7#+j0)j06060606060D0D0D0D0D 0N 0X0X0X0X0X 00x0x0x000000x7000000From Teaching Music, August 2000. Copyright 2000 by MENC -- The National Association for Music Education. Used with permission. Not for further reproduction without express written permission from MENC. -------------------------------------- Ella Jenkins grew up on the South Side of Chicago. Her first record, Call And Response, was recorded in 1957. Since then, she has released twenty-eight albums and two videos. She has worked with children around the world in a career that has lasted over forty years. Her harmonica and ukulele have been constant companions throughout her travels. She has written songs in a host of different languages including Spanish, Chinese, Hebrew, Korean, Maori, and Swahili. She has appeared on NBC's "Today Show", CNN's "Showbiz Today", "Barney And Friends", "Mister Roger's Neighborhood", and "Sesame Street." Jenkins has received numerous awards, including four lifetime achievement awards. In 1999, she became the first person to receive the ASCAP Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award in the field of children's music. She was also the first woman to receive an ASCAP Lifetime Achievement Award. One of her albums and one of her videotapes have received Parent's Choice Awards. Two of her albums have received Director's Choice Awards from Early Childhood News. Her latest album was nominated for a Grammy Award. She has been named one of Chicago's living treasures: December 12 was proclaimed Ella Jenkins Day in Chicago. Jenkins was interviewed at the 2000 Biennial In-Service Conference, where she spoke to music educators about getting children involved in music. What is your musical background? I'm not a formal musician; I didn't study music. I call myself a natural musician. I just liked music. I was always humming, whistling, and listening to other people humming. When I was growing up, there was always music somewhere around, but I always seemed to be involved in rhythms and rhythmic things. I never played the guitar or even the ukelele until later. I was always attracted to rhythm instruments like hand drums. Sometimes, I'd start playing with oatmeal boxes, wastebaskets, or pots that my mother had in the kitchen. Then, somebody finally gave me Chinese tom-toms, and I started playing rhythms on them. In addition to listening to my uncle play the harmonica, I used to like going to watch tap dancing. I listened to a lot of call and response like Cab Calloway at music theaters. I became very interested in Latin music before it became popular, and I liked Mexican music. Then, I met someone from Cuba and fell in love with Afro-Cuban music. I tried to imitate some of its rhythms. I wasn't interested in classical music until late in high school or early in college. I didn't get into opera until much later. After college, I started working with a lot of younger children. A friend of mine, who played guitar, string bass, and baritone ukelele, said the baritone ukelele would be a great instrument for me to use with the children. It only had four strings, so it was easier to learn than the guitar. He taught me two or three major chords and I found out what the chord relationships were. I started investigating and discovered minor chords on my own. I thought the contrast between the major and the minor chords was just great. People used to call me "Minor Key Ella" or "A-minor Ella" because I played in minor keys so much. What is the appeal of your album You'll Sing a Song and I'll Sing a Song? The album has a lot of contrast (chants words in foreign languages, etc.). Also, I think teachers find the music easy to use and notate. When I first created the title song, I was trying to write a song that any child might get involved in with a solo. So, I asked the children to sing, play a tune, play a rhythm, and hum a line. I thought every child would find a way to participate in the song. "Miss Mary Mack" and "Did You Feed My Cow" were chants that I wrote a melody to. For some of the other songs, I started looking back at my own childhood at the chants and rhythms I used to do. I used the original words and music, and then wrote melodic lines for some of them. You've visited many different: countries. In your travels, do you find that children are the same wherever you go? They have many aspects in common they are enthusiastic, adventuresome, eager, and their smiles are pretty consistent, as are their handshakes and their hugs. They have very natural expressions. Their cultures vary, and sometimes the musical rhythms are a little bit different. Children in most countries like chants, even if they have to be translated. I use little chants that have a verse and a lot of rhythm and a lot of rhyming. Children everywhere are fascinated by rhyme. Sometimes, if they're singing and they forget the words, they try to make up their own rhymes and that's a good way to introduce them to songwriting. Do you have difficulty teaching children to sing in other languages? Children are really attracted to different sounds, timbres, and languagesthe challenge is more for teachers to learn how to sing and speak in other languages. It's not so important to teach many words, but it is important that the words be said correctly. I often teach children one way of extending a warm greeting to someone who lives in a different place. I tell them that I travel a lot and meet people from many different places, and I learn how to greet them in their own languages. For example, in Japan, they say ohayo gozaimasu and bow and gesture. So, I teach the children that. I make it into a game of listening and teaming. I ask them, "Can you repeat what I say?" It's a challenge, but yes, they can learn it. I also introduce number concepts and counting from one to ten in a lot of different languages. Sometimes a child will say, "I can't count to ten, but I can count to three or four in Polish." Then, I tell the other children to listen carefully because Polish doesn't sound like English and it doesn't sound like Spanish. Teachers often wonder how I learn all these languages. I tell them that I travel around the world in taxicabs. The drivers speak many different languages, so I talk to them. Chicago is a great place for taxi drivers; everyone is a different nationality. How can music educators reach more children? Whether a teacher has five children, or twenty-five, each one is an individual with a unique personality. The teacher is the person who is leading children into music. To connect with them, teachers need imagination. They have to try to weave themselves into the child's world, the child's feeling, and the child's thinking. When they do, they find one magic way that they can introduce music. In order to really connect with the children, teachers need a specific type of knowledge something they know especially well whether it's piano, another instrument, or being able to prepare biographies of people related to music. Children love stories teachers can read stories and talk about the personalities behind them. Or, teachers can discuss people who have done something in music as a prelude to getting involved in an instrument. If teachers don't play a certain instrument, they can have an expert come and visit, or play an audio or videotape, or have children in class demonstrate instruments that they play. The key is to have a variety of approaches to choose from. There aren't too many children that dislike music; they just reach it in different ways. And there's something that makes them snap their fingers or tap their feet. When it connects with the children, teachers should spend enough time so the children feel at ease with what they are learning and then move on to something else. Teachers shouldn't dwell on one particular thing too long, just long enough to whet the children's appetite for more. How can music educators improve musical instruction for their students? I feel that children shouldn't have to always sing in unison. They should be able to investigate music on their own and have the opportunity to improvise. They should be allowed to explore the contrast between major and minor modes. I always stress the individuality of each person. There is something that each child can contribute. Teachers shouldn't feel that rhythms have to be done in one certain way because a lot of children lose interest in music that way. In school assemblies, some children sing and others don't, some keep rhythm, others tap their rhythm sticks. Some teachers encourage children to just mouth the words and the music programs lose children. Individuality is very important; teachers lose too many children by thinking that they have to follow only one particular pattern, one particular road. Since you see individual expression as being so important what tips do you have for guiding children during their improvisations? If someone has a way of sharing a song and it's the same song, but they're sharing it in a different way, it's okay as long as the group is reaching its goal. If a person who is soloing makes a mistake, I respect that person, and I also make sure the children respect that person by reminding them that they could be next. How do you encourage children who are shy and afraid to improvise or solo? A lot of children feel more comfortable singing in groups singing choral music because they are afraid to take a solo part or a solo instrument. I find a lot of the children don't want to solo because they are afraid of doing something wrong. I have a song where I tell them all they have to say is "Jericho." And I sing, "Joshua won the battle of..." and they reply, "Jericho, Jericho, Jericho." The child concentrates on just that one part. Pretty soon I add more words. I start where the child is and then progress from there. I don't try to change the child into something he or she isn't. I start with what is simple, what they can learn quickly. From there, I can get as intricate as I want. What parting piece of advice do you have for music educators? Respect what a child has to share. Even though you direct children toward what you want them to team, you have to respect them. Some children are very timid. Some children are very eager. Some children don't know how to share as much as others do. You have to approach them in many different ways, but each child demands respect. I try to get that across to children before leaving themrespect yourself first, understand yourself, and then go out and respect other people. Ella Jenkins was interviewed by Rosemary D. Reninger, MENC staff h:KLMnPr@0u $:$&&M))M+)+i+j@@@@@@@@!PQKLMno     OPQ?@A./0uvwxLMFG !"N"O$8$9$:$$&&&&M&N(+(,) )))M)N+(+)+jO Plain Text)j+j+j+j=/'n'B7 From Teaching Music, August 2000Zyzzyva BliellieTimes New Roman Courier NewTimes)j)j