Music Education

Key Curriculum ElementsI believe teaching individuals about singing, playing instruments, moving, composing and listening is incredibly important, ranging from infants through to adults, but starting in early childhood would be most beneficial for long term benefits. These key elements contribute significantly in developing their music skills and knowledge; contributing to their education on a more broad scale (Broad, 2007 pg23); and/or assisting the student’s emotional/mental development. The difficulties that could be expected in the classroom when integrating the music curriculum into lessons could be students lack of wanting to participate (I can’t do it, I’m not good at music) due to fear of failure and/or embarrassment from low self esteem; participation levels of extroverted students in comparison to introverted students; or even a lack of concentration and maturity to handle situations. Other difficulties that might be a challenge may perhaps be the lack of funding to offer reasonable resources; insufficient time allocation to allow reasonable attention to the music curriculum; teachers/students having high expectations of their abilities and those expectations not being met; and there being a lack of space for students to move and experiment.Some potential solutions I can think of, to the difficulties I have stated above might be: ï  ¶ providing a safe and encouraging environment so students do not feel if they attempt something and it does not go as well as they wanted or they might think they have failed. Instead they receive encouragement and  reassurance that they haven’t failed or let anyone down, what they have now done is create something new and/or something they can learn from, lots of positive feedback from the teacher and other students; ï  ¶ encouraging small groups of 2-4 would help introverted students participate more.By having each child required to have a specific task in all group work, so each child can have the same participation level might help introverted students have more participation and extroverted students still have participation, yet not over-whelming the introverted students; ï  ¶ constantly evolving activities used in class to stimulate students learning and encourage active learning, encouraging lack of boredom.Scaffold information and skills starting from basics to attempt to develop a more mature level of understanding and knowledge base for students to be more comfortable; ï  ¶ the lack of funding to offer reasonable resources does not always have to be seen as a negative, it allows students to use their imagination and creativity to find alternate resources to complete the same task or similar tasks; ï  ¶ insufficient time allocation to allow reasonable attention to the music curriculum is always going to be a sad situation, but integrating the music curriculum into other KLA’s allows the students to be able to enjoy music and appreciate that mus ic can be incorporated into any situation in their lives; ï  ¶ unfortunately teachers/students will always have high expectations of their abilities and those expectations will not always be met.The best teachers can do is to not allow students to see when the students have not meet the expectations they had and when students do not meet their own expectations, the teacher needs to encourage the student to try again and learn from their previous experience; ï  ¶ a lack of space for students to move and experiment is a shame but, a classroom is not the only place that students can learn to create, they can do the basic or the foundation type work in a classroom and then move out into the playground or a hall. One of the best things about music is that it can be created; played; movement; and listened to anywhere there is a desire to enjoy/appreciate it.Some of the things I would hope to achieve in the classroom through the integration of the music curriculum are encouragement of the appreciation of music; knowledge of music and how it can impact ones life; how music can be integrated into everyday life; and no matter who you are you can sing, play instruments, move (dance), compose and listen to  music.Integrating Music into the CurriculumHSIE: This Is Me! (Early Stage 1)Activity 1 – Puppet Joe teaching the students a poem and some rhythm ‘The End’ with Puppet Joe, this will be explained in Lesson Plan 1 Activity 2 – Mirroring each other’s movements to musicThe students are paired off and allocated their own space in the room, standing up, they are facing each other. They will then listen to ‘What I Am’ by Will.I.Am. As they listen to the song, it will speed up and slow down. The students will need to adapt their movement to follow the tempo of the music, for example faster movements as the music speeds or slower movements when the music slows. Once they are able to adapt to different tempos, the music will c hange dynamics via getting louder and softer. The students will need to adapt their movement to follow the dynamics of the music for example larger movements when the music is louder or smaller movements when the music is softer.The students will take turns in leading the movements through each change. Once the song has played through, the students will have a few minutes to talk and create movements together for the tempo and dynamic sections of the song. The song is run through a second time and the students will move together to the music showing the movements they had worked on together. The students are then encouraged to talk through what they found was the best representation of the music when it would change dynamic and tempo. Did the music have repetition, a constant beat, similarities and differences? Time Allocation: 45 minutes HSIE: Celebrations (Stage 1)Activity 3 – Song – ListeningThe class is allocated into groups of 4-5 in their own spaces. Each group c hooses a cultural celebration from a box on the teacher’s desk (each cultural celebration is celebrated by one or more of the students in the class at home).Once they have all picked the activity, they are given a kit (which has been put together by the students prior to this lesson as part of the Celebrations unit they are studying). They will listen to the song that is part of the kit and discuss as a group the beat, pitch, tone colour,  duration, dynamics, tempo and structure of the song. They discuss what features appealed to them or those that did not. Time allocation: 45 minutes Activity 4 – Mirroring each other through rhythm and movement Mirror Me, this will be explained in Lesson Plan 2HSIE: Global Environments: Rainforests (Stage 3) Activity 5 – Visualising the MusicStudents are advised that they are required to produce a visual representation of the music they are about to hear. The class will talk about sounds and how they can represent their music visualisation. The students can, if they choose to, have different sections of the painting for different aspects they visualise with the music. For example, they can have 1 whole painting, 2 halves or 4 quarters, so they can show up to 4 different aspects of the music they are hearing. The class talks about what they are going to produce, it is not a vague impression rather a visualisation of what they believe that Rainforest looks like. Students will listen to a 2 minute excerpt from ‘Relaxing Mix’ by Calmsound.The excerpt of the song will be repeated 4 times with 4 minutes between each repetition and the students have 10 minutes after to complete their painting. After the allocated time, the class will have a discussion on the different aspects they visualised and what aspect of the music created that specific image, tone colour, pitch, tempo, dynamic? The paintings will be put aside once dry to be used in another activity on another day. Time Allocation: 60 minutes Activity 6 – Group composition of a soundscape from a rainforest painting Rainforest Soundscapes, this will be explained in Lesson Plan 3HSIE – ‘The End’ with Puppet Joe Lesson Plan 1 Activity 1 – Puppet Joe teaching the students a poem and some rhythm 1. Level: Early Stage 1 2. Goals: Students will learn the poem ‘The End’ by A. A. Milne. Students will be able to follow a beat/rhythm and accomplish co-ordinated movement. 3. Teaching materials 1. Puppet Joe 2. 2 x taping sticks for the beat 3. 1 copy of ‘The End’ poem by A. A. Milne (see appendix 1) 4. White board 5. White board marker 6. Coloured magnets for the white board 4. Learning outcomes: Musical activity Performing Singing (y) Playing Instruments (n) Moving (y) Organising Sound (n) Listening (y) Musical Concepts Duration (rhythm) (y) Pitch (y) Dynamics (y) Tone Colour (n) Structure (y) 5. Procedure1. Clear an area in the middle of the room and have students sit on the floor in their own space. 2. Teacher introduces Puppet Joe (a kookaburra puppet) and explains that Joe will help them learn a new poem called ‘The End’ by A. A. Milne (see appendix 1). 3. Start with Joe saying the first verse and then repeating the verse using his taping sticks he creates a beat (ti-ti ta ta, ti-ti ta ti-ti). The students then sing through the verse while tapping their knees or clapping their hands with the beat/rhythm. 4. Teacher writes the poem on the white board under bars and talks through the beats/rhythm and words, placing different coloured magnets for the ti-ti’s and ta’s.5. Each verse is then taught the same way, until the last 2 verses when the beat/rhythm is different (ti-ti ta ti-ti, ta ta ti-ti ta ta ta), ‘The End’ sheet music see appendix 2. Once the class has learnt the poem and the beat/rhythm, they then sing through the poem together. 6. The class then picks out a number from a box and the number allocate s the student to their group. In the group the students talk through what movement they think would be good for their verse and if they should use loud, soft, fast or slow speech/singing.7. The class sings through the poem together and then each group sings their own verse with their chosen movement. Then the class sings their section of the poem loud, soft, fast, slow or using a different voice without their movement. Then again mixing the movement and their chosen musical concept. 8. Ask the class if they have any suggestions about the structure, if they think it could be changed. Pick a couple of the suggestions and try them out, see if the class thinks they make the composition better or worse. As a class the student talk through the actions chosen by the groups and the musical concepts, whether they were applicable or not to their verse? Whether there was repetition in the beat/rhythm? What similarities and differences there was in the beat/rhythm?6. AssessmentSee appendix 3 fo r the assessment sheet. 7. Links to other subjects HSIE, Mathematics, English and PDHPE.HSIE – Mirror Me Lesson Plan 2 Activity 4 – Mirroring each other through rhythm and movement 1. Level: Stage 1 2. Goals: Students will understand how rhythm works and identify how the music changes resulting in their movements changing. Students will perform a number of rhythms and patterns in movement focusing on rhythmic correctness and co-ordinated movement. 3. Teaching materials1. IPod dock 2. IPod with Creation by Descendance Aboriginal & Tsi Dance Theatre on it 4. Learning outcomes: Musical activity Performing Singing (n) Playing Instruments (n) Moving (y) Organising Sound (n) Listening (y) Musical Concepts Duration (rhythm) (y) Pitch (y) Dynamics (y) Tone Colour (y) Structure (y) 5. Procedure1. Clear an area in the middle of the room. For this activity the students could even go into the school hall if it is available, to allow for extra space. 2. Have the student’s pa ir up and stand in 2 lines. Allocate the lines names – trees and grass. Have the students move away to their own area in the room/hall and face each other. 3. Talk to the class and advise that when a name (trees or grass) is called out the other student in the pair has to follow the other student. That students need to try movements they think would suit the music, fast, slow, loud and soft. What types of movements would best suit. If the students wanted to they could even represent Australian animals. 4. Start playing the song and prompt the students to listen at first. Then call out trees, as the students are comfortable in following (no less than 60 seconds), the teacher calls out grass. Alternating between the leader gets faster as the students learn to adapt faster.5. The teacher then increases the volume and decreases the volume to encourage alternate responses in the music. 6. At the end the teacher prompts the students to talk about what movements went best with which types of music? What types of movements did they use for the tempo, pitch, dynamics, tone colour? Did they prefer certain parts of the song more than others and why? Those students who represented animals, did they find it hard to choose movements and keep in character for the lesson? Was it easy for students to follow the leader? Was it easy to lead? Which did students prefer to follow or lead?6. AssessmentSee appendix 4 for the assessment sheet. 7. Links to other subjects HSIE, Mathematics, English and Science and Technology.HSIE – Rainforest Soundscapes Lesson Plan 3 Activity 6 – Group composition of a soundscape from a rainforest painting 1. Level: Stage 3 2. Goals: Students will create and perform a soundscape with the use of instruments, voice and movements from a painting of a rainforest. They will demonstrate their rhythmic abilities, co-ordination with movements, their ability to work in groups and ability to create a composition. 3. Teaching materials1. Pain tings from previous music lesson 2. Cardboard box 3. 5 x numbers 1-6 4. White board 5. White board marker 6. Coloured magnets for the white board 7. 6 x A3 sheets of paper with a blank grid on it. 8. Coloured pencils 9. Instruments – chimes, drums, triangles, xylophone, tambourines, etc 4. Learning outcomes: Musical activity Performing Singing (y) Playing Instruments (y) Moving (y) Organising Sound (y) Listening (y) Musical Concepts Duration (rhythm) (y) Pitch (y) Dynamics (y) Tone Colour (y) Structure (y) 5. Procedure1. Each student picks out a number (1-6) from a box and that shows which group the student is assigned to. On the white board the list of effects (see appendix 5) is written. Depending on which number the group is, depends on what the effect they will need to introduce into their soundscape. The rainforest pictures have been painted prior to this lesson from an alternate music activity. Each group chooses their favourite painting to create the soundscape from (o n condition that none of the students in the group painted it).2. The class has a discussion on what a soundscape is (a quick refresher) and what they need to cover when preparing for it (dynamics, tempo, pitch, tone colour, etc). The students are encouraged to create a story to at least start and finish the soundscape, they are welcome to have the story throughout the soundscape, eg the effect with the men with axes, they could have them laughing and talking, whistling, etc.The students are also encouraged to include movements if they can see it fits with their soundscape, eg in the gorilla congregation, they can have one or two students sitting like gorillas and making gorilla noises. 3. Each group receives an A3 sheet of paper with a blank grid (see appendix 6) on it and coloured pencils. The students choose the instruments they believe will get the best result for their soundscape and work on their composition which needs to include the allocated effect for their rainforest soun dscape. 4. Once the students have spent the allotted time creating the soundscape on the grid paper (see appendix 7) and practicing it.They will then perform as a group in-front of the class and demonstrate their soundscape. 5. Once all groups have finished performing for the class, there is a class discussion on the musical concepts used by each group and how they felt they related to the painting and soundscape? Did they find that each group included rhythm, tempo, pitch, structure, dynamics, tone colour and if they felt that the groups incorporated the assigned effect successfully? Did the groups that used storytelling as part of their soundscape find it easier/harder to follow the story being told? Did any of the soundscapes sound like they came from any particular cultures? 6. AssessmentSee appendix 8 for the assessment sheet. 7. Links to other subjects HSIE, English and Science and Technology.