Hold The Note, Not The Instructor

Some background: I am in my second year of university, studying music education, and am in the middle of my first-ever teaching placement. My assigned school is a public primary school, and my class consists of some of the sweetest stage three kids I’ve ever met (ages 9 to 11). It’s been an incredibly rewarding experience, but I occasionally run into the odd… unexpected situation. 

Their current unit of study involves songwriting. At this stage in the term, they have written their lyrics and are now working on turning them into verses with structure and rhythm. I have just spent about five minutes helping [Student #1] with the pacing of her lyrics, specifically in adding rests or holding syllables over multiple beats so that all her lines are the same length. She’s doing pretty well, so I take the opportunity to check in with the rest of the students at her table. A few minutes later, while I’m answering a question about beat vs. rhythm…

Student #1: “Mr. [My Name], can I hold you?”

Me: *Blink blink.* “What?”

Student #2: “Huh?!”

A look of realisation and horror dawns over [Student #1]’s face. I’ve never seen someone turn so red so fast before. I recall reading her lyrics and have my own realisation.

Student #1: “Wait! The word! Um, I—THAT’S THE—CAN I HOLD. ARGH.”

Me: “As in, can you hold the word ‘you’ over multiple beats?”

[Student #1] buries her face in her hands and nods. [Student #2]’s cackling probably isn’t helping.

Me: “Sure, you can hold the word ‘you’ over multiple beats!”

Student #1: *Facedown on the desk.*

Student #2: *Losing it.*

I’m not sure she’ll be living that one down any time soon, but at least the song is sounding pretty good!