THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, March 29, 1996 TAG: 9603290464
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ALETA PAYNE, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Medium: 79 lines
For a generation of children who don't recognize Dick and Jane but who can help their parents download a file from the Internet, the special class Ken Smead taught this week at Thalia Elementary School was music to their ears.
Smead, a Navy musician, spent five days showing students the link between music and computers. As the school's ``musician in residence,'' he brought along a 128-instrument band that literally fit into a couple of boxes - computer equipment. It allowed him to teach the students about key, tempo and all the different sounds that combine to make the songs they hear on the radio.
``How many of you listen to CDs?'' Smead asked one group of first-graders. Every hand shot into the air. Smead went on to explain how computer technology is a part of the disk and the machine that plays it.
``All of you use computers in music and you haven't even known it,'' he said.
Smead introduced them to the Musical Instrument Digital Interface, known as MIDI, ``a special language that computers and musical instruments use to talk.''
Another hand shot up.
``I know Mrs. Smead,'' one of the students declared. Smead's wife is a fifth-grade teacher at the school and his daughter is a student there.
Smead used the computer to play ``Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star'' as it would sound on a computerized piano and then played it on a real piano. The students announced that it sounded the same. He then used the computer to play the tune as if on a trumpet, a guitar, and - to great excitement - drums. As he worked, the changing notes were displayed on a giant computer screen projected so the kids could watch them.
He showed them how the sounds of different instruments layer to create music. For one song, the computer began with the drum beat, gradually adding the bass, guitar and other instruments as students tried to name that tune.
``A guy who plays only guitar but not singing!'' one student guessed.
``Country music!'' tried another.
``Santa Claus is Coming to Town!''
By the time the piano was added, the melody was recognizable as one from the movie ``The Lion King,'' and the students danced in their seats as they joined in with the words.
Seven-year-old Tiffany Hines said she enjoyed watching the notes move on the screen as the sounds changed to match.
``I liked the part when he made the notes move,'' she said. ``He made them jump down and then jump up.''
The school's PTA paid Smead to come into the school as musician in residence for ``Music in our Schools Month.'' They also brought in a painter for ``Youth Art Month.''
Smead, a vocalist with the Navy Band Fleet Support Unit, said he enjoyedO exposing students to music in a different way.
``I enjoy the computer, I enjoy music and there are a lot of things you can do with both of them.''
Music teacher Wrengay Watkins said the lesson enthralled the students, who have separate music and computer classes on a weekly basis.
``These children are light-years ahead of us,'' she said. ``Technology is going to be a part of their lives.''
Lauran Wagenbrenner, a hip 7-year-old, had fun.
``I like the beat to it,'' she said. ``I thought it was cool. I thought it was nice and really good. I wish it was mine.'' ILLUSTRATION: CHARLIE MEADS
The Virginian-Pilot
Navy musician Ken Smead uses a computer, which projected the notes
on the screen behind him, to teach children music theory.
CHARLIE MEADS
The Virginian-Pilot
Tashiana Gatlin, left, and Matthew Bowers, Thalia Elementary School
first-graders, excitedly recognize a song from ``The Lion King''
that Ken Smead played on his computer Thursday.
by CNB