Page 1 of 1
African American Heritage Month + "Chimes of Freedom"
Posted: Sun Mar 09, 2008 1:22 am
by goofyfoot
African American Heritage Month concluded last month. Led by class officers, my fifth-graders convened a class council at the beginning of the month. After listening to a whole slew of songs, they chose "Chimes of Freedom" as the theme song and set out to learn The Byrds' version. We listened to their version as well as Dylan's. Dylan's six-verse version presented a few more challenges so they settled on The Byrds' version, which includes Dylan's verses one, five, and six. As an aside, it's amazing what an iPod and Klipsch iFi system can do to bring out the ringing resonance of songs. It certainly is a far cry from the technology I encountered growing up ~ a portable turntable/speaker kit and LPs.
We invited other fifth-grade classes individually to our classroom and performed the song. Monitors passed out lyric sheets. A couple of students facilitated a brief introduction about what was happening in American and abroad in 1964 when Dylan released the song and in 1965 when The Byrds followed suit. They also broke down the lyrics in "kid=speak" to facilitate understanding of the lyrics, which are laden with metaphors and imagery. They did a commendable job of it!
Once again, this guitar and this amp came through for us. Man, it was one groovy experience, folks. Regards.....Goofyfoot.
http://s119.photobucket.com/pbwidget.sw ... 870e92.pbw
Re: African American Heritage Month + "Chimes of Freedom"
Posted: Sun Mar 09, 2008 8:30 am
by 12_strings
Your students chose one of the great Dylan/Byrds songs. Strong meaning and resonance in the lyrics and great jangle. Rock n' roll (folk rock anyway) as education. Who woulda thought!
Re: African American Heritage Month + "Chimes of Freedom"
Posted: Sun Mar 09, 2008 9:06 am
by wittyair
Way cool, David.....great story, and very inspirational!
It's terrific how you can incorporate your art and your love into your teaching and
the kids seem to lap it up.
My son is a fifth grader as well......and, I have your guitar's twin!!
Re: African American Heritage Month + "Chimes of Freedom"
Posted: Sun Mar 09, 2008 7:42 pm
by 12_strings
After reading and responding to this post earlier today, got out my 370/12 and started working on "Chimes of Freedom" and "Bells of Rhymney." Played several hours over the course of the day. Got "Chimes" down pretty well and used Christian Bryan's tips on "Bells." Thanks Christian! Got a lot of work still to do on that one though. After dinner, I put their first two albums on. They were the Columbia Legacy CDs and I was just knocked out. It was like hearing those songs for the first time. They did sound a lot better on a CD than coming through the AM car radio though. Great strong music with that 12-string ringing and the harmonies soaring. Thanks to David and his students for making this a nice Sunday full of music and nostalgia.
Re: African American Heritage Month + "Chimes of Freedom"
Posted: Sun Mar 09, 2008 10:08 pm
by goofyfoot
12_strings and Wittyair.....You both make cogent points about the value of music in education. It leads me to wonder why Los Angeles Unified and other school districts have allocated less time to this endeavor in the upper elementary daily classroom schedule. Oh well, perhaps this thought has its place in another thread in another forum. Suffice it to say, fifth-graders still love to sing songs. I believe part of the reason is they remember the songs and chants they uttered in the primary grades. I mean, that's what "Schoolhouse Rock!" was all about. Music is an effective way to introduce and build, among other things, phonics, grammar, and math skills.
On a related note, ten year-old kids dig beautiful and/or catchy melody lines, rich harmonies, and meaningful lyrics no matter the musical genre. Interestingly, most of the class liked both Dylan's and The Byrds' versions of "Chimes of Freedom." I asked them why. Several students responded by saying, "When Dylan sings the song, it sounds simpler. It's just him and an acoustic guitar. He sings it slower." What about The Byrds' version? A typical reply....."The Byrds' are a band so we hear more voices and instruments. Someone is singing the melody and some others are singing the harmonies. They sing it faster and some of the words and phrases are hard to pick out [nice, Roger!]. That guitarist, uuhhh, I forget his name, plays a guitar that sounds like yours with 12 strings, Mr. W." Man, you've gotta love that, folks! These Young Peeps don't miss a thing! (He-he).
The rapscallions know of Roger McGuinn. They know of John Fogerty. They know of The Beatles. They've seen vids of 'em because even LAUSD can't block all of YouTube. (My bad.) The kids love to sing the 60's songs. With a little scaffolding from me, they understand the tradition of songwriting in America continued during the 1960's in various forms. All gained validity ~ blues, folk, country, gospel, rock, R&B, folk-rock, hard rock, pop. It's a collaboration, for sure. They enjoy singing "Mr. Tambourine Man" and "My Back Pages." They dig "Bad Moon Rising" and Have You Ever Seen The Rain?" They sing "All You Need Is Love," "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds," and "Imagine." In return, they suggest the latest in reggatone, rap, hip-hop, and pop. Yes, I have been known to learn a song by Rihanna, Hannah Montana, Jonas Bros., and several by Rebelde. Avril, Shakira, and Mana have made it onto the preferred list several times.
Anyway, the point is it's all copacetic, man. Anytime I can squeeze music ed onto the the schedule is cool with me. Shhh, remember. It's our little secret. LAUSD doesn't have to know about this. 
Play on, pick often, and prosper. Regards....Goofyfoot.
Re: African American Heritage Month + "Chimes of Freedom"
Posted: Mon Mar 10, 2008 12:25 am
by jimk
I always kinda thought that making your own music rather than just consuming it like so much peanutbutter was a subversive and revolutionary act.
Goofyfoot, you Sir are an inspiration. Keep on keepin' on.
JimK
Re: African American Heritage Month + "Chimes of Freedom"
Posted: Mon Mar 10, 2008 9:57 pm
by melibreits
AWESOME, Goofyfoot! The world needs more teachers like you....what a great inspiration!
Things are so much easier to learn when put into a musical context... It's funny how some of those old Schoolhouse Rock songs still resurface in my mind from time to time!
Re: African American Heritage Month + "Chimes of Freedom"
Posted: Tue Mar 11, 2008 12:05 am
by goofyfoot
JimK and Melibreits....I appreciate your kind sentiments. Thank you both. But really, I'm just tryin' to do the best I can as a teacher while the proverbial external forces tug, pull, and twirl me in different directions. It's not an easy row to hoe but I'm happy as a clam a high tide doin' my thing in the classroom. The Young Peeps inspire me. They are my raison d'être.
Yep, the "Chimes of Freedom" is also an apropos song for the English/Language Arts curriculum. Today, we began the third week of our Language Arts unit, a collection of seven stories thematically entitled, "Making a New Nation." This anthology focuses on events and their cause and effect on colonial America's movement toward nation-building and ultimately, nationhood. Roughly, the timeline runs from the French and Indian War (1754-1763) to the Constitutional Convention (1787). Man, it's amazing to me that you could get 55 dudes to meet from May 25 to September 17 and actually do something like draft a brilliant set of laws to govern a country as they did. Try to get 55 cats to do anything as constructive these days and.......well, you catch my drift. (He-he.) The E/LA curriculum dovetails seamlessly into the Sosh unit, which parallels E/LA on the timeline. Whew, it took some effort to get caught up with Sosh because this curriculum doesn't get nearly the time allocation as E/LA. But, we did it!
So yeah, "Chimes of Freedom" is a cool song to have around as we continue our journey of discovery about the birth of a nation. Of course, one may ask what this has to do with a Rickenbacker guitar, bass, or lap steel. Uuuhh-errr, uummm.....I'll get back to you on that. Best regards.....Goofyfoot.