students don't see how we are connected to the nature around us... trees providing oxygen, pollinators providing food... so it is so important to establish this reconnection...
Afterwards, one class, where many environment club students happen to be members, asked me to play the video for their classmates. They were beaming, and saying the lyrics along with the video, demonstrating how much adding music deepened this experience for them. At the end, I reminded them of earlier in the year, when we had walked out and made fresh footprints in the snow while listening to Debussy's "Des pas sur la neige". At the time he was composing, impressionist artists portrayed impressions of moments in nature. Often, the arts are connected in different eras, so there are many examples of composers such as Debussy and Ravel creating music that are impressions of moments in nature as well, such as "Des reflets dans l'eau" and "The Snow is Dancing". I told them that Debussy was bringing an experience of a quiet walk in the snow to life, and here we were, 200 years later, trying to make those same footprints and imagine what he was trying to share with the world. If only he knew schoolchildren were walking in his footsteps 200 years later. Perhaps he had no idea where his music would go. None of us presently living can know where the reach of our art might go. I compared that experience with this one, of them creating their own lyrics and collaborating with me on the music to tell the story of their calming experience to others who had not been there. Something to think about.... That walk in the snowy fall led that group to a project creating theme music and sound design for a storybook about winter, using Soundtrap, just as this song does. But this one is a song of their own experiences that connects even more. I am so inspired by the students across my school division, the Louis Riel School Division, who spoke of the importance of learning outside, and how they want to be part of their regular learning in school. They spoke of the need for outdoor learning at the Youth Summit in 2021, because of its effect on wellness, and how it inspires us to take care of the environment. In the fall of 2022, I was honoured to be invited by my school division to present on learning the Arts Outside as part of the Educators' Summit, for the Indigenous and Land Based Learning call to action. Learning outside meets 3 of the 4 calls to action that were highlighted by LRSD students: learner choice and voice, mental health and well-being, and indigenous education and land-based learning. Click on the picture to learn more. I am so excited to see where outdoor learning goes in our division, now that it is considered a top priority from the Youth and Educator Summits: I was honoured to have been invited to present at #MTSPDAY for the Manitoba Association of Multi-Age Educators, in a session called "Taking the Arts Outside". Click on the image below to learn more: I was happy to present on Music and the Arts Outside for the Manitoba Nature Summit on October 13th - 15th. Click on the image below to learn more about this outdoor conference. It was wonderful to attend and learn so much from like-minded educators who see the importance of connecting students to nature through various subjects, and nature in and of itself:
I am so honoured to have been interviewed for Green Teacher Magazine's Podcast, "Talking with Green Teachers". A lovely conversation with editor, Ian Shanahan, about teaching music outside, and about our musical composition reflections on what it's like to be outside for all music classes in Canada!
Check it out: "With Jennifer Engbrecht of the Louis Riel School Division and Music OutsideWhat’s it like to teach music outside in the temperate zone through all seasons? How cold is too cold to learn outdoors? Can drama and movement support students’ learning of complex musical elements like meter, rhythm, and form? What opportunities do outdoor settings afford educators and learners? How does the Orff approach fit into all this? Grade 2–5 teacher Jennifer Engbrecht took her students outside for all but 11 days of the 2020-21 school year, enduring all that Winnipeg, Manitoba’s continental climate (with an annual temperature range of more than 80°C!) had to offer. This experience opened new doors for her and her students and led them to new creative heights. Hear Jennifer’s insights and her riveting story." I was just going through and organizing some slide presentations that I use in school to demonstrate different concepts when we are playing instruments. It happened to be about taiko, a Japanese style of drumming that we learn at different points throughout the year, but because of the rhythm syllables (kuchishoga 口唱歌 ) that we learn while playing, I started thinking about organizing another playlist on my YouTube channel of different styles of rhythmic language - rhythm syllables - that are used around the world for learning percussion rhythms, and came back to this amazing video of a rhythm called Kassa, from Guinea. It shows the rhythmic language used to learn the patterns. Why I am sharing this for today, and here in the outdoor learning section of this site, is because I just read the amazing description of why we are drawn to rhythms that is written in the description section of this video: "African percussion represents rhythm. All areas of life - vegetable, animal or mineral - are based on rhythms from birth to death: our breath, walking, seasons, weather, growth/blooming of plants, sleeping patterns, heartbeats... everything comes and goes, and all of these various rhythms are interconnected. It is the polyrhythm of life, the circle of life. What is more natural than being captivated by that which governs all activity: rhythms?" What a beautiful description of the rhythm and interconnectedness of everything? I felt this very much while being outside all last year; the sunrises and sunsets (we saw both as there is a very short day in Canadian winter), the return of certain birds etc... we talked about these rhythms being something to which we become much more connected when we are outside enjoying nature every day. This video also has a beautiful description of how everything around us is rhythm: I still have people that are shocked that we did music outside all last year. And yet... everything in nature, everything around us is rhythms.
Rhythms are nature. Nature is rhythms.
In the fall, I wrote a post called "Inspired to Create" about the amazing experience of learning music outside throughout 2020-2021. We have continued to learn outside this year as well, but - because I have the option of using my music room again - all of the times where it is incredibly windy or cold (which it seems to be in abundance this year of 21-22) we learn inside, and love again having the option of playing instruments that wouldn't be taken outside.
I'm so excited to say that Grade 3 and 4 students will be creating music with composer, Rayne Hamilton! A few weeks ago, our amazing LRSD music coordinator, Ingrid Pedersen, proposed an innovative way to experience Orff Day for our students this year! Ingrid is so positive and enthusiastic, and is always finding creative and new ways for students to experience music and the arts, and this has especially been seen throughout the pandemic. Below is a Tweet from an "Orff Day" in 2019:
As you can see by the lively picture above, from 2019, our traditional Grade 4 Orff Days are filled with a lot of students from around the entire school division, which is amazing, but we aren't quite at the point yet to get back to having huge crowds of students indoors, from various schools. We will get there again :-)
So this year, Ingrid Pedersen suggested having music clinicians come to our schools to do sessions with grade 4 students (or in our case, all the grade 3 and 4 students). One suggestion was the talented Raine Hamilton! I was immediately excited, thinking about how I was wanting to work on composing about our outdoor experiences with students, because I had actually been at a concert years ago where Raine Hamilton, and a number of other songwriters, had a concert following a songwriting retreat at Fort Whyte Alive! Check out this description of the experience: "Our thanks to Manitoba Music and the nine artists who brought their energy to FortWhyte Alive for this unique collaboration. Creating opportunities for others to become enchanted by lakeside views, roaming bison and aspen forests is an important part of our mission at FortWhyte Alive."
So amazing! And it was such a gorgeous concert! I've been excitedly communicating back and forth with Raine Hamilton for weeks now! It will be in April, and I cannot wait!
Here are some responses that students gave back in the fall, when I asked them to describe their time learning music outside... This is made with online word cloud generators. Words that get said repeatedly end up larger than others, so you can see the word "fun" is huge, meaning it was said so many times by so many classes. I just love that so much. Students regularly ask when we can go outside again, this year. At the moment, because it keeps being -30 to -40 celsius with North winds gusting to 50-70km/hr, I just gesture around me and say "Sure, just not in THIS." Hahaha! I can't believe how incredibly cold and windy it still is in the middle of March! Students had to stay indoors for recess yesterday on March 10th because it was so freezing! In any case, it will be amazing to see these responses and reflections below shared in music with our collaboration with Raine Hamilton in April!
Another way students have been reflecting and responding musically to our experiences learning music outside is through using SoundTrap. This is another amazing initiative of our arts coordinator, Ingrid Pedersen.
The Grade 5 students have been creating compositions with SoundTrap, using music loops infused with nature sounds. Here are a couple that I have created as examples. Here is the description for the first one: "This is an example for my students of incorporating outside/nature sounds into a composition, to represent our experiences of learning music outside during the 2020 2021 school year."
Here is the next one:
"This track was made with SoundTrap to show my students an example of creating a fusion of nature sounds we would hear when learning music outside during the 2020-2021 school year, integrated with music loops (SoundTrap, and my own voice). The music loops I used/created emulate the reflective feeling I often have when walking by myself in our beautiful, snowy, winter landscapes. Before the classes would come outside each day, I would have a moment to myself to just be grateful for all I could see and hear - the breeze, the birds, the sunrise... |
Click HERE to go back to the first postBio - Jennifer EngbrechtI am a music specialist in the Louis Riel School Division in Manitoba, Canada. I have a strong interest in the interrelationship of all subject areas, especially infusing the arts into all learning, and as their own stand-alone subjects. NEW:
So excited to be interviewed for Green Teacher Magazine's "Talking With Green Teachers" Podcast My article in the MSSTA Journal for Fall 2021... Click on the image below:
My article in the Summer 2021 Green Teacher Magazine. Click on the image below:
Disconnect: The Outdoor Education Podcast - listen to this episode about Teaching Music Outside by clicking on the picture below:
Looking for the WSO Manitoba Mosaic lesson for Hey Terre by Kelly Bado?
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