As I write this, I'm looking at a page from a popular band method book. There is one of those boxes at the top of the page that directs students' attention to an important concept or new learning. There is a pair of eighth notes followed by an equals sign followed by a quarter note. … Continue reading The Problem With Using Math to Teach Rhythm
General Music
What Is Classical Music?
To many, maybe even most in the Western hemisphere, the term "classical music" refers to a select repertoire of music composed exclusively by European or European trained composers. Some restrict the term to refer to music composed only in the mid seventeenth to early nineteenth century, while others use it to mean a broader repertoire … Continue reading What Is Classical Music?
What Goes Into Reading Music Rhythms and Pitches?
One of the things in teaching music that has baffled me for some time is why students seem to have as much trouble as they do reading music. Part of it, I've long thought, is due to trying to teach "sight" before "sound." If nothing else, Gordon's research taught us that children learn to read … Continue reading What Goes Into Reading Music Rhythms and Pitches?
Teaching Music Interpretation
Interpretation is included in the anchor standards for both performing and responding to music found in the national core arts standards. Interpretation is closely tied to expressive intent, which is what the composer intended to express in a particular musical work. This aspect of interpretation is important, because it gives the interpreter a starting place … Continue reading Teaching Music Interpretation
Strong Beat and Driving Rhythm Found in Top Classical Pieces
The popularity of classical music is of interest to those who teach music, and to those who run symphony orchestras. One of the things that attracts audiences to concert halls is favorite repertoire being on the program. Contemporary composers of classical music have at times been at odds with audiences, because their music was not … Continue reading Strong Beat and Driving Rhythm Found in Top Classical Pieces
Teaching the Once A Week Music Class
If there's one thing I don't like about teaching music, it is that I only see each class one time each week. This has at least two disadvantages; music can easily be regarded as less important because it meets less often than math, science, language arts, and social studies, and students struggle to remember what … Continue reading Teaching the Once A Week Music Class
Getting Beyond the Associative Property of Music
Music is a highly associative experience. I'm always interested in what is going on the the minds f my students as they listen to music, particularly classical music. Of course I can't know for sure-- no one can see into the mind of another person--but through careful questioning I find it valuable to try to … Continue reading Getting Beyond the Associative Property of Music
What Is A Musical Scale?
Yesterday, I was reading an online music lesson that was on learning a scale on the piano. The author defined a scale as a series of notes that ascends and descends. While nothing in that definition is untrue, there are many series of notes that ascend and descend that are not scales; arpeggios or any … Continue reading What Is A Musical Scale?
Passing Along Your Musical Roots
Psychologists will tell you that you are a blend of "nature and nurture--" that you are what you are partly because of inherited traits, and partly because of what your interactions with your environment have been. Today, I am interested in the musical aspect of the environment in which we all matured from early childhood … Continue reading Passing Along Your Musical Roots
Some Thought on Teaching Rhythm
For those of us who received most of our musical training within the context of classical music, we sometimes forget that music is not primarily a written art, like the literary masterworks of Shakespeare or Milton, but an auditory art. While this may seem obvious, it is not so obvious to those who observe or … Continue reading Some Thought on Teaching Rhythm
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