Curriculum
Teachers and Students
Pre Band Lessons for the Flute
Objectives
With all wind instruments, posture is first and far most. Sitting up straight must be the primary goal of the student. Start by sitting up straight on the edge of the seat. Position yourself to the corner of the chair. To ensure proper breathing technique, hold both elbows out and away from the body.
Now, sitting is important, but breathing is equally important. Breathing should be dealt with from the diaphragm muscles.
DIAPHRAGM EXERCISES
To begin with - standing is the best way to get maximum expansion of the longs. Stand on your tip toes with your back to the wall and your hands pointing straight above you - as if pointing to the ceiling. With your lips perked and your jaws not puffing, take a deep breath of air. Slowly and forcefully, push the air out while cupping the air at the center of the lips.
Think of the air as filling up a jug of water - the water will go to the bottom of the jug. That’s where the muscles pull open the lungs.
To strengthen the diaphragm muscles, push the air out with a long duration. Relax for a moment and repeat the motion. Allow yourself to rest after a short while of doing the exercise.
KEEP THE PAPER ON THE WALL EXERCISE
Tare a piece of paper from the edge of the sheet at about the size of a fifty cent coin. To force the paper on the wall, while blowing against it, hold it on the wall and let it go. While not puffing your jaws and directing the air stream on the center of the paper, keep the paper on the wall with the air. Relax for moment and repeat the exercise.
FLUTE MOUTHPIECE EXERCISE
Take the flute mouthpiece from the case and leave the remaining pieces in the case and close it. Use only the flute mouthpiece for this exercise.
Place the mouthpiece on the edge of your lip. Slide the mouthpiece from the left to the right until the whole is at the center of the lip. To cover the end of the mouthpiece, take the right hand and position it over the end. The sound is formed in the same way a it is when one blows across a Coke bottle. While making sure the jaws are not puffed, blow across the mouthpiece to make a low sound. Make a high sound by removing the right hand from the mouthpiece. Do this exercise by counting to eight and resting for eight. The secret to music is repetition.
What is a Trademark?
A trademark is a word, symbol, or phrase, used to identify a particular manufacturer or seller's products and distinguish them from the products of another. 15 U.S.C. � 1127. For example, the trademark "Nike," along with the Nike "swoosh," identify the shoes made by Nike and distinguish them from shoes made by other companies (e.g. Reebok or Adidas). Similarly, the trademark "Coca-Cola" distinguishes the brown-colored soda water of one particular manufacturer from the brown-colored soda of another (e.g. Pepsi). When such marks are used to identify services (e.g. "Jiffy Lube") rather than products, they are called service marks, although they are generally treated just the same as trademarks.
Statistics show that children who participate in the arts perform better on standardized test. There are countless studies that prove teaching the whole child contributes to a better school environment and it provides for resources and funds for projects that assist the school.
Music and Size of School
Category: Statistic
Issue(s) Addressed:Standards-based curricula
Attribution
Arts Education in Public Elementary and Secondary Schools: 1999-2000. Fast Response Survey System (FRSS). Nancy Carey, Brian Kleiner, Rebecca Porch, Elizabeth Farris (June 2002) NCES 2002131
Item Text
Large secondary schools (1,000 or more students) are more likely than small secondary schools (less than 400 students) to provide instruction in music (95 percent versus 84 percent)
Student in Music Appreciation Score Higher on SAT's
Category: Statistic
Issue(s) Addressed:Supporting learning in other subjects
Attribution
“College-Bound Seniors National Report: Profile of SAT Program Test Takers,” Princeton, NJ: The College Entrance Examination Board, 2001
Item Text
The College Entrance Examination Board found that students in music appreciation scored 63 points higher on verbal and 44 points higher on math than students with no arts participation.
U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan on using federal funds for arts education
Category: Statistic
Issue(s) Addressed:Music and overall budget
Special budgetary needs of music
Attribution
Letter to School and Education Community Leaders, August 2009
Item Text
Under ESEA, states and local school districts have the flexibility to support the arts. Title I, Part A of ESEA funds arts education to improve the achievement of disadvantaged students. Funds under Title II of ESEA can be used for professional development of arts teachers as well as for strategic partnerships with cultural, arts, and other nonprofit organizations.... Moreover, local school districts can use funds under the State Fiscal Stabilization Fund through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act for the arts along with other district expenses.
Variety of elementary school music offerings
Category: Statistic
Issue(s) Addressed:Sequential programs
Standards-based curricula
Attribution
National Center for Education Statistics, Fast Response Survey System
Item Text
Music instruction can take a variety of forms in elementary schools. While schools typically offer students classes in general music during the regular school day, many schools also offer separate instruction dedicated to chorus, band, or strings/orchestra. In general, these kinds of specialized learning experiences are offered as electives to students who express interest in learning how to sing in a group or how to play an instrument.
Secondary school mission statements
Category: Statistic
Issue(s) Addressed:Supporting the school environment for learning
Sequential programs
Standards-based curricula
Attribution
Arts Education in Public Elementary and Secondary Schools: 1999-2000. Fast Response Survey System (FRSS). Nancy Carey, Brian Kleiner, Rebecca Porch, Elizabeth Farris (June 2002) NCES 2002131
Item Text
Results of the secondary school survey show that 64 percent of schools included the arts in their mission statements, yearly goals, or school improvement plans. Schools in the Northeast were more likely to report that their mission statement included the arts than were schools in other regions of the country (79 percent versus 58 to 63 percent). About half of public secondary schools (49 percent) had undertaken a school reform initiative related to arts eduation or the integration of the arts with other acacdemic subjects. Again, schools in the Northeast were more likely to report involvement in some arts education reform than were schools in other regions of the country (72 percent versus 38 to 50 percent).
Outside funding for music programs
Category: Statistic
Issue(s) Addressed:Music and overall budget
Attribution
Arts Education in Public Elementary and Secondary Schools: 1999-2000. Fast Response Survey System (FRSS). Nancy Carey, Brian Kleiner, Rebecca Porch, Elizabeth Farris (June 2002) NCES 2002131
Item Text
Principals were asked whether their schools received funding from outside (non-district) sources, including (but not limited to) parent groups, booster clubs, or local businesses, to fund their instructional programs in music. If they did, principals were asked to indicate the approximate percentage of the music budget that came from these sources. Unlike public elementary schools that had limited non-district funding of music programs (20 percent), nearly half of public secondary schools (47 percent) received non-district funding for their music programs. Schools with the highest minority enrollment were less likely to report this kind of funding than schools with the lowest minority enrollment (33 percent versus 56 percent), as were schools with the highest poverty concentration compared with those with less than 35 percent and 35 to 49 percent poverty concentrations. (23 percent versus 54 and 47 percent, respectively). About half (53 percent) of the secondary schools with access to non-district funding reported that 10 percent of less of their music budget came from such sources. Another 34 percent reported that between 11 and 50 percent of their budget was funded from non-district funds.
Musicians’ brains are different
The Washington Post reports,
Brain researchers have found another clue to how the brains of musicians differ from the rest of us.
Peter Schneider of the University of Heidelberg in Germany and colleagues monitored brain activity while 12 professional musicians, 13 amateur musicians and 12 non-musicians heard various tones.
Professional musicians had the most activity in a part of the brain involved in processing sound, called the Heschl’s gyrus, which was also larger than that of the amateurs and non-musicians.
In remains unclear if the difference is inborn or the result of training early in life, the researchers said.
“The question remains whether early exposure to music or a genetic predisposition leads to the functional and anatomical differences between musicians and non-musicians,” the researchers wrote in the July issue of the journal Nature Neuroscience.
Music Training fine-tunes memory
HealthDay News Service
If Mom marched you to piano lessons or forced you to join the school orchestra, now may be the time to thank her.
Students who participate in musical training, such as playing the violin or flute, have better verbal memory than those who don’t, claims a Hong Kong study published in the July issue of Neuropsychology.
The longer the training, the better the verbal memory adds study author Agnes S. Chan, a psychologist at Chin, a psychologist at Chinese University of Hong Kong.
“Not so fast,” counters at least one expert who contends the students who take music lesson may simply have those cognitive abilities to begin with.
Chan and her colleagues evaluated 90 boys, ages 6 to 15. Half participated in the school string orchestra program or took music lessons on instruments for one to five years. The other half had no training in music.
Chan’s team gave the youngsters tests of verbal memory, asking them to recall as many words as they could from a list, and visual memory, asking them to recall images.
Those with musical training recalled about 20 percent more words than those without such training. Their verbal memories got better the longer they had taken music training. No differences in visual memory were found.
Musical training during childhood, Chan writes, “might serve as a kind of sensory stimulation that somehow contributes to better development of the left temporal lobe in musicians.” This, in turn, might facilitate verbal memory, which is mediated by the specific brain area, she adds.
But she concedes she has done no brain imaging to prove that. So the next step is “to conduct a functional (magnetic resonance imaging) MRI study on individuals with music training to examine the neurocognitive process of the brain,” Chan says.
The results make sense to another expert who has studies the same subject.
“I found this study to be extremely interesting,’ says Frances Ranuscher, an associate professor of cognitive development at the University of Wisconsin.
“It provides strong evidence not only for a link between the music and verbal memory, but also for the notion that specific types of experience affect specific cognitive domains. The finding that verbal memory, but not visual memory, is affected is very important to this specificity hypothesis. The study complements the growing number of reports showing differences between the brains of musicians and non musicians.
“Overall, the research supports the idea that early training in music affects brain development and related cognitive function,” Rauscher says.
But Nora Newcombe, a psychology professor at Temple University in Philadelphia, says there are two major flaws in the new study.
The students were not randomized to the music and non-music groups, they were “self-selected,” she points out. And, she adds, “it show nothing (in a study) when you self-select.”
The researchers’ lack of brain imaging also bothers Newcombe.
“it could be true,” Necombe says of the finding, that musically trained students have better verbal memory skills. But sofar, the researchers have not proved it to her satisfaction.
Meanwhile, Chan says she is not suggesting parents demand their children take music lessons only in the interest of improving memory.
“Learning music one way, but not the only way, to improve verbal memory,” she says.
-Letter from a wonderful student of Mr. Paul Batiste-
My name is Cherolyn Thompson. I played the flute in your band at
Gentilly Terrace from 2001-2004. I just wanted to look you up and tell
you how much I appreciate you and everything that you taught me those
three years. Playing in the band has to be some of my fondest memories
from my childhood. Thank you for giving me my first real taste of
leadership and discipline. Thank you for introducing me to what I've
always considered to be my first love. It's been years since I've
actually been able to play (after Katrina my older sister took her
flute back from me), but I plan on picking it back up real soon. I
have enstilled in me a love for music I will never forget, as I'm sure
all the rest of your students have.
Thank you again,
Cherolyn
Hi Paul,
I am a native New Orleanian - now living in Virginia (Washington, DC) where I am
a retired Federal Employee and former two-term political appointee of the Bill
Clinton Administration. I moved to the East Coast in the mid 80s. Although I
grew up in Marrero, I always knew of all the happenings in and around the City
of New Orleans (even while there on travel or vacations with my family). I am
forever proud to call NOLA home and everyone who knows me - knows I am one of
New Orleans' finest.
I have very fond memories of "The Batiste Brothers Band." My friends and I
followed you all from the Eastbank to the Westbank to the Outerbanks. In fact,
my best friend's ex-husband (Teetie) was once your lead singer. Among my
fondest memories are times spent under the bridge on Orleans and Claiborne on
Mardi Gras day and (without revealing my age...) at the Gong Shows with the late
Bobby Marchand (sp?). OMG!!! I remember dancing until my clothes were drenched
and hair was stuck to my forehead. I even remember parting with you guys at a
little "Hole in the Wall" in Kenner (off Airline Highway). Man...we partied so
hard that night that we were unaware of a terrible storm and a tornado that
touched down nearby. Me and the girls still laugh about it. Those were the
days!
I stumbled across your enlightening story by accident while surfing on the
Internet. Who knew? Actually, I was always impressed with your poise and found
you extremely talented (and handsome). I also got the impression that you were
the more serious and business savvy brother in the group because you were so
quiet. A striking reminder of myself. After reading your story I now see why.
I am also a firm believer of fighting for what's right as well as fighting for
what's rightfully yours. I applaud and admire that you take seriously your
family's legend - for it truly has its place in New Orleans History.
Your spirit reminds me of my two favorite quotes...
"The difference between the impossible and the possible lies in a person's
determination."
By Tommy Lasorta
And...
"Above all, remember that the most important thing you can take anywhere is
not a Gucci
Bag or French-cut jeans; it's an open mind."
By Gail Rubin Bereny
You are my new inspiration! I salute you Paul and wish YOU and your talented
family long life and much continued success. I pray that the next generation
represents the groundwork that you've set forth with as much poise and grace as
you have.
Peace and Blessings. Be well.
Gilda "Gi-Gi" Hagan-BrownContent copyright 2021. Paul A. Batiste. All rights reserved.