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Wright Rhythms for Small Hands Visits Lawson Elementary School
Lawson Elementary School first-grade students Jordan Green, Aaron Bunch, his aide Jessica Trotter, Michael Bohning and Raeonna Harrell help visitor Papa Wright play with some instruments that can be used to make sound effects. Wright, a member of Arts Partners and Springboard to Learning, arrived with his “Wright Rhythms for Small Hands” show to all three first-grade classrooms.
Glen “Papa” Wright, Jr. visited Lawson Elementary School in the Hazelwood School District, accompanied by a variety of percussion instruments.
“This is the fourth or fifth time I have been here at this school,” he said before the first-grade students in Sydney Ledbetter’s class arrived. “I am going to introduce kids to different percussion instruments. They are used for four things – rhythm, sound effects, percussion and melody.”
“He has more instruments than Mr. Rudert [Lawson’s music teacher],” one child remarked as Wright unpacked all of the items he brought.
Wright, who is a member of Arts Partners and Springboard to Learning, divided the class into two teams, A and B, and he asked Ledbetter to keep score.
He produced a steady procession of instruments. For rhythm he brought out hand cymbals and percussion rings (different sized circles connected by sheets of plastic). “This is a mallet. Say ‘mallet,’” he said. “Mallet!” the students replied together.
“This one sounds like a snare drum. Say ‘snare drum,’” he instructed Team A after tapping on the medium-sized ring. “Snare drum,” Team A replied in unison.
“These are cymbals you play with your hands, so they are called?” “Hand cymbals,” Team B replied.
He then played each one and called for volunteers to join him. He taught the volunteers which instruments made low, middle and high sounds. Next, he revealed an agogô bell, a woodblock with a beater and a shaker.
He demonstrated each one’s sound and called for more volunteers.
To produce sound effects, Wright used a vibratone with a rubber mallet and he made long and short sounds for the students by how far apart he held his index fingers on the vibratone. To let students make their own sound effects, he brought out finger cymbals, a bell tree and a twist drum, which is a small drum mounted on a handle with a pair of short mallets. When twisting the handle between your palms, the short mallets strike the drum’s sides.
Wright played melodies using his marimba next, which looks a lot like its cousin, the xylophone. He added a resonator, which looks like pipes from a pipe organ but faces down. Using two, three or four mallets, he challenged the students to a quick game of “Name that Tune.” Students correctly identified “London Bridge” and “Old McDonald.”
Next, Wright asked for additional volunteers and formed an impromptu kitchen band, using 19th century instruments people had at home, such as a washboard, sticks and spoons. Neckerchiefs, a short do-si-do dance and a quick hoe-down tune rounded out this section.
As a culminating activity, students took Styrofoam cups they decorated with crayons, added some beans and rice grains then joined the cups with tape to create their own shakers. Using the shakers, students formed a conga line. Wright went on to duplicate the program for the school’s other first-grade classes. (story courtesy of the Hazelwood District Communications Dept.)
