Music Students' Lives

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10 Music Students’ Lives Teacher’s Notes

1 Synopsis B While you watch Esperanza Spalding is a bassist, a singer, a composer, and 1 Individuals. Play the first part of the video [beginning a music student. She studies at the Berklee College of to 01:25 – the first part of Esperanza’s story]. Have Music. We meet her friends and learn about their origins students check the instruments in Exercise 1 Before you and their musical preferences. She talks about her future watch that they see in this part of the video. and her dreams. Jeremy is also a student at the same school. He likes to sing jazz. He tells us about his love of In pairs. Have students compare answers in pairs before jazz improvisation and how he got his first job. He sings checking answers. in a group called Sinkapation. They have toured in Japan Answer key: and recorded a CD. bass, saxophone, piano, trumpet, clarinet, drums Length of video: 5:56min As a class. Ask the class what other instruments we see 2 Target Language in this section (guitar, keyboard). Grammar: Simple Past (affirmative and negative) 2 Individuals. Play the rest of the video [01:26 to end]. Vocabulary: types of music; musical instruments Have students check the types of music that they hear Language points: I got the gig. It’s doing well. It was mentioned in Exercise 2 Before you watch. really cool. whatever In pairs. Have students compare answers in pairs before 3 Procedural Notes checking answers. Answer key: A Before you watch classical, Cuban (Afro-Cuban), jazz, R&B 1 As a class. Read through the names of the instruments As a class. Elicit from the class the other types of music in the box and have students repeat the pronunciation in that are mentioned (gospel, rock/rock-n-roll, blues, a choral drill. fusion, funk, Brazilian, salsa). Individuals. Have students work alone to match 3 As a class. Direct students’ attention to the pictures of the names of the instruments to the pictures. Check Esperanza and Jeremy, and the sentences below. Have answers. students quickly read the sentences, and then tell them they are going to watch the video again and will have to Answer key: decide who each sentence is about. 1 bass 2 saxophone 3 piano 4 trumpet 5 clarinet 6 violin 7 drums Individuals. Give students time to see if they can answer any of the questions from memory before playing the As a class. Elicit names of other instruments from whole segment again. Check answers. students and write them on the board, e.g. (bass) guitar, flute, accordion, banjo, harp, keyboard, organ. Check Answer key: pronunciation. 1 Jeremy 2 Jeremy 3 Esperanza 4 Esperanza 5 Esperanza 6 Jeremy 7 Jeremy 8 Esperanza 2 As a class. Read aloud the names of the types of music in the box and check comprehension. 4 Individuals. Read through the verbs in the box. Give students time to complete the paragraph with the Simple In groups. Give students a few minutes to discuss the Past form of the verbs in the box. questions in small groups. Elicit brief feedback from them. In pairs. Have students check answers in pairs, then watch the first part of the video again to check [beginning to 01:08 – “… apply to Berklee College of Music.”]. Finally, check answers as a class. Answer key: 1 came 2 was 3 hoped 4 seemed 5 had 6 started 7 met 8 liked 9 gave 10 thought 11 told

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C After you watch D Language points

Individuals/In pairs. Have students work alone or in In pairs. Read aloud the phrases in the box. Check pairs to use the notes to write a paragraph about Jeremy. students understand their meaning. Have students Circulate to help out with grammar and vocabulary, work in pairs to complete the interview with the words and to check that students are using the Simple Past and phrases. Check answers, then have students correctly. practice the interview in their pairs, switching roles so they practice twice. As a class. Invite one or two students to read aloud their completed paragraph to the rest of the class. Answer key: 1 whatever 2 I got the gig 3 It was really cool Suggested answer: 4 it’s doing well Jeremy started playing the piano when he was 7. When he was 13, he started singing. In high school he E Your viewpoint studied classical voice. He has three older sisters, who listened to jazz and R&B, and so he became interested In groups/As a class. Read the questions aloud. in both types of music. He once tried out for a gig Give students time to discuss the questions in small with the jazz singer Patty Austin. He got the job and groups. If you have time, you may like to discuss traveled everywhere for it. He now studies at Berklee the last question as a class, encouraging students to College of Music and will graduate in May. He also think of the advantages and disadvantages of being a sings in a jazz quartet called Sinkapation. professional musician (e.g., advantages: exciting and creative job, possibility of travel, flexible working hours; disadvantages: poorly paid, unreliable, very competitive). 4 Video Script

Narrator: Meet Esperanza Spalding. In English, study music. The students have diverse the name Esperanza means “hope.” cultural backgrounds and diverse musical Esperanza’s story is a story full of hope. influences. Today, Esperanza plays bass with a band. Student 1: I’m from Los Angeles. She also sings and composes music. Student 2: I am from South Korea. Esperanza came to Boston from Portland, Student 3: I’m from Belgium. Oregon, to study music. When she was Student 4: I play the guitar. young, she hoped to have a career in Student 5: I play the drums. music. But her dream seemed impossible Student 6: I am a singer, and I also play piano. because she had no money for school. Student 7: I play gospel, R&B. Esperanza: I came from a low-income family. I didn’t Student 2: I like to play jazz. think I would go to college. Student 8: I like to play, um, rock and roll. Narrator: Then Esperanza started studying bass Student 9: I play rock, jazz, uh, blues, some fusions, seriously. She met a teacher who liked her whatever. music. The teacher recommended that Esperanza: I am African American, Welsh, Native she apply to a university in Portland, and American, and Hispanic. When I was they gave her a scholarship. A teacher younger, I liked classical music. I liked at the university also liked Esperanza. blues, rock music, and funk music. I loved The teacher thought she had talent. Brazilian music. Anything that was from The teacher told her to apply to Berklee South America, I loved. The first music College of Music. Berklee gave her a that I studied was classical music. I liked scholarship, too. The Berklee College of listening to classical music, and I liked Music in Boston is one of the leading writing it. I wanted to write more. I didn’t music schools in the United States. really like playing violin, which was the Students come here from all over to instrument that I chose. So, we had a

Viewpoints D.R. © Macmillan Publishers S.A. de C.V. 2009

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piano in my house, and I played the piano jazz, and in turn, got me very interested in a lot, and I wrote on the piano. Now I like both of those styles. to play salsa, Afro-Cuban, I like to play Narrator: Jeremy loved improvisation, and he jazz. Here’s a little jazz… I really like to loved jazz. Improvisation is the heart of play Brazilian music. I really like to sing in jazz. When a jazz singer improvises, it Portuguese. I sing a lot in Portuguese. is called scatting, or scat. The singer’s Narrator: Esperanza will graduate from Berklee in voice becomes one of the instruments. May. She is making a living by performing Ella Fitzgerald was one of the great jazz in clubs like Wally’s. singers of all time. When jazz singer Patty Esperanza: I really enjoy performing in other cities Austin decided to do a tribute to Ella and other countries, going on tour. I like Fitzgerald, Jeremy tried out for the gig. A recording. I’m actually going to have an gig is what musicians call an engagement, album released of my music with two of or a job. my friends from Cuba playing with me. Jeremy: I got the gig! And we traveled And I hope one day I can be like Paquito everywhere. We traveled to California, D’Rivera, or Jose Pasos, Cachao, touring we traveled to Florida, uh, Annapolis, the world and playing with all of the best uh, Virginia, Pennsylvania, mostly during musicians. spring break. It was really cool! Narrator: Jeremy Ragsdale also attends Berklee Narrator: The Berklee College of Music helps its College of Music. Like Esperanza, he students develop professional careers in will graduate in May. At this concert, at music. Students like Jeremy connect with the Berklee Performance Center, Jeremy other musicians. They find opportunities is singing jazz. Singing jazz is Jeremy’s to get started in the business by recording greatest joy. and touring. Jeremy sings in a jazz quartet Jeremy: When I was seven, I started playing called Sinkapation. They have toured in the piano, classically. And when I was Japan three times. They have music videos thirteen, I started singing. in Japan, too, and they have signed with a Narrator: In high school, Jeremy studied classical record label. voice. He listened to many styles of music, Jeremy: We saw a lot of amazing places and, uh, too. He especially liked rhythm and blues, we recorded a CD, and it’s doing well. which is called R&B. Narrator: When you hear Jeremy sing, you can feel Jeremy: I have three older sisters, who have had a the joy of performance. You can feel the very large impact on my life as a musician. joy of jazz. They listened to R&B, they listened to

Written by Lou Fonceca Design: Wild Apple Design Ltd. Viewpoints D.R. © Macmillan Publishers S.A. de C.V. 2009 Illustration: John Storey, Macmillan Publishers S.A. de C.V.

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