SCS Sails to Staten Island
In New York City, S'Cool Sounds offers music classes in Brooklyn, the Bronx, Queens, Manhattan, and now...Staten Island! With the addition of programming at the Staten Island Children's Museum and P.S. 31, SCS now reaches students in all five boroughs of NYC!
This year, SCS is presenting three interactive workshops at the Staten Island Children's Museum, exploring highlights from the Roots of Rhythm curriculum. Participants are learning about a variety of percussion instruments and are playing different rhythms, learning key musical elements. The series is already off to a great start and promises to continue offering fun and educational experiences to new audiences!
Less than two miles to the east of the Children's Museum stands P.S. 31, a small neighborhood school with a big heart in the diverse St. George community. There, SCS TA Sam Bardfeld has been leading the full Roots of Rhythm curriculum, focusing on how the rhythms of the African Diaspora are the foundation of much of the world's popular music.
This course has provided strong and meaningful connections to many students' cultural backgrounds. For instance, Sam recounted: "As we were learning different rhythmic parts of Cuban music, one girl recognized how the polyrhythms of two against three were very similar to the rhythms she had experienced on the school Stepping Team. This led to a great discussion about how these rhythms had traveled from West and Central Africa to Cuba and then to New Orleans. Adopted by Historically Black Colleges and Universities in the early 20th century through the creation of the Stepping tradition, these rhythms were then passed down to her elementary school in Staten Island!"
A professional jazz violinist, Sam has also been leading students in SCS's Jazz and the World of Black American Music curriculum. Invited to write their own blues songs, the classes are coming up with some extremely creative verses about some of the things that give them the blues, including the WiFi Blues, The Stubbed-Toe Blues, and the Nightmare Blues.
Finally, Sam has been teaching P.S. 31's third graders folk songs from around the world through the United We Sing curriculum. In addition to singing historical songs embedded with secret codes, call-and-response songs, and more, Sam invited the students to ask their parents for songs that they had learned from their parents. Sam shared: "At the end of class the other day, a third grader shyly handed me a piece of paper folded up into a tiny square and explained that her mother had written down a song she had learned in Pakistan as a child. So we're set to learn that next!"
Your contribution can help bring SCS's dynamic programs to even more students across all five boroughs of New York City, and beyond!
Check out SCS TA Sam Bardfeld leading off a tune with the legendary Bruce Springsteen in 2006!
