Hosting an Informance
By Lindsay Jackson, FAME Teacher Trainer
Every December, I see memes depicting music teachers surviving the holiday concert season. Between school programs and our own, personal, music making, it’s often a challenge to juggle all of the moving pieces. It is especially difficult to plan and execute formal performances with our youngest musicians. The amount of preparation it takes for our youngest students to learn music, memorize lyrics, and stand at attention on risers (or even learn choreography!) is significant. We have precious few hours with our students each year and spending so much time preparing for a concert isn’t the best way to build neurofiber and help our students become tuneful, beatful, and artful.
Eight years ago, I remember sitting in my classroom thinking that there had to be a better way. I reflected on time I had spent with the incomparable Lillie Feierabend and about things she had implemented at her school to build community such as family folk dances and inviting parents to attend their child’s music classes during Music in Our Schools Week. She explained that, when parents participate in the active music making and music learning, they gain a better understanding of the good work being done in music class. Lillie also began a May Day Celebration tradition in lieu of a formal spring concert. During this event, each grade shared a folk dance they had learned for their parents and the school community. I wanted to start a new tradition at my school that would be more community oriented, more student centered, take less time to prepare, and take less time away from my curriculum. From these intentions, informances that I called “Music Celebrations,” were born.
When parents and guardians arrive at a Music Celebration, there are risers set up on the stage of our gymnasium, but instead of having the traditional rows of chairs for audience seating, there is a large open space on the gymnasium floor. Chairs are set up in a U-shape around the edge of the gym for parents to have a place to sit while waiting for the event to start. As the performers enter the gym, they proceed to the risers and perform for about 10 minutes. This gives parents the opportunity to take photos. (This was very important for my administrator!) It also gives the young performers an opportunity to practice being on the risers and having a taste of a more formal experience. Then, the real magic happens! The performers file off the risers, onto the gym floor, and parents are invited to come join their child. At this point, parents and children are united and ready to make music, dance, and play together. The final 20 minutes of the Music Celebration is completely interactive and parents and children learn and play together. It is amazing to see parents smiling, laughing, engaging, and demonstrating child-like wonder; it is even more amazing to see each child feeling empowered and taking ownership of teaching their parents what they have learned in music class. At the end of each Music Celebration, parents are always smiling and many have said that it was the best event they attended at the school all year. Some parents who had attended in previous years with older siblings have said that they always look forward to the event each year! It has been wildly successful at my school.
Another amazing benefit of the Music Celebration is the simplicity of the preparation. I chose to do a separate Music Celebration for PreK, K, & 1st so that I had enough room in the gym and so that I could tailor each event to the curriculum for that grade. I modeled the Music Celebration after the 8-Step workshop in the First Steps in Music Curriculum. 4 weeks out from the event, I have a casual conversation with students about the Vocal Explorations, Fragment Songs, Simple Songs, etc. that they have learned so far that year and ask them which they most want to teach their parents. We choose one or two activities from each category (except Arioso…that felt too complicated to include in the event) and that determines our program! It takes a little bit of practice to review the songs and games that they chose, but there is nothing new to learn, and it’s already part of the curriculum! I love telling the parents during the event that their children chose all of the repertoire themselves. The one piece that requires a bit more practice is the Songtale. In music class, Songtales are performed by the teacher for the students, but I found that it’s nice for the children to do one song in the Music Celebration that is more substantial. Since they have already heard me sing the Songtale for them 3-4 times since the beginning of the year, it doesn’t take much practice for them to learn the words. I like using Mama Buy Me a China Doll for Kindergarten, because they love how silly the story is, and during the performance, I can ask the questions and have the children sing the responses. During the Music Celebration, when the children are on the risers, they perform vocal exploration, fragment songs, simple songs, and a Songtale. When they move onto the gym floor, their parents join them for movement exploration, movement for form and expression, and movement for the beat.
In the past, I always had children who felt nervous to perform in formal concerts. Young children can often feel anxious about performing, but I rarely have students who feel nervous at Music Celebrations. The whole feeling of the event is more casual and easeful. The songs and games are beloved repertoire, and the children cannot wait to share them with the parents. The interactive portion is so much fun! Kids can’t wait to see their parents playing singing games and doing movement exploration activities. It is so refreshing to host an event that is child-centered, developmentally appropriate, and easily accessible for all of my students.
The very first year that I removed the formal Holiday Concert for Pre-3rd grade from the school calendar in December and added Music Celebrations (one per grade level) during the Winter months, I received some negative feedback from parents. They grieved the loss of the special holiday concert in December and resisted change. With support from my administration, we communicated how excited we were to be implementing the new Music Celebration events instead and why these child-centered events were going to be better for the children. As difficult as it was to navigate this early criticism, when the parents experienced the Music Celebrations for the first time, they completely bought in. They loved the events and couldn’t wait to attend again the following year. One parent remarked that instead of seeing her son on stage for his 5-minute portion of the formal concert, that she now got a full 30 minutes of face-to-face time with him. She didn’t have to sit through all the others kids performing and got a whole event of just her son and his class. She was thrilled with the change! Another parent remarked how much more fun it was to actually do the singing and dancing with his daughter. I’m so grateful that my administration had confidence in my dream and allowed me to create Music Celebrations. We are now in our seventh year of music celebrations, and I hope they will continue for years to come.
For more information about Music Celebrations, check out the Tuneful, Beatful, Artful Music Teacher podcast (S1, Ep8) “Informances in the First Steps Years.”