Teaching may not always be an exact science, but often what children learn is more exact than what we have taught. Let me explain. Suppose I want to teach children about legato using movement. Legato is a term used in both music and dance, so it is especially fitting that I use both to teach … Continue reading When Students Exactly Learn What We Did Not Intend To Teach
early childhood
Jaques-Dalcroze and Rhythm Training
Yesterday, I discussed solfege exercises developed by Emile Jaques-Dalcroze. Today I will examine some of his rhythm exercises. Like contemporary scholars, Jaques-Dalcroze found that rhythm and pitch are more easily taught separately than integrated together. Jaques-Dalcroze also believed that because movement, through which rhythm is expressed, is natural to humans, whereas pitch is not, it … Continue reading Jaques-Dalcroze and Rhythm Training
Can Tone and Chord Functions Be Taught With Fixed Do?
When it comes to choosing a system of syllables to sing for teaching ear training and sight singing, there seems to be a consensus that moveable do, sometimes called functional solfege, is needed for teaching chord and tone functions. To be sure, moving do to wherever the tonic is does help a singer remember where … Continue reading Can Tone and Chord Functions Be Taught With Fixed Do?
Is There Madness in the Method?
Music teachers are often concerned with method. If you go to most music education conferences, you’ll find sessions on the Kodaly Method, the Dalcroze Method, Gordon Music Learning Theory, the Orff Method, Feierabend’s Conversational Solfege, the Suzuki Method, to name a few. Music teaching methods are like Protestant denominations: there are many of them, they … Continue reading Is There Madness in the Method?
What Are Some Ways To Handle A Small Music Classroom Budget?
I am fortunate to teach in a school district with a strong music program, and supportive administrators at all levels. Even so, when it comes to purchasing materials for my classroom, money is scarce, so I have to make a very few dollars go as far as possible. In truth, I really don’t need a … Continue reading What Are Some Ways To Handle A Small Music Classroom Budget?
What Are The Best Pitch Combinations For Teaching Our Youngest Children Singing?
The popularity and success of the Kodaly approach to teaching music in schools has resulted in a widespread practice of using songs and chants comprised of a minor third when beginning formal music education with young children. There is much to recommend this practice, including the ease with which a small interval can be sung, … Continue reading What Are The Best Pitch Combinations For Teaching Our Youngest Children Singing?
A Realistic Look at the Mozart Effect
Much has been made, and continues to be made, of the benefits of music education beyond developing musical expertise. I have touched on some of these benefits in past posts. While I am as eager as the next music educator to trumpet the virtues of musical training, I have also tried to be objectively cautious … Continue reading A Realistic Look at the Mozart Effect
The Variety of Musical Dissonance
Dissonance is one of those musical elements I love to teach. This is because I love dissonance in music. For me, it is what makes music expressive, passionate, driving, exciting, powerful, and fun. Like anything else, too much dissonance is not good, but used in a balanced and skillful way; it turns very ordinary music … Continue reading The Variety of Musical Dissonance
Defining Some Words in the New Standards for Creating Music
The new music standards are published, and there are some interesting choices of words in them that tell us a great deal both about music and how it is to be taught. The first series of words that caught my attention were the verbs describing what students will be doing when they create music. In … Continue reading Defining Some Words in the New Standards for Creating Music
Which Way Is Up?
The concept of up and down is central to musical understanding and experience. In an earlier post entitled, “Musical Ups and Downs—Why is Contour Important?” I discussed several reasons why this is so. But during formal musical training in early childhood, how up and down is represented is not always readily apparent. Early training in … Continue reading Which Way Is Up?
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