Getting Started with Music
Getting Started with Music
In this video, Diana introduces the elements of music, with a special focus on teachers who may lack experience or confidence in teaching this art form. She outlines Music in the Australian Curriculum and ways that ARTS:LIVE activities and resources relate to it.
These resources will help give you the confidence to teach Music in your classroom. Give it a go! Don't be afraid to take some creative risks. By incorporating Music activities into the classroom, you offer students a rich and stimulating learning environment to make, imagine and explore. You don't need many resources to get started either.
There has been a lot of research done on how the arts play a key role in student learning. The Song Room research reports and the findings of international reports such as Champions of Change: The Impact of the Arts on Learning indicate the value of the arts to assist students with:
self-esteem and self-expression
social interaction with peers and adults
cooperation and sharing
creative thinking and problem-solving skills
hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills
language and literacy
sensory awareness
concentration and perseverance
observation and ways of seeing
innovation and adaption for all learning areas.
Neuroscience research indicates many benefits for the brain when students sing and play music. These include:
a larger motor cortex where planning and voluntary motor functions are controlled (Peretz, 2005)
significantly higher abilities in memory, including short-term and long-term memory retention and retrieval (Jonides, 2008; Dunbar, 2009).
Learn by doing
Students learn music best by participating in activities that are structured to enable every student to be successful. Students can be successful by experimenting, creating, improvising and participating in different musical activities.
Encourage improvisation
Simple creative tools can encourage students to make their own music. Try starting with short rhythmic patterns, perhaps taken from a rhyme they have learned.
Question and answer
If the teacher claps a rhythmic "question", students can answer by making up their own rhythm to answer the question. The student answers will be short at first but will increase in complexity and length as their confidence improves. Question and answer can also be used with instruments.
Using speech rhymes or "rapping"
Speech rhymes or "raps" can be "played" on percussion instruments such as hand drums. Combining different rhythms and playing two or three at once on different percussion instruments is a great idea. Students can "think" the words while they play the rhythms. You can replace the use of instruments with body percussion.
Rhythmic patterns
A simple starting point for coming up with a variety of rhythmic patterns is using the names of fruits and vegetables, or any sort of food. You'll find a range of rhythms exist if you break down words into syllables. For example, try saying the following words, while at the same time clapping on every sound, and see what you discover:
Wa-ter-me-lon, wa-ter-me-lon
Pa-pa-ya, pa-pa-ya, pa-pa-ya
Ki-wi, ki-wi, ki-wi
Students can work with any vocabulary topic or known rhymes in this way. Have them imitate the rhythm and intonation of a word or phrase first by clapping or tapping on their bodies and then with untuned percussion instruments. This facilitates memorisation and assists in understanding aspects of communication, such as tone. The level of difficulty is up to you and the abilities of the students.
Music games
Use games as breaks between lessons. It is crucial to choose games where students can be the leaders. The teacher's role is to guide: "I would rather be the guide on the side than the sage on the stage." (King A, 1993)
Songwriting
Start students off by working with their own favourite songs. If students are confident enough to actually also write their own melodies, suggest they start by choosing a repeated set of only four chords to give some structure. They could then write their own songs from scratch, sticking to a particular rhyme scheme as a template for lyrics and the set of four chords as a template for the melody.
Experiment with form and structure
Most songs have a standard structure of verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge, chorus, verse. Try going with this, or against it, and see what you discover in the songwriting process.
Songwriting can develop from improvisation activities. Introduce melodies to the question and answer activity, or add tunes when using speech rhymes. Later, students could work with a simple song they know well. They could change the words, or try to change the tune slightly. If someone can play the guitar, or you have access to classroom instruments, try adding simple chords as an accompaniment.
Music: Count Us In
For teachers who don't know where to start, the national music education program, Music: Count Us In , produces educational resources set out as 11 sequential lesson plans. It is free to register and download all materials. The website has demonstration videos for teachers who are concerned about singing in front of the class.
But remember, your willingness to sing and play will encourage shy students to come out of their shell and give it a go too!
Simple tools for Music
Music in a classroom setting can be as simple or as complex as the situation demands. The only tools absolutely necessary are willingness, enthusiasm and a desire to participate.
The most important tool for a teacher is a classroom ethos that encourages all students to "have a go" and accepts all contributions as valuable. Imagination and creativity flourish in this type of classroom environment. Remember that students are themselves musical instruments - they can use their voices or perform simple body percussion.
Just as it is important for the students, it is important for you as teachers to give it a go. Breaking down the concepts and elements of music into achievable components can make this seem less daunting.
Simple resources to have on hand in the classroom can include:
a collection of non-melodic percussion instruments. They can be purchased or scavenged from the storeroom that no-one goes into any more (it is amazing what you can find in the dust if you look behind and underneath the shelves!)
a collection of plastic, metal or cardboard containers or packets to be made into wonderful junk percussion instruments
chairs, pens, desks, spiral-bound books (the metal spirals make a great sound), clean buckets, clean brooms or anything else that can be used to make an interesting sound.
Hint: collect dry seed pods when they fall off trees.
Different types of sounds for musical experimentation can include:
body percussion (eg stamp, hit knees, clap, click)
nature sounds (eg seed pods, stones, leaves)
objects from built environments (eg pens, brooms, buckets)
non-melodic percussion instruments (eg drum, tambourine, triangle, shaker, cymbal)
melodic instruments (eg recorder, xylophone, ukulele).
Experiment with different ways to make a sound to assist students in creating their own musical compositions. Take a look at Sound it Out: Soundscapes - You Call That Music? on ARTS:LIVE for more ideas.
Planning
In planning for the teaching and learning in music, it is also important to consider:
skills, cultural background and learning preferences of the students in your class
school activities, such as visiting artists and assemblies, that could be integrated with your music unit for the term.
Preparation
The resources you use for music lessons come in many forms and one of the key components of a successful music program is that all the resources are developed or sourced ahead of time. Consider the following:
If you are using technology to play video or audio, make sure the device is appropriate and compatible with your equipment.
Check the download speed of your computer on the day.
Junk percussion activities require a large amount of recycled containers. Send a note home to ask families to help you collect these items.
Check non-melodic and melodic instruments regularly to ensure they are in good working order and that you have enough instruments to cater for your class. This will make sure that no-one is left out and all students are fully engaged in the activity.
Organisation
The design, format and structure of music lessons should allow you to fulfil a variety of roles. Explicit teaching is important, but student-centred learning, with you as a mentor, enables students to find their own ways of understanding and creating.
Allow students to focus on tasks that are self-selected and self-directed, such as selecting from a range of sound sources to devise an accompaniment to a song. This puts the emphasis on empowering students as learners and respecting their different ways of learning. No one way is correct - all are of equal value. (Sellars, 2014)
Be prepared with sufficient equipment and instruments, and check beforehand that all technology is running smoothly.
If using musical instruments, teach students how to care for them and make sure you leave enough time at the end of the class for packing them away.
Overcoming constraints
Time
It can be a challenge to allow enough time to teach all aspects of the Music curriculum. Some ways to "find" time to integrate music across the curriculum include:
using music in other learning areas to increase engagement by students who have a range of learning styles
combining music with other arts subjects, such as Dance and Visual Arts
teaching music as lesson breaks. There are some great music games and many that can be accessed through interactive whiteboard technology, or you could just try singing a well-known song together.
Caring for instruments
The care and use of musical instruments in the classroom is particularly important, as replacing and repairing them is costly.
Every time you hand out instruments, let students improvise and make noise - without damaging instruments - for 30 seconds. Otherwise they'll be itching to play them! This is also a way to signal that the class is a creative one, with freedom to make noise and be hands-on.
Make sure you have an early lesson on caring for the instruments. In particular, if you have tuned instruments, like xylophones and glockenspiels, show students how to remove the bars so they don't break the pegs.
Explain the role of silence in music and teach students the importance of being quiet and respectful with instruments, as well as focusing on playing and experimenting.
Build up to noisier and less controlled activities gradually. This way you can set expectations at each step without being overwhelmed. Control the noise by setting time limits and acceptable volume levels.
If you have a classroom that has concertina doors and the sound travels, warn the teacher next door or join the classes together!
Noise
Performance
While many students and teachers enjoy performing for large audiences, it can be extremely challenging for some and prevent a full exploration of all the musical elements and creative possibilities for students and teachers. Take care that you and your students are well rehearsed if the class decides that a major performance opportunity is important.
However, performance in the comfort of the classroom, at the end of a music lesson, is an invaluable tool for:
assessment
increasing self-esteem
sharing knowledge.
Student reflection in the form of self-assessment can be shared among small groups or in a class discussion.
Links to general capabilities
Resources on ARTS:LIVE help students develop the general capabilities from the Australian Curriculum.
Examples from ARTS:LIVE
Critical and creative thinking
In Soundscapes: You Call That Music students generate ideas and reflect on purposes. The activities emphasise exploring, experimenting and shaping artworks.
Information and communication technology (ICT) capability
In Soundscapes: You Call That Music students operate and manage ICT. Students use audio features to convey information and ideas.
Intercultural understanding
Move to the Music: Sing, Scat and Scoo Be Doo explores culture and cultural identity and emphasises recognising and respecting cultural diversity. One of the songs presented is an African greeting song and one of the activities encourages exploring diversity through differences in language and culture.
Literacy
In music, students develop their understanding of literacy concepts by exploring the meaning and emotions in poems and story excerpts. Devising sounds (referred to as "soundscapes") that can be performed with the reading of the poem or story enables students to draw upon their higher order thinking skills such as analysing, evaluating and creating (Krathwoh, 2000).
Exploring speech rhymes and finding rhythms in the words to clap and then play on percussion instruments supports understanding syllables and sound groups that students encounter when learning to read.
In Junk Percussion: Create Your Own Words and Phrases , students create their own word phrases about the topic "food" and turn them into rhythms. This is a very creative and flexible activity that can be adapted to students of all ages and abilities.
Numeracy
Music and numeracy can support each other in many areas, such as number patterns, position and recognition of shapes.
The song "Scoo Bee Doo" in Move to the Music: Sing, Scat and Scoo Be Doo is divided into sections. A different shape can represent each section so the students can put the shapes into different orders to change the way the song is sung.
Personal and social capability
There is nothing more stimulating and satisfying to everyone than a classroom that regularly participates in music activities. In such a classroom, you can see, feel and hear the sense of belonging, discipline, confidence, creativity and cooperation. Students are motivated to perform, to stretch and extend their skills and to be challenged socially, emotionally and intellectually.
Bring Poetry Alive: Rap It Up promotes initiative and resilience through activities in which students work both collaboratively and individually. Students learn to appreciate diverse perspectives by responding to the work of their peers.
Making Media Easy: Add Sound To Your Animation requires students to use collaborative working processes as they plan, rehearse and create a sound score.
Links to cross-curriculum priorities
The Australian Curriculum embeds cross-curriculum priorities in all learning areas and stresses their importance in a globalised world. ARTS:LIVE Teacher Notes list any relevant cross-curriculum priorities for each activity.
Examples from ARTS: LIVE
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures
There is a wealth of contemporary Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander music that students of all age groups will enjoy. Genres such as opera, pop, country, rock and hip hop are all represented.
Bring Poetry Alive: Rap It Up explores the genre of rap and its political and social contexts. Students can use the knowledge and ideas they learn from the resource to research Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander rap and hip hop artists.
Sustainability
Using recycled everyday items to make musical instruments is a great way to explore different kinds of dynamics and types of sound.
In the Junk Percussion course, students are introduced to a range of methods for making instruments with recycled household objects.
Body percussion: using body parts to click, stomp or clap, and experimenting with musical and rhythmical expression through the use of the body.
Capoeira: an acrobatic Brazilian martial art that incorporates dance and music.
Chorus: a part of a song that repeats, usually after each verse. It has a strong link to the main theme of the song and usually contains 4 lines of 4 beats each, with 16 beats in total.
Genre: a category of artistic composition characterised by similarities in form, style, or subject matter, eg hip hop dance, rap music and horror film.
Graphic notation: an umbrella term for forms of musical notation that don't adhere to the traditional approach. Graphic notation is often used in experimental music, and is also effective for use in classrooms, especially if students can't read music.
Hip hop: an American sub-culture that emerged in the 1970s. It is characterised by four elements: rapping, DJ'ing, breaking and graffiti.
Improvisation: music that is created spontaneously in response to external stimuli or an individual's thoughts, emotions and instincts, and is appropriate to a context.
Junk percussion: music from instruments created out of recycled materials, especially materials that would otherwise be junk, or rubbish.
Melodic percussion instruments: include xylophones, glockenspiels and other instruments that are tuned to specific ptich and struck to create a melody (also tuned and pitched instruments).
Non-melodic percussion instruments: instruments that are struck or shaken but are not tuned to a specific pitch, including tambours, tambourines, woodblocks, claves, bells, castanets and triangles.
Rap: a form of music developed in New York, and connected to the hip hop genre, characterised by spoken or chanted rhyming lyrics and a strong rhythmic accompaniment.
Rhythm: a recurring beat or pulse.
Scat: an improvised vocal technique, using nonsense syllables and sounds rather than words. Scat singing originated in jazz music and is based on the idea that the voice is a musical instrument.
Soundscape: music composed by combining and manipulating sounds.
Verse: a part of a song that furthers the story. It is typically followed by a chorus and often contains 4 bars of 4 beats each, with 16 beats in all.
Voice: experimenting with sounds, vocal qualities, pitch and timbre. This might include singing songs or creating vocal soundscapes.
Xylophone: a wooden percussion instrument. The different types are soprano (highest sounding), alto and bass (lowest sounding).
Produced by the Song Room with support from the Australian Government Department of Education
Talent in videos: Diana Nguyen
References
Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA), http://www.acara.edu.au
Australian Curriculum: The Arts, Foundation to Year 10, http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/the-arts/introduction
Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL), http://www.aitsl.edu.au