Over the Christmas holiday, the Children’s Music Foundation and its founder and president, Rourke O’Brien, have spent several long days at Fremont Studios with a film crew, music teacher host (called ‘Miss Melody,’ Rachel Brackett is a teacher at Lakeview Elementary,) child performers, and visiting musicians. Together they are creating the DVDs that will be the final piece of a First Note music curriculum to be offered to schools all over the country.
Prior to founding CMF, as President for America’s Foundation for Chess, O’Brien said, “I got to sit in a lot of classrooms.” He explained that he was shocked to discover the lack of music, and music instruction, in elementary schools.
When he researched the subject, O’Brien was further shocked to find that Washington State does mandate musical instruction in elementary education, and that schools don’t follow it. In his visits to Olympia, he found this disregard for the mandate is well-known.
Washington does have a curriculum plan that meets state requirements, and exceeds the national standards. O’Brien, with CMF, found experts in education, behavioral science and music to help research and write the ‘First Note’ program. It follows the state curriculum, and provides an easy-to-follow weekly lesson for Kindergarten students that can be taught by anyone.
‘First Note’ has a fierce focus on multi-culturalism, O’Brien pointed out, incorporating songs from seven different languages, and “visiting musicians from all over the world.” These musicians have come to Fremont Studios to show students a wide-range of musical influences including African rhythms, Irish step-dancing (with the Gothard Sisters,) Chinese flute, and Celtic harp (Fremont’s own Molly Bauckham.)
Every lesson – and there are 30 total – incorporates basic music skills (beat, rhythm, pitch, timbre, etc.) with these visiting musicians, plus teaching a word of the week, a song of the week and an instrument.
After two years of compiling the First Note curriculum, filming the lessons – in Studio A of Fremont Studios – will be done, on a specially designed set filled with pieces donated by Mills Music. Each completed 13 – 15 minute DVD will also have pause points, to allow instructors to stop and work with the pupils on the lesson as they feel able.
After filming, the production team will combine the images with written materials and 48 previously recorded songs. O’Brien expects a pilot of First Note to be available for use in area schools in the 2012/13 term. As he realizes what he describes as ‘Year One,’ O’Brien looks to the future for First Note – and ‘Year Two,’ to further teach children about notation, and how to read music.