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Why Not a Few Quarter-notes for a Start?
Over here: Listen to this child blow this horn. Over there: See that one's fingers run up and down the clarinet. Watch how the kid to your left puts her whole upper body into bowing her violin. And drums? Never saw so many children snapping sticks in unison.
Band. Orchestra. In schools everywhere.
Kids are natural music makers. Listen to their active games, vitalized by chants and songs.
This dream is of millions of children, stretching across continents, every one of them with an instrument, every one of them now frowning with effort, now grinning with glee. These children meet musical instruments before they learn to read, and they pick up one, then another, then another. They have group lessons and make group songs. They trade around, they try ones that blow, ones that bow, ones that bang, ones that tinkle or tweet. What feels best in their hands? What kinds of sounds make their hearts jostle a bit? Which ones do they think about at night?
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