Once a student composer has created a musical work, it is time for the work to be prepared for presentation, and then to be performed for an audience. This can be an extensive learning experience in itself for a young composer; it is one thing to write down musical ideas, but it is another for … Continue reading Reflective Questions for 5th Grade Music Composition–The Performance
music literacy
Reflective Questions for 5th Grade Music Composition
Today I am going to discuss questions students can use to reflect on their creative musical work. In Connecticut, these questions are part of the Common Core Assessments for music. Each question gets at an important musical aspect or concept, and helps focus students on more than just getting notes down on paper and singing … Continue reading Reflective Questions for 5th Grade Music Composition
How It All Works Together
When you teach a child to play an instrument, what is the goal of doing so? This may seem like an odd question, because we are inclined to answer that the goal is to lead the child in gaining proficiency on the instrument. There is nothing wrong with this goal; it can be defined, growth … Continue reading How It All Works Together
Describing Music and Teaching Music
If you are a music reader, want you to pretend you know nothing about music notation. If you don't read music, you're all set. Now take what I'm about to write absolutely literally. "A quarter note gets one beat, and a half note gets two beats." Just from that description, do you know that the … Continue reading Describing Music and Teaching Music
The Twists and Turns of Music Theory
When my students learn what intervals are in music, they first learn the interval name, a second, third, fifth, and so forth, before they learn the kind, major, minor, perfect, and so on. It is one of those strange things about music theory that a number represents some distances between notes, while a word represents … Continue reading The Twists and Turns of Music Theory
What Would Music Be Like Without Change?
Although most would probably say they don’t like change, the fact is that we need change and are designed to change and benefit from change. This can be clearly seen if we consider minimalist music. When a minimalist piece begins, it has our attention, because what we hear is a change from not hearing it … Continue reading What Would Music Be Like Without Change?
How We Describe and Write About Music We Hear+
Asking students to describe music you play for them has several benefits. Most obviously, descriptions tell us what the student though about and experienced from listening. We may learn how the music affected his or her emotions, what musical elements were noticed, or what and when certain musical events occurred. For the most part, when … Continue reading How We Describe and Write About Music We Hear+
More On Differentiation in Music Classes
The Core Arts standards include selecting music for performance and listening. Among the things to be considered are student abilities and student interests. Students should have an accurate assessment of their abilities so that they can choose music that is within their capacity to play or sing, and students should have the opportunity to study … Continue reading More On Differentiation in Music Classes
What’s In A Name?
Although we humans rely heavily on our senses of sight and hearing, our world would not make much sense to us if we did not have language in which to think, and words with which to know things. By naming something, our minds are able to categorize, connect, apply, analyze, evaluate, and represent everything that … Continue reading What’s In A Name?
A Method for Improving Rehearsal Efficiency and Enjoyment
One of my most often used phrases when teaching musical works to students is that a right pitch played at the wrong time is still a wrong note. While pitches, rhythm and beat are all important, it is often advantageous to teach the rhythm first, separated out from the pitches. This gives the student less … Continue reading A Method for Improving Rehearsal Efficiency and Enjoyment
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