Musicians in Action

Our plan

When one of Corinne Quarles' children entered the second grade, she was surprised to discover that the school he was attending had absolutely no music education program. A music major in college, Quarles knew the importance of being able to play an instrument. It didn't take long for her to know that she wanted to help the students at her son's school, but it wasn't until a teacher told Quarles that she had a box of flutophones and nothing to do with them that an opportunity to teach and inspire presented itself. Quarles quickly began an in-class music education program with the second graders. Since then, it has blossomed into a larger program: Musicians in Action. Quarles started with the box of flutophones and began to formulate a plan. She decided that she should start the program by teaching the students the notes on the flutaphone, then by teaching them Hot Cross Buns. By starting with simple songs that all the students could master, it would encourage the students to continue to be excited about the music program. After mastering a variety of extremely simple songs, it would be time to move on to more complex tunes. Eventually, Quarles wanted each of the students to be able to read music and play a variety of songs of different tempos and time signatures both on their own and in an ensemble.

What we did

Quarles had the music for each of the songs she wanted to teach the students laminated and enlarged. The class breezed through the easy songs, meeting once a week for 30-45 minutes. As the music got more complex, the students began to gain the ability to determine what was "new and different" in each piece — be it the fingering on the instrument, the tempo of the song or the pitch of the tune. After Quarles had worked with the second-grade class for the school year, she decided to continue her program by volunteering in other classrooms. This time around, while working from the same plan and following the same general steps she had while working with second grade students, Quarles purchased recorders for every member of the class she taught. At around $3 each, the recorders were the students to keep, and allowed them to practice at home. By the end of the year, students had learned how to play songs as varied as Mary Had a Little Lamb, Ode to Joy, My Heart Will Go On (the Titanic song, a student favorite) and a variety of others.