This week Page Presents featured a special guest presenter! Matt and his daughter Zoey are regular attendees, but not everyone knows that he is a professional percussionist and music educator. “Mr. Matt” brought his portable drum set to the library and enthralled everyone with his interactive explorations of The Beat.
He asked the kids if they knew what number comes after 1. “Two!” they shouted, and he proceeded to tap out a duple meter. “What comes after 2?” “Three!” and now we heard a waltz rhythm. This went on up through 9! We also learned to recognize a jazz rhythm that goes…Door, shut the door. And a samba rhythm…Boom-chick-a-boom. We all got to play along with the music on rhythm instruments. The kids were thrilled when Mr. Matt invited them to try out his drum set!
Then we made our own paper plate tambourines with monkey faces (inspired by the book Hand, Hand, Fingers, Thumb.
Afterwards Matt was critiquing his teaching and wondering if he had overloaded the kids with too much information. I suggested that we could have “Mr. Matt’s Minute” every week, and he could teach one or two simple concepts that we could repeat from week to week. Then, when he brings his drum set again for a longer session, we could see if this has made a difference in the kids’ understanding of rhythms. What fun!
