Exploring the Diverse World of Music at The Washington Market School

The Music Studio curriculum at The Washington Market School offers our young learners many opportunities to explore diverse musical artists and traditions from across the globe. Evan’s curriculum planning each school year involves extensive research to gather a wide variety of musical/cultural resources to share with the children. Our commitment to centering many diverse musical traditions and cultures in the music studio works to build self-love and promote embracing people for our young learners, which are the first two points of our four-part ABAR framework

When our explorations reflect a piece of culture/heritage connected to the personal stories of our children and families, it is a powerful way of fostering self-love and reminding the children that they are deeply valued in our community. For children who might be learning about a culture or tradition different from their own in these explorations, the learning is promoting a celebration of our differences and embracing people. 

Earlier this year, all of the children in the music studio had the chance to explore music from South Korea in connection with the Lunar New Year. The children learned a song called ‘Sol Nal’ by Elena Moon Park to help celebrate Seollal  (Korean Lunar New Year), and also learned about the world-renowned K-Pop group BTS and danced to their joyous song, ‘Dynamite’. In conjunction with the music, the children had opportunities to view photo boards reflecting the music, people, and geography they were exploring. The boards included a map of the world with South Korea circled, photos of Elena Moon Park and BTS, instruments, photos of cities, and school children in South Korea. The photographs help to deepen the learning and allow the children to connect more meaningfully with the material. Many exciting connections and observations were made while viewing the photos. 

“That place looks like New York City!” 

“That looks like my school! They’re eating lunch!”

The children’s important questions and observations often help to shape the learning for us all - for example, various children expressed curiosity around where they fit into the map of the world -“Where is New York?” “Where do I live?” In response, Evan circled New York City on the map and drew a line between our hometown and South Korea. The children were excited to trace the line between the two places, often imagining and wondering how long it would take to travel to South Korea. In some cases, our young learners who had been to South Korea shared about their experiences of traveling there on an airplane and shared about their family members who live there. 

During February, in connection with Black History Month, the young learners took a deep dive into music from West Africa. With this learning, the children’s curiosity around the map of the world continued to grow. Again, New York City was circled on the map and a line was drawn between NYC and the countries of Ghana and Mali in West Africa. Include on the photo board this time were prominent West African instruments (i.e. Djembe, Kora, Shekere, etc.), musicians, children at preschool, and photos of West African people and cities. Britt Hawthorne emphasizes the importance of including contemporary representations of the people and cultures in our explorations. Far too often in educational settings, cultures/places with ancient histories and traditions are portrayed incompletely as mere relics of the past. It is very important to include accurate, modern, and thriving representations of the musical cultures, people, and regions in our explorations. With that in mind, the children learned about a popular contemporary musical artist from Mali, West Africa named Oumou Sangare, with her songs ‘Sarama’ and ‘Mali Niale’. The children had opportunities to play with the djembes in small groups along to her two songs on several occasions. In her songs, the children heard the sounds of djembes, the kora (west African lute), electric bass, guitar, drumset, and Oumou’s powerful singing in the Bambara language. The children were offered much freedom in their explorations on the djembe drum, as Evan played along on his own djembe, modeling the technique, the three ‘sounds’ of the djembe (bass, tone, slap), and the pulse and rhythms present in the songs. This way of teaching through repetitive musical play and exposure honors the history of teaching through ‘oral tradition’ (as opposed to “written tradition”) at the center of many musical cultures around the world, including many cultures across the African continent. This way of sharing musical information is particularly well-suited for preschool aged children, who intuitively do so much of their learning through active play. The children also had several opportunities to play the Balafons (a West African xylophone) in pairs along to a lullaby from Mali, called Makun. Evan accompanied the children’s playing on the guitar while singing the lyrics in bambara: ‘Makun makun bebe o makun, makun makun, bebe o makun sa’, which translates roughly to ‘Don’t cry, don’t cry, my baby don’t cry. Don’t cry, don’t cry, my baby calm down’. Many excited musical conversations were had as the children naturally responded and adapted to their partners playing and Evan’s guitar, and Evan in turn responded to the children as well. So much meaningful musical learning happens when the children are invited to improvise and explore together in this way. 

The children also learned about a song called Che Che Kule, which originates from Ghana and made its way to Puerto Rico and New York City where it was reinterpreted as a salsa song by Hector Lavoe and Willie Colon, and eventually by the NYC Afrobeat group Antibalas. The children had many opportunities to move their bodies to the various versions of the song, as they were invited to notice how words were added in spanish as various salsa instruments were added, including piano, bongos congas, and maracas. Evan demonstrated playing the bongos, congas, maracas, and drums along with the recordings as the children danced. The children learned that many of these percussion instruments can be traced back to the African continent before they were adopted and changed as they traveled around the world throughout history. Even at such a young age, our learners are beginning to understand the impact of the African diaspora, as we honor the African roots of so many instruments, songs, and musical traditions we encounter and appreciate in our daily lives. 

At the end of February, our West African study was made all the more meaningful with a very special live drum and dance performance by The Kotchegna Dance Company via The Cumbe Center for African and Diaspora Dance. The expert performers taught us more about the djembe drum and its  three sounds (bass, tone, and slap) and we learned about the Dundun family of drums (the large dundunba, the medium sangban, and the small kenkeni). Along to the drumming we were all invited to sing and dance to a style of dance called KouKou. Our school’s partnerships with visiting artists are such an important facet of our music curriculum each year, as the artists help to greatly deepen our learning by sharing their skill and expertise.

Looking ahead at Spring, the children will begin learning about music from Mexico, with a focus on Mariachi music as well the Son Jarocho genre. We will learn the iconic Mariachi song, ‘Cielito Lindo’, along with the world-famous ‘La Bamba’. The children will learn the origins of ‘La Bamba’, which in its earliest versions is a prime example of Son Jarocho, a regional music style from Veracruz that blends Spanish Baroque, West African, and indigenous musical elements. Again, our exploration will be supported greatly by a live performance by the Grammy Award winning all-female NYC Mariachi Group, Flor de Toloache. Alongside the study of Mexican music, we will also be exploring some of the rich musical traditions from New Orleans, Louisiana, learning about musicians such as Louis Armstrong, The Meters, and The Rebirth Brass Band. So much exciting musical learning to look forward to!