Relaaaaaax

Okay, so here's my FAVORITE post-AP Test activity for Music Theory: Minimalism Day!

We didn't cover minimalism for the AP Test, since it doesn't really involve traditional diatonic harmonies. But I always like to spend a day... well not really talking about it, but exposing the kids to it.

For those of you not up on minimalism (which I expect would be a lot of you... it's not like people are playing Phillip Glass CDs to their newborn babies or anything.) it's a quirky modern style that involves short melodic of rhythmic phrases repeated over and over, introducing small changes over a long period of time. If you can dedicate an hour or so to listening to a minimalist pieces, it has a funky hypnotic effect that approaches what a sensory deprivation experiment must be like.

So I had them out some chairs together and lie down. I dimmed the lights and put on Steve Reich's Drumming. About twenty minutes into it I could tell that they were slipping into a near coma (which was probably a good thing for the seniors who had just come off of their finals).

Of course, in the middle of this someone from the front office came looking for me and, upon opening the door, walked into a semi-darkened room with bodies sprawled over chairs in what probably looked like a scene from Haight Ashbury (or maybe Jonestown).

When it finally finished (about an hour later) everyone slowly stirred and gave me the same reaction that the previous classes gave.

"Woah"