Cuesheet Performance Guide
Welcome to our Music for Young Audiences Concert with Timbalooloo. Our programs aim to introduce children in pre-kindergarten through grade 2 to the wonders of music and the musical instruments of the orchestra. Here are a few ways you can help your young concertgoers get the most out of their experience.
Before the Show…
Music for Young Audiences
• Help children read and understand this Cuesheet. • Take a quick virtual tour of the Family Theater so children can be familiar and comfortable with the venue: kennedy-center.org/Pages/VirtualTour/ Familytheater • Visit the Musical Instrument “Petting Zoo” in the Hall of States, where after the morning show and before the afternoon show from December 26 through 30, children can try out the instruments for themselves.
After the Show… ■ Stay for a Creative Conversation where young
concertgoers can ask questions of and hear stories from the artists. ■ Encourage children to move to changes in music.
For example, play Timbalooloo’s “High Low” (timbalooloo.com/wake-up-clarinet/) or another a piece of music and have the children reach high for higher-pitched sounds and low for lower pitches. ■ Watch together, sing along with, and discuss
Timbalooloo’s online jazz and world music miniseries for kids at timbalooloo.com/tv/ ■ Encourage and help children to listen (and dance and
sing) to recordings of any types of music (such as jazz or swing) they enjoyed at the show and notice how the music sounds with more or different instruments. Discuss what they think the musical instruments might be “saying.”
■ Consider music lessons—here is a list of some
nonprofit organizations in the D.C. area that offer them: artsedge.kennedy-center.org/content/dcmusiclessons ■ Attend Sound Health: Second Saturdays—free
workshops for families with children under age eight that explore the power of the arts on mind and body wellness: kennedy-center.org/calendar/event/NTMHC ■ And please come back for more. Join us at these
upcoming NSO Family Concerts performed by the full NSO: February 24, 2019—Let’s Go to the Moon! April 7, 2019—Symphonic Storytelling: The Travels of Babar
David M. Rubenstein
Additional support for Music for Young Audiences is provided by the Kimsey Endowment; The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation; and the U.S. Department of Education.
Deborah F. Rutter
Major support for educational programs at the Kennedy Center is provided by David M. Rubenstein through the Rubenstein Arts Access Program.
Mario R. Rossero
Kennedy Center education and related artistic programming is made possible through the generosity of the National Committee for the Performing Arts.
Chairman President
Senior Vice President Education
The contents of this Cuesheet have been developed under a grant from the U.S. Department of Education and do not necessarily represent the policy of the U.S. Department of Education. You should not assume endorsement by the Federal Government. © 2018 The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
Presenting Sponsor of Performances for Young Audiences
I
t’s the musical instruments, that’s who! If you listen closely, you might just hear them say things like “I’m hungry,” “thank you,” and “come out and play.” At this concert with musician Oran Etkin and his Timbalooloo band, the instruments do want to come out to play, and they have a lot to tell you about music from all over the world. So get ready to listen, clap, sing, and dance along.
Yes !
How Music Talks When instruments make music, they put together sounds or notes in different ways to say (and play!) what they mean. Some of the tools include: Melody, you could call this the main conversation—in a song, it’s the part you might sing along or hum to.
Shhh
Dynamics, how soft (like a whisper, shhh) or how loud (like a shout, YES!) the music is played.
Clarinet
Tweet !
Tempo, how fast (like “whenwe-say-as-many-words-as-wecan-in-one-breath”) or slow (like “when…we…take…our… time…talk…ing“) the music is.
Pitch, how high (like a bird’s tweet) or low (like a cow’s moo) the music sounds.
Moo !
To make music, musicians also need help from composers, the people who write music. You’ll get to hear about a few composers at the concert. One of them is Duke Ellington— he grew up right here in Washington, D.C.
The clarinet (you can call her Clara) is a woodwind instrument. It looks like a black tube with a bell at the bottom. You’ll see Oran play it by blowing air into the mouthpiece and pressing down on different keys. At the concert, Clara especially loves her “mama”… Photo by John Abbott
Rhythm, patterns of long and short notes that make up the melody.
Tick Tick Tick
You know what? Your host Oran (pronounced oh-RON) Etkin loves music. He started playing piano when he was five years old, then learned violin, saxophone, guitar, and, of course clarinet, among other instruments. He also learned to write music when he was just nine years old (so that means he’s also a what? You guessed it—a composer). He especially enjoys sharing and playing music from all over the world with young people like you. And to do that, he has a great band that he titled after an imaginary instrument named by a three-year-old child—Timbalooloo. The band’s real instruments have a lot to tell you, so let’s meet them.
That’s the tuba (Big Mama Tuba to be exact!). The tuba is the largest instrument in the brass family of instruments. The tuba is made of twisted metal tubing that opens into a bell shape, but if you stretched all its tubing out, it would be about 18 feet long.To make sound, players “buzz” their lips on the instrument’s mouthpiece and move parts of the instrument. Big Mama Tuba is a type of tuba called a sousaphone (SOO-zuh-fohn), which is shaped so musicians can play it while moving around.
Listen for…
Drums
■ how the clarinet sounds high and the tuba sounds
super low—and how they talk with each other. ■ many different types of music from all over the world. ■ how you can help create a honking horn
and car doors opening and closing. ■ how rhythm has so much energy it might
even help you drive an imaginary car. Piano
Sousaphone
Clara and Big Mama Tuba have two other instrument friends in the band, the piano and the drums. Both are played by hitting or rubbing. Pianists make sound by pressing the keys, which cause small hammers inside the instrument to strike the steel strings. The drum set includes a snare drum played with drumsticks, a bass drum played with a foot pedal, and cymbals played with drumsticks or a foot pedal.
I
t’s the musical instruments, that’s who! If you listen closely, you might just hear them say things like “I’m hungry,” “thank you,” and “come out and play.” At this concert with musician Oran Etkin and his Timbalooloo band, the instruments do want to come out to play, and they have a lot to tell you about music from all over the world. So get ready to listen, clap, sing, and dance along.
Yes !
How Music Talks When instruments make music, they put together sounds or notes in different ways to say (and play!) what they mean. Some of the tools include: Melody, you could call this the main conversation—in a song, it’s the part you might sing along or hum to.
Shhh
Dynamics, how soft (like a whisper, shhh) or how loud (like a shout, YES!) the music is played.
Clarinet
Tweet !
Tempo, how fast (like “whenwe-say-as-many-words-as-wecan-in-one-breath”) or slow (like “when…we…take…our… time…talk…ing“) the music is.
Pitch, how high (like a bird’s tweet) or low (like a cow’s moo) the music sounds.
Moo !
To make music, musicians also need help from composers, the people who write music. You’ll get to hear about a few composers at the concert. One of them is Duke Ellington— he grew up right here in Washington, D.C.
The clarinet (you can call her Clara) is a woodwind instrument. It looks like a black tube with a bell at the bottom. You’ll see Oran play it by blowing air into the mouthpiece and pressing down on different keys. At the concert, Clara especially loves her “mama”… Photo by John Abbott
Rhythm, patterns of long and short notes that make up the melody.
Tick Tick Tick
You know what? Your host Oran (pronounced oh-RON) Etkin loves music. He started playing piano when he was five years old, then learned violin, saxophone, guitar, and, of course clarinet, among other instruments. He also learned to write music when he was just nine years old (so that means he’s also a what? You guessed it—a composer). He especially enjoys sharing and playing music from all over the world with young people like you. And to do that, he has a great band that he titled after an imaginary instrument named by a three-year-old child—Timbalooloo. The band’s real instruments have a lot to tell you, so let’s meet them.
That’s the tuba (Big Mama Tuba to be exact!). The tuba is the largest instrument in the brass family of instruments. The tuba is made of twisted metal tubing that opens into a bell shape, but if you stretched all its tubing out, it would be about 18 feet long.To make sound, players “buzz” their lips on the instrument’s mouthpiece and move parts of the instrument. Big Mama Tuba is a type of tuba called a sousaphone (SOO-zuh-fohn), which is shaped so musicians can play it while moving around.
Listen for…
Drums
■ how the clarinet sounds high and the tuba sounds
super low—and how they talk with each other. ■ many different types of music from all over the world. ■ how you can help create a honking horn
and car doors opening and closing. ■ how rhythm has so much energy it might
even help you drive an imaginary car. Piano
Sousaphone
Clara and Big Mama Tuba have two other instrument friends in the band, the piano and the drums. Both are played by hitting or rubbing. Pianists make sound by pressing the keys, which cause small hammers inside the instrument to strike the steel strings. The drum set includes a snare drum played with drumsticks, a bass drum played with a foot pedal, and cymbals played with drumsticks or a foot pedal.
Cuesheet Performance Guide
Welcome to our Music for Young Audiences Concert with Timbalooloo. Our programs aim to introduce children in pre-kindergarten through grade 2 to the wonders of music and the musical instruments of the orchestra. Here are a few ways you can help your young concertgoers get the most out of their experience.
Before the Show…
Music for Young Audiences
• Help children read and understand this Cuesheet. • Take a quick virtual tour of the Family Theater so children can be familiar and comfortable with the venue: kennedy-center.org/Pages/VirtualTour/ Familytheater • Visit the Musical Instrument “Petting Zoo” in the Hall of States, where after the morning show and before the afternoon show from December 26 through 30, children can try out the instruments for themselves.
After the Show… ■ Stay for a Creative Conversation where young
concertgoers can ask questions of and hear stories from the artists. ■ Encourage children to move to changes in music.
For example, play Timbalooloo’s “High Low” (timbalooloo.com/wake-up-clarinet/) or another a piece of music and have the children reach high for higher-pitched sounds and low for lower pitches. ■ Watch together, sing along with, and discuss
Timbalooloo’s online jazz and world music miniseries for kids at timbalooloo.com/tv/ ■ Encourage and help children to listen (and dance and
sing) to recordings of any types of music (such as jazz or swing) they enjoyed at the show and notice how the music sounds with more or different instruments. Discuss what they think the musical instruments might be “saying.”
■ Consider music lessons—here is a list of some
nonprofit organizations in the D.C. area that offer them: artsedge.kennedy-center.org/content/dcmusiclessons ■ Attend Sound Health: Second Saturdays—free
workshops for families with children under age eight that explore the power of the arts on mind and body wellness: kennedy-center.org/calendar/event/NTMHC ■ And please come back for more. Join us at these
upcoming NSO Family Concerts performed by the full NSO: February 24, 2019—Let’s Go to the Moon! April 7, 2019—Symphonic Storytelling: The Travels of Babar
David M. Rubenstein
Additional support for Music for Young Audiences is provided by the Kimsey Endowment; The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation; and the U.S. Department of Education.
Deborah F. Rutter
Major support for educational programs at the Kennedy Center is provided by David M. Rubenstein through the Rubenstein Arts Access Program.
Mario R. Rossero
Kennedy Center education and related artistic programming is made possible through the generosity of the National Committee for the Performing Arts.
Chairman President
Senior Vice President Education
The contents of this Cuesheet have been developed under a grant from the U.S. Department of Education and do not necessarily represent the policy of the U.S. Department of Education. You should not assume endorsement by the Federal Government. © 2018 The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
Presenting Sponsor of Performances for Young Audiences