Fourth Graders Bring Creativity Into Classroom With Xylophones

Fourth grade students at Bronxville Elementary School have been developing their musical skills while embarking on an exciting new unit with the xylophone in teacher Marina Brown’s classes. As they continue to develop their skills and understanding of music, they will play a different barred instrument over the next several weeks. 

During a recent lesson, they focused on proper playing technique and learning how to create a high-quality sound on the instrument. They also built on their jazz studies and got introduced to the concept of improvisation. Through a question-and-answer exercise, Brown played a four-beat pattern as a question and the students responded with a spontaneous four-beat pattern. 

“We will continue to expand these skills by incorporating them into basic song arrangements that we create together as a class,” Brown said. “Over the following weeks, the students will learn to perform together as an ensemble and participate in the music-making process. I hope they learn to appreciate working together and making music by sharing ideas, improvising and creating arrangements.”