Serve and Learn: Make Paper Violins for
El Sistema Music School
Join CYL for an info session about El Sistema Colorado and how high school students can support the music classes while we assist them in making paper violins to support their ECE classes.
About the program:
El Sistema Colorado harnesses the joy of music and ignites the potential in our future leaders through an immersive youth music education program that transcends socioeconomic barriers.
Since its founding in 1975 by visionary musician and economist Jose Antonio Abreau, Venezuela's "El Sistema" has used music education as a vehicle for social change. It cultivates an "affluence of spirit" which today brings hope, joy, and positive social impact to over 400,000 children and their families in Venezuela and around the world. Its founding principles include a team-based approach to collective, cooperative education characterized by trust, discipline, empathy, commitment, structure, and support for self-esteem.
El Sistema has been growing for decades in the form of "nucleos," or music learning centers, where children living in impoverished or otherwise challenged circumstances gather daily to play and sing together in orchestral and choral ensembles. Unlike other youth music programs, El Sistema's mission is fundamentally social in nature: at its core is Jose Abreu's conviction that the experience of immersive, ambitious, and joyful music-making can help young people develop not only musical mastery, but also self-esteem, mutual respect, and cooperative skills- qualities that can change their lives and the lives of their families and communities.
El Sistema Colorado and Paper Violins
El Sistema Colorado, a "nucleo" located in Denver's Curtis Park neighborhood, has been carrying Maestro Abreu's torch of social change through music education since 2012. Our paper violin program is a reflection of an international, decades-long tradition of paper instruments in El Sistema-inspired programs. It's an integral part of who we are. The program serves several purposes in both the wider El Sistema community and in our specific curriculum:
1) The violins are made from paper and cardboard- low-cost and easily accessible materials. This means that practically anybody with a bit of paper, some method of cutting, and a bit of glue can have an instrument for the first few stages of their musical journey without having to spend hundreds of dollars.
2) From a developmental psychology point of view, very young students (like the 3-6 year-olds that make up our paper violin program) are not ready for the fine motor skills that playing an actual instrument requires. The paper violin allows them to develop their gross motor skills, posture, rhythm, listening, and ensemble skills so that, when it comes time to choose a real instrument, they are set up for immediate success.
3) Small children break things. A paper violin, when dropped, may cost $5 and half an hour of work to repair or replace. In the very likely event of a toddler-related instrument mishap, the cost of repair or replacement can easily reach into the thousands of dollars.
After two years of early childhood music education and a semester of kindergarten, our young musicians transition from paper violin to an instrument of their choice. "Paper Violin Graduation," as this event is affectionately known, is a supremely joyful celebration of the students' hard work, the skill and dedication of our teachers, and the generosity of the volunteers that helped bring their paper violins to life. The paper violins that you build will then be used for years to come to introduce the next rounds of young students to the joy of collective music-making.
