Mr. Guerrero’s Sixth-Grade Class Heats Things Up!

One particularly cold afternoon, sixth-graders strolled  into Upper School Music Teacher Sebastian Guerrero’s music room, remarking on the chill in the air as they entered the space. They began as they had every other day, with a quick interactive warm-up before they took to their instruments.

But then, accelerando: they began working on Hill and Gully Rider, a 19th-century Jamaican folk song—one they first learned in Lisa Wichman’s Lower School music class, and one they’re now taking to new levels in the Upper School.

“The melody of this song is stored in the deep recesses of their brains as they learned it in Lower School, and now they get to access it and use it in a new way with instruments and in an ensemble setting,” said Guerrero.

“This song is set to the scale of F major pentatonic,” explained Hadley B. `26. “We play it in a call and response format, which means one group plays their part, which in turn gives a cue for the second group to play their part. It was a challenge to play in sync, but once we got it it sounded great.”

After a few failed attempts, sixth-graders were able to find their groove in no time. Once they found their rhythm, they were able to call and respond back and forth to each other continuously without missing a beat for longer periods of time.

“We were jamming! It was really cool that with each try, we were able to sound more and more confident to play together as a group,” said Guerrero.

Once the jam session was complete, students realized that not only did they feel more energized, but also that the room itself felt warmer!

“They poured all of their energy and focus into the performance,” said Guerrero. “They quite literally heated things up with their liveliness and excitement!”