Recently, the "Dream of the Stars" Wind Ensemble from Xiamen Special Education School in Fujian Province held a special graduation season concert. The beautiful melody played by the children won warm applause from the audience, and what was even more touching was that most of these special children had moderate to severe hearing impairment, and some suffered from autism.
You can't hear the melody, but you play a beautiful music. How do they make the impossible possible?
A special concert for a group of special children
Teachers have been teaching for free for 7 consecutive years
At the concert, the "Dream of the Stars" Wind Ensemble presented 6 ensemble pieces and 7 instrumental solo pieces. "I Love You China" and "Daylily Flower" ...... The one-hour concert will feature soloists, ensembles, and ensembles in turn, keeping the audience engaged.
The performance was attended by 15 hearing-impaired students and two autistic students. During the performance, each musician is accompanied by a professional teacher who gently beats the beat to indicate the progress of the score.
The audience was moved by the beautiful melody and "liked" them in sign language. In addition to our teachers and students, many other primary and secondary school students and parents also came to visit. Some viewers sighed: "To be able to perform to this extent, I don't know how much effort they put in behind them, every moment makes people's hearts tremble." ”
Behind this wonderful performance is the 7-year journey of the "Dream of the Stars" Wind Ensemble.
Every Tuesday at noon, the "Dream of the Stars" Wind Ensemble practice time, and teachers from the Xiamen Dunshan Symphony Wind Orchestra will come to provide free public education to the children, and this agreement has lasted for 7 years.
Currently, the "Dream of the Stars" Wind Ensemble has 27 musicians from different grades, most of whom are hearing-impaired children, and a few suffer from autism. The instruments they play are divided into three broad categories: brass, woodwind, and percussion, forming a minimal configuration of a standard wind ensemble.
The first to come up with the "crazy" idea of letting hearing-impaired students learn musical instruments was Chen Shayin, the principal of Xiamen Special Education School.
In 2017, a public performance of the Xiamen Dunshan Symphony Wind Orchestra at the school made Chen Shayin see the children's strong curiosity about musical instruments. "'The ignorant are fearless', I'm an amateur in music, but the look in the eyes of the students told me I wanted to try it. I asked the Dunshan Orchestra and they thought they could try it. And just like that, a bold attempt to go both ways began.
Music teacher Chen Xufei received the task of forming a wind orchestra, and the first problem in front of her was to choose people. She encourages children with residual hearing to give it a try, and for children who can't hear at all and children with autism, as long as they are interested in participating, Chen Xufei never refuses.
The Dunshan Wind Ensemble donated some instruments, the school also purchased some, and in the reading room and dance classroom, the wind orchestra began to study once a week. The teachers of the Dunshan Wind Ensemble came to teach rain or shine, and the school's sign language teachers were on hand to assist in communication, although the learning speed was less than one-fifth of that of normal children, but every note played was lighting up everyone's enthusiasm to persevere.
Chen Shayin said that the children can feel that the teacher is working hard, and they will persist when they want to give up. When they persist a little longer, the teacher will also have such thoughts and be moved. "This kind of positive emotions can be contagious to each other, and supporting this thing has been done in obscurity for six or seven years, and that is the greatest strength. ”
Play by feeling the rhythm of the vibrations
They practiced countless times with the assistance of their teachers
Not only to play, but also to divide the voice to cooperate, to form a relatively complete wind orchestra, in the absence of experience to follow, this group of special children put in a huge effort.
Trumpet teacher Li Fan introduced that in order to let two children with severe hearing impairment learn to "blow", he tried all kinds of methods. "They can't directly blow to make their lips vibrate to make a sound, so they hold their throats to exert force, and this matter took more than a month to solve. ”
Just playing the trumpet requires a great deal of effort on the part of the children, followed by more difficult pitch training. Although they can't hear it, they can perceive the audio by the tactile sensation of vibration. After infinite repetition, the teacher helps the children fix each pitch and slowly turn it into muscle memory.
In brass instruments, the trombone has very high requirements for pitch control, which requires the player to have good sound discrimination. Zhiqiang, who has the trombone voice of "Dream of the Stars", can hardly hear the sound, and in order to play the trombone well, he and his teacher have repeatedly grinded for more than a year to find a way.
Slowly, the trombone teacher Kong Qingyu discovered that for Zhiqiang, musical notes can be turned into action commands. After countless exercises, Zhiqiang's playing became more and more accurate, and he also joined the Xiamen Huli District Youth Palace Wind Orchestra, which can play with normal children, and even better than some normal children.
It is not easy for the children to complete the independent blowing, but it is a "miracle" to ask more than a dozen children to cooperate tacitly and complete the part-part performance.
At the ensemble class of the wind orchestra, the gesture of conductor Xue Hao was very different from that of a regular performance. Xue Hao said that he has original gestures, "For example, I will stomp my feet very hard, because the floor is shaking, and they know that they need to play a note neatly." Body movements, facial expressions, all kinds of simple sign language...... As long as they can understand it, I'll do it. ”
When playing in an ensemble, all parts are indispensable with the assistance of the teacher, who will watch the conductor and the score at the other, prompting the children at the pitch and rhythm at any time.
"Even if the piece only plays a certain passage, or even a certain note, when everyone suddenly does it neatly or accurately, we are really happy, and we feel that these children have a lot of potential. Xue Hao said.
The children's ability to concentrate and observe is outstanding
They never thought of giving up
"Miracles" come from practice day after day, but also from the power of believing. The teachers of the wind ensemble said that the hearing-impaired children are often outstanding in concentration and observation, and they also have strong resilience in the face of difficulties and challenges. The most important thing is that every child cherishes the opportunity to learn music.
Du Jiayu, a flute teacher, said that the children were very meticulous in their observations, and they never thought that they would have any purpose in doing this, or give up if they couldn't do it well. "They had a lot of fun. Every week we have such short moments together, and we cherish each other. ”
There is no utilitarianism and the pleasure of enjoying music is a common feeling among students and teachers. At the same time, the progress and growth of the children are also very gratifying to the parents.
Leqi, the leader of the wind ensemble, has been recording the rehearsal moments with his camera, and this is the last time he will participate in the performance when he is about to enter the third year of high school. "I hope that students can work hard to play in the future, see the bigger world, have more stages, and hope that more ordinary people can see them. ”
A little bit of each teacher's dedication, like a small drop of water, slowly converges into a trickle. Chen Shayin said: "We must look at each life differently and give it enough nourishment, so that each life can bloom its own brilliance. ”