Over the past year, Dylan Bell and I have been working with the Toronto District School Board to create a curriculum resource guide, teaching south Indian music to children from grades 4 through 8.

This unit teaches the basic elements of Indian music: Raga (melodic elements) and Tala (rhythmic elements). Within this framework, students will learn to sing in swaras (Indian solfege) and will learn solkattu (Rhythmic syllables). Students will also learn about different music styles in India: folk music, Karnatak music (South Indian classical music), Bollywood, and fusion (cross-cultural music, mixing elements of Western and Indian music).

This unit is performance-based, intended for music classes. All musical activities are vocal-centred, and no additional instrumentation or equipment is required. In addition to a number of exercises, the students will learn up to four pieces suitable for public performance. To aid in learning and performing, this unit comes with an accompanying CD with instructions for in-class and in-performance use.

We are piloting the document in conjunction with two teachers' workshops that I'm directing:
Tuesday, November 16th, 2010
5:15pm-7:15pm
Jackman Public School (for east end teachers)

Wednesday, November 17th, 2010
5:15-7:15pm
Howard Public School (for west end teachers)
***Please note that the documents and workshops are only available to TDSB teachers.
For more information, please contact instructional leader, Janet Bambrick: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it