Prog used in the classroom!

that I taught today for Music you may have enjoyed it more than usual. I introduced them to prog! Well, it was kind of a brutal expose of awesome rock spectacles. 

The lesson went like this:

Cool lesson - and my grade 10 students seemed to enjoy it - i think they were mesmirised by Pink Floyd and most girls liked Pink.

anyway has anyone else experienced prog in the classroom that a teacher was teaching?

Anyway at least they saw some excellent live prog today. There papers did not have much info on them though so I may have to followup. 

I had a chance to do this once, but only had a few examples on cassette, and this was a private affair to a group of "new age" folks, mostly because I had told them that "New Age" music had started way before then ... more like 25 years earlier with the advent of the synthesizer.

 

Both folks (that owned a New Age store) were not impressed, mostly because they needed to protect their investment and were concerned that things I said would take away from all the bruhaha's or the newland's or whatever other cheapie new age music they could make a buck out of.

 

My presentation consisted of Vangelis, Mike Oldfield, Stomu Yamash'ta, Popol Vuh (specially!) and several others that had already shown a particular predilection to putting together very strong spiritual work.

 

It didn't work. They were too afflicted with their nose powders ... in the end, their crystals and anything  they sold was very cool new age stuff ... and anything else they did not know was not important or valid ... so seeing a video with Stomu Yamash'ta in a temple, or Kitaro, was not for them ... because they could not make money out of it.

 

It was at that time that I first heard the "progressive" thing being used in various this and that ... and while I thought it had more weight than the "new age" stuff, I really felt, and still do, that we have to be smarter, more academic, and specially better defined in order to have the "definition" stick. As it is right now, the definition "closes" the ability of anyone creating something new ... and the last thing we want to do is CLOSE the ability from spreading. Unffortunately, as you know, the history of music as stated in many books is about "periods" and "eras" and that would mean that "progressive" is over, and it's time is come and gone and today it will be called something else ... thus, I would like to spread the wings of the definition to make sure we can make a mark ... that is the way I see the music ... as it is right now, all I see is people fighting to sell one more CD and remember the hit ... not seeing people appreciate anything else is bad for the form. William Shakespeare is not the only playwright representative of his time and place, though he might be the best known of htem all!

(Actually, I was the one who proposed Cygnus X-1 and/or Hemispheres)

 

I find it helps concentration as they listen to the music rather than talk aimlessly.

 

Opeth, Camel, Rush and Steve Hackett are generally very popular.