[HANASHIR:16161] Re: Songsheets

[Adrian Durlester <adrian...>]

My two shekalim. For a supplemental religious school, grades 4 and up (or 3
and up, depending on when you start formal Hebrew instruction as a separate
class) should get Hebrew and English without transliteration. Younger grades
and adult audiences will likely need the transliteration. They should still
always get the Hebrew--even the very youngest who can't read it. It build
familiarity.
 
This changes in a day school setting. If you are using an immersion type
curriculum like Tal Am/Tal Sela, you wouldn't use transliteration even for
the very early grades.
 
Also, song sheets should always have full and proper attribution. In
addition, if the text is liturgical, cite the source (and don;t just say
"Siddur" if it actually is a citation from another piece of liturgical text
or scripture.)
 
Dare I open the old discussion about whether we should be using song sheets
in the first place?
 
In my humble opinion, we're always better off using video/data projection,
slides or overheads so that the participants are looking up, and could
potentially see you as well as the lyrics.
 
The reality is, of course, that it isn't always so easy to do this, it has
its limitations (like you can't get as many readable words onto the screen
as a songsheet, so someone has to run the slide show) and most places don't
have the equipment. And it's not that easy to quickly set it up and take
down (although that has gotten easier.) Still, it's always worth exploring
the possibilities and finding ways to not have everyone's head buried in a
songsheet.
 
Imagine, someday, having the lyrics in Hebrew, English and transliteration,
for your entire repertoire, on your laptop. (You could also have Finale or
PDF sheet music files, mp3s and more.) Then, plug your laptop into one of
those new electronic music stands like eStand or the MusicPad Pro and
there's all your music ready to play.
 
The mind boggles. But for now, guess I'll stick with songsheets!
 
-Adrian
 

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-hanashir (at) shamash(dot)org [mailto:owner-hanashir (at) 
shamash(dot)org] On
Behalf Of QuelliPG (at) aol(dot)com
Sent: Thursday, December 11, 2003 11:12 PM
To: hanashir (at) shamash(dot)org
Subject: [HANASHIR:16160] Re: Songsheets


of course you should have the Hebrew text!  how else will your students ever
learn to read Hebrew?  I'd leave off the transliteration!