Children Fight Off
By Eva Bartlett
InterPressService
May 13, 2010
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=51426
"Why are you rushing? Isn't it nicer like this?"
Mohammed Omer, oud teacher (an oud is similar to a
lute) at the
takes the oud and demonstrates, playing the song
slowly, gracefully, with the ornamentations that are
key to Arab music.
Mohammed Abu Suffiya, the 10-year-old student, has only
been studying for six months but has already learned to
read music and play a working rendition of a well known
song by Lebanese singer Fairouz.
Glancing only now and then at the sheet music, he
begins to play again, more slowly and with more
expression, his teacher accompanying him on a tabla
(hand drum).
Mohammed Omer, 28, is one of five teachers at the
Al-Quds hospital Red Crescent complex, the school moved
to its current location not far from the hospital after
the complex was bombed and burned during the 23-day
Israeli war on
destroyed with the school premises.
The school opened about six months before the
assault in December 2008-January 2009 as a response to
the demand at the Qattan Centre for the Child in
School director Ibrahim Najjar holds a music degree
from
piano and violin teachers are from
"We are open in the evenings, five days a week.
Students receive one-on-one classes, 40 minutes each
lesson," says Najjar. "We teach the solfege system of
note reading, because it is internationally understood."
Currently, students can learn the violin, guitar, oud,
qanoon (a zither-like instrument) and the piano. "We'd
love to teach other instruments, but we lack
professional teachers aside from the five we have."
Fifty students now study at the institute, half in
their first year, and half in their second, continuing
from their start in the Al-Quds complex.
Elena, the Russian piano teacher, works with 11-year-
old Hada. "All my students are girls this year, but I
hope next year will have some boys studying piano,"
Elena says.
Tala, 11, is a second-year student, having studied
piano in her first year. She sits with a qanoon before
her, slowly plucking her way through a song, starting
to find the techniques necessary to make music.
She has studied qanoon for a year now. "I chose it
because it has a beautiful, unique sound. It is
difficult, and not many people play it, so I wanted to
learn it," she says.
"When I play, I forget any problems and just think
about the music."
"All children like music, it's the language of peace,"
says Ibrahim Najjar. "And it's good for the mind, body
and our daily lives."
At the moment, students are all from the
region. But this is more a question of logistics than
preference.
"They don't pay for the lessons," says Najjar. "The
Qattan centre funds this programme."
But because transportation from regions outside of
City is too expensive for most families, the students
are local.
Najjar hopes to change this. "I'm trying to arrange a
bus, so that students can come from any region of
if they have potential.
"Even if they've never played an instrument, they can
have the chance to learn. We test their ear: can they
hear and hum a melody? And we test their rhythm: can
they replicate a rhythm?"
Mahmoud Kohail, 8, has studied the qanoon for just
under a year, but took first prize in a Palestine-wide
competition in oriental music for ages 7 to 11.
"Everyone asked me how many years he had been
studying," laughs Najjar. "When I told them it had been
only 80 hours, they couldn't believe me."
Emad Kohail, Mahmoud's father, is an accomplished oud
player, and his mother a talented singer.
Also a doctor of mental health and alternative
medicine, Emad Kohail explains how music has helped his
son.
"Mahmoud suffered the same post-traumatic stress
disorder (PTSD) that nearly all
as well as an attention deficit disorder," he says.
"Music has made an immense difference in Mahmoud's
behaviour. It has been a therapy for his PTSD and as a
means of teaching him to focus."
Ibrahim Najjar agrees that music is therapy, and
constructive for children's learning and mental health.
"There is a big difference in the students' behaviour
from when they first came. Now, they are calmer, and
listen and respect each other. I teach them this, but
also to behave like this in all aspects of their lives."
On a sunny Friday morning in
Younis, Abu Mohammed strums his oud for an appreciative
audience: the children have been traumatised by a May
2008 Israeli invasion which destroyed their home and farm.
"They were terrified, we were in the house as Israeli
tanks and bulldozers destroyed the land and our chicken
coop attached to our house. My children were so
frightened by the shooting and explosions," says Laila
Abu Dagga.
The family has since vacated their house, 470 metres
from the Green Line border, instead renting a house
half a kilometre away. But on this Friday morning, they
revisit their home, with friends, clapping and dancing
to Abu Mohammed's music. "Music really helps people
improve their mental health," says Abu Mohammed.
The oud player says he had to struggle to learn music.
"My father was very religious and looked down on music,
thought it was a waste of time. He used to keep me from
playing, but I'd learn in private. He didn't
understand, but music can be resistance, my oud can be
a weapon against the Israeli occupation."
With a stigma against musicians still prevalent in
Gaza, projects like the music school, and individuals
like Abu Mohammed are vital to the society.
Learning on his own, Abu Mohammed in 2004 won the Gold
prize in a competition sponsored by
Television. His winning composition featured the story
of a pregnant Palestinian woman who died waiting at a
checkpoint in the occupied
soldiers to allow her to pass and continue to hospital.
He plays his own works, set to the words of poets, and
highlights themes of the Israeli occupation, siege, and
the war on
Abu Mohammed's music meets various needs
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