Take 2

The second school I visited sharing my Platform was Charleston Collegiate. This time I visited a fifth grade class. I was a little apprehensive about singing to older kids, but I was able to share some more advanced things. First I sang the same aria, "In Uomini, In Soldati," by Mozart. Then I explained to them all about the context of the aria. Afterwards I asked the kids what kind of music they listened to. I got a lot of Coldplay, Pink Floyd, and One Direction. Then I proceeded to ask if any of them knew any famous classical composers or pieces of music. Surprisingly, a lot of the children knew Mozart, Bach, Beethoven, or Handel. One child who was in a band called, "The Three Dudes," told me that before he could write his own music on his guitar or jam out to classic rock, his guitar teacher made him study the classical composers. This justifies the importance of a classical training and what it does to not only musicians, but all people. Almost all musicians have a core foundation in the classics. The teacher of the class I sang to happened to be a music teacher, so she was totally on board with all of the information I was providing. She played several classic melody lines on the piano and then asked the children if they recognized them. They all did. This really inspired me for the direction I wanted my project to take. It's such a cool feeling to hear a piece of music and realize you know it, but you don't know how you know it. Then for someone to tell you its origins is even cooler. This got me thinking about the Mozart Effect. Was it really real? This trip to Charleston Collegiate really enabled me to catapult my platform forward. In the coming months I will be implementing these same ideas through my CDs, complete with classical songs you know, but you don't know. I also will be investigating the truth behind the Mozart Effect.