Recently I watched a documentary on HBO that really inspired me- "The Leopards Take Manhattan" is a 35 minute movie following a real life "music man" Diane Downs and her percussion group, made up of 45 students, ages 7-12 called the Louisville Leopards Percussionists.
Diane teaches the group, most of whom don't have any musical experience, how to play awesome jazz pieces.. completely by ear! The results- Amazing!
The coolest part of her teaching method? Once she teaches a part to a few students, she then asks them to go teach it to someone who doesn't know it yet, and so on, and so on. The kids take ownership in the success of the group, and in teaching and caring for each other. hmm
The most touching part of the movie? Seeing the look on the kids faces when they are invited to play for a special concert in New York city... pure joy!
When I think about being a missional musician, or trying to lead a missional music ministry, music opportunities like the one Diane is bringing to these kids, is something I might imagine.
Check this movie out if you can, its playing on HBO Family the 1st week of May. If you don't happen to have that obscure channel, check out these links:
The movie trailer: here
full length videos: here
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment