Teaching Artists Directory

Artists in residence
         directory of teaching artists: KEN HARRIS
  Ken Harris grew up in a musical family and took piano and accordion lessons before co-founding his first rock band in the 9th grade in California. Since then he has played all over the world in his own bands (including 22 years in Boston). He has backed up such artists as Chuck Berry, Junior Walker and James Cotton.

Ken plays solo piano every week at Berryhill and Company restaurant in downtown Boise. He mentors a local youth rock band, Underscore, and entertains at various area elder care facilities with groups like The String Stretchers and the Closers.

Describe a transformative process that has occurred in your own practice as an artist or in a past residency as a teaching artist.
As the facilitator/instructor in Boise Blues Society’s Blues in the Schools program, I regularly witness students musicians who are at first, shy and intimidated about learning and trying the basics of improvising in an ensemble setting. Usually, after a few minutes, the once shy students are lining up to take their turn soloing at the microphone. I notice their increased confidence and their self-satisfaction ­ their teachers get a vicarious thrill as well!

When have you been able to recognize learning taking place?
During the class itself and immediately afterward when the teachers write me letters expressing how much their students learned during my workshop.

What excites your imagination and in turn how does your work excite imagination for your audience?

I love to see young musicians getting more excited about making music and learning to improvise individually and in an ensemble setting.

What characteristics mark a successful collaboration for you?
Seeing students become more excited about making, creating and improvising music.

How do you foster creativity, both in your own work and as a teaching artist?
Thinking of roles participants can play in a performing ensemble format and then trying them out. The next step is seeking suggestions from the participants themselves as to how they can improve upon/add to the format in which they are partaking.

Three key understandings in this discipline are:
  1. Helping participants grasp basic music theory and what the scale degrees and chord changes are in each song.
  2. Helping participants comprehend the different musical, harmonic and rhythmic roles in each piece and which roles each student assumes to contribute to the group performance.
  3. Inspiring individual participants to see how their creative contributions can improve and expand the group experience as a whole.
Outcomes of the three understandings are:
  1. Students will grasp basic music theory pertaining to the chords that form the basics of each song.
  2. Students will understand the basic rhythms and time signatures of each song and their underlying characteristics.
  3. Students will contribute situation-specific lyrical/rhythmic/conceptual/musical ideas to some of the songs being performed by the group.
Three Idaho Humanities Content Standards that correlate with the core concepts identified above:
  1. Standard 3: Performance, Goals 3.1
    Utilize concepts essential to music.
    1. Play rhythmic, melodic and harmonic classroom instruments expressively.
    2. Illustrate group singing and instrumental skills in response to conductor cues.
    3. Create a melody when given specific guidelines.

  2. Standard 3: Performance, Goals 3.1
    Utilize concepts essential to music.
    1. Play rhythmic, melodic and harmonic classroom instruments expressively.
    2. Illustrate group singing and instrumental skills in response to conductor cues.
    3. Create a melody when given specific guidelines.

  3. Standard 3: Performance, Goals 3.3
    Communicate through music with creative expression.
    1. Improvise musical “answers” to given rhythmic and/or melodic phrases.
    2. Move to the beat of music in both organized and free style.
    3. Improvise movement that is stylistically appropriate to music.
Vocabulary words that relate to music:
Rhythm, scales, chords, music time, “feel”, projection, syncopation, harmony, delivery, ensemble playing, time signatures, improvisation, patterns, melody, grace notes.


Subject areas outside of the fine arts that relate to potential residency work:
Mathematics, sociology, history, geography, psychology

References:
  1. Byron Skoro
    10470 W. Tanglewood
    Boise, ID, 83709
    (208) 362-5231
    blskoro@yahoo.com

  2. John McFarlane
    PO Box 227
    Idaho City, ID, 83631
    (208) 392-4183
    mcfarlanej@sd072.k12.us

  3. Kenda Schroeder
    300 S. 10 East
    Mountain Home, ID, 83647
    (208) 587-8309

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Ken Harris
Discipline: Music Performance and Education

Phone: 208-440-4590

Email: kjharris1925@yahoo.com

Website: for the band Hoochie Coochie Men
mp3idaho.idahostatesman.com (scroll to “H”)

Special Populations I work with: Grade School Students to Senior Citizens.

Ken Harris Music







Idaho Commission on the Arts- Teaching Artists Directory

Phone: 208/334-2119 or 800/278-3863 Fax: 208/334-2488
Mailing address: P.O. Box 83720, Boise, ID 83720-0008
Street address: 2410 North Old Penitentiary Rd., Boise, ID 83712