Music in American Sign Language
Taught by Michelle Santarpia
Michelle is an American Sign Language Interpreter and Instructor who has a passion for the language and Deaf Culture since learning about it 2002. She was inspired to teach this class by all the people she has met and told her “Oh you know Sign Language? I’ve always wanted to learn that...” Find Michelle on Twitter: @SignAndTheCity
Come and learn a new way to experience MUSIC through pictures instead of sound!
In this intermediate ASL course, students will learn how to convey rhythm and emotions for a variety of musical genres. We will practice showing when the bass drops, soaring pop rock ballads, and a little bit of hip hop to name just a few.
Students will use their knowledge of ASL classifiers to show what sound looks like when it goes from paper to “picture” using their hands, bodies, facial expressions and personal style.
Students will be encouraged to work in groups to discuss a song’s meaning as a love song to a blissful couple will not carry the same meaning to a heartbroken lover. We will ask ourselves how could the same line of music be interpreted differently depending on who is signing it?
The course will include vocabulary sessions to teach students signs that cover common themes in music such as love and relationships, partying hard, heartbreak, freedom, theater, and rebellion.
This class does not require students to be fluent, but only familiar with the basic grammatical foundations of ASL, fingerspelling, classifiers, and conversational vocabulary.
