A Hands-On Workshop for K-16 Music Teachers

Calling all music educators: learn to play percussion and stringed instruments from Southeast Asia while exploring innovative ways to bring these musical traditions into your classroom.

Intended Participants: K-12 music teachers, Community College and other music educators welcome.

Join the director of the Cornell Gamelan Ensemble (Chris Miller) and the founder of the 14 Strings (Jane Maestro)! Filipino Rondalla for a three-day hands-on workshop designed for music teachers. Participants will become familiar with percussion and stringed instrument musical forms found in Southeast Asia. The hands-on focus will be on learning to play Indonesian gamelan and Filipino Rondalla music, with emphasis on exploring innovative and fun ways to share these musical traditions with students. Workshop leaders and other guest speakers will highlight the rich histories and cultural contexts of these musical forms, from the medieval Spanish roots of Rondalla to contemporary forms, fusion, and even connections to popular music and hip hop in Southeast Asia.

Eligible participants will receive stipends of $100 per day for three days, with six additional travel subsidies also available. Apply by July 19.

Gamelan

Metallophones, gongs, drums and xylophones are just some of the instruments that make up the various types of gamelan ensembles that are found across the archipelago of Indonesia. Learning to play traditional pieces on gamelan instruments will offer participants an immediate encounter with musical difference on multiple levels, including tuning systems, cyclical formal structures, rhythmic organization, and the real-time generation of parts. Participants will also be provided with materials to translate musical materials to instruments available to their students. Building on the experience of playing gamelan, participants will explore how musicians working in contemporary idioms draw upon traditional fundamentals.

Rondalla

The Filipino Rondalla is a traditional ensemble in the Philippines known as a plectrum orchestra. It consists of a unique set of stringed instruments (bandurria, laud, octavina, and bajo de uñas) that are played with a plectrum or pick. Learning to play these instruments can enhance teachers' knowledge of stringed instruments, introducing new techniques and sounds to explore in the classroom. It also gives teachers ways to offer students a richer, more varied musical education while promoting cultural understanding and appreciation. Filipino music often features complex rhythms and time signatures. Teaching these rhythms can improve students' rhythmic abilities and expose them to non-Western musical structures. Incorporating Rondalla music expands the musical repertoire available to teachers and students and can provide opportunities for creative arrangements (or compositions) and teamwork (building listening skills and synchronization).