Yangtze River

Dr. Loong

Yangtze Boatmen, 长江船夫

Chet-Yeng Loong

Introduce Yangtze River to the students. Introduce how boatmen pull and row boats going upstream on the Yangtze River.

Sing the whole song. Teach Yangtze Boatmen to children phrase by phrase by using movement.

Ask students to say, "Pull, pull boatmen pull. Row, row paddle boat" using the rhythm from the first line of Yangtze Boatmen. Ask students to create motions reflecting the words.

Sing Yangtze Boatmen and ask students to do the motions they created except for the 3rd phrase when they wave at each other.

Divide students into four groups, pretend they are boatmen from different boats. Sing the song in canon.

Extension:
Ask children to put the level bordun on their bodies: Shanghai to Wuhan.
(ta ta ta-a, ta-a ta-a.)

Ask children to echo clap the rhythmic pattern: longest river (titi titi).
Put “Shang-hai” & “Wu-“ on their laps, and “to” & “-han” on their shoulders.

Put the bordun on BX and AX. Then put the rhythmic ostinato on drum or woodblock.

Sing and play the bordun and ostinato pattern on the xylophones and drums.

Teaching multi-cultural and world musics is more than teaching “music”. By having an in-depth understanding of the music of different cultures ourselves, we will be able to help students sing, play music and gain greater insights into the music of their own cultures as well as other cultures. Once our students have studied their culture’s music from this integrative approach, they will be better prepared to appreciate and respect music from another’s culture. We as music educators, have an important role as carriers of culture. We must present materials to our students through an anti-biased filter and advocate what Derman-Sparks has said, “Differences are good; oppressive ideas and behaviors are not.” (p. x)