2016 Pat Graham Workshop – NOTES

 

I was able to attend Sister Pat Graham’s workshop a few weeks ago.  As always, she put on a very informative workshop.  It was also fun to visit with several of you and put faces to a few readers!    If anyone has any other notes, pictures or videos they took of the workshop, please contact me and I’ll collaborate it all here so we can help those who couldn’t attend!

 

I’ve attached her handout to my Resource Library.  You can access that using the button at the bottom of this post.  It’s a simple outline for teaching any song, sign language idea for teaching Search, Ponder and Pray and an outline for teaching If I Listen With My Heart.  I have incorporated some of these ideas into my lesson plans for teaching that song this year (find it HERE if you missed it) along with a few other items.  If her handout doesn’t make sense without the workshop, don’t worry!  I plan on implementing LOTS more this year!

 

She also had sheet music with a simple arrangement for a flute/violin of If I Listen With My Heart that you can find that you can also access using the button at the bottom of this post, along with some finger plays she suggested for nursery and a few other items.

 

I video recorded her entire workshop a few years ago.  The information she presents each year is fairly similar so if you want to get a feel for how she teaches, find the videos all HERE.

 

Sister Graham also talked about a few of the books she has written.  I outlined all of those last year in my 2015 notes so if you want to find all her books, check out my post HERE.   If there’s outside resource you buy (or your ward buys for your calling – which is what I would STRONGLY suggest) for this calling, it’s Sister Graham’s Songbook Companion:

 

 

Then below are a few notes I scribbled down:

 

“The only calling in the church that does not have a manual.”

 

“When teaching children to conduct, help them feel the down beat.”  As long as they move their arm downward on the first downbeat, they can just bounce their arm until the next one.

 

Have wiggly children conduct

 

Make sure the children have “music manners” when using handbells.

 

“The minute you are not involved, you are talking!”  She was referencing us as a group but said primary children behave the same way.

 

“Children learn best through movement.”

 

Have the older children put melody charts together.

 

“Don’t call them ‘kids’ or ‘you guys’ but instead call them ‘children’ or ‘boys and girls.’  Show them the respect they deserve.”

 

Use the preface and p. 300 of The Children’s Songbook to help you with your calling.  Lots of valuable information for teaching music to children.

 

This was on the wall:

 

These are pictures of a lot of her slides:

Sister Graham stated that some children have a difficulty finding their “singing voices” so when they try to sing, they walk or shout.  This exercise above and below is to help them differentiate between their different types of voices.  When she said “This is my singing voice” she sang it using the notes below c aa c c a.  When she would speak, whisper, call or sing, she’d talk into her toy microphone.  When she wanted the children to echo, she held the microphone out toward the audience and we repeated what she did.

 

Practice the information on the slide above using this song: