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OAKE in San Francisco |
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In This Issue: |
“Hear What You See—Sing What You Hear” by Anne Comiskey These voice-based sessions introduced the Kodály approach by enhancing musicianship skills beginning with the understanding of rhythm names, moveable Do, solfége and hand signs. We experienced the sheer pleasure of learning about music through singing diatonic rounds and playing children’s singing games. During the two sequential sessions of music making, we experienced music learning through group singing—just as the students do in our classrooms. Although the skill development and pacing of the sessions was geared to the adult learners, all of the songs and games were appropriate for use in elementary classrooms. Below is an outline of the first session. “Viva la musica” · sing solfége · repeat in three-part canon “Are You Sleeping” “Frére Jacques” · sing unison musically · sing solfége · half group sings words, half group show hand signs · sing words and show hand signs · repeat in minor · transition to “Let Us Chase the Squirrel” · sing major and minor “Liza Jane” · transition from “Let Us Chase the Squirrel” to “Liza Jane” · echo 4-beat phrases · sing song, add steady beat to feet · sing song, add rhythm to hands · sing song, add beat to feet and rhythm to hands · sing song, switch beat to hands and rhythm to feet (Presenters Note: Learning that feels awkward as an adult feels awkward to our students. Teachers need to be sensitive to the comfort of your students. Provide successful learning experiences that remain challenging, not over-whelming.) “Bound for Australia” · students have two minutes to look through music--What do you see? · identify rhythm patterns and repeated phrases · sing words · sing solfége from ladder · all sing verse 1, teacher sings verses 2-5, students join on repeated phrases and chorus · sing and play game Anne Comiskey is a music specialist teaching PK-7 with Education Queensland, Brisbane, Australia. In addition to classroom teaching, Anne has extensive experience teaching musicianship and methodology courses at the graduate level. --submitted by Mary Neeley Stevens “Art Music and the School Curriculum” by Judith Johnson
This lecture presented the planned use of art music in the Arts Syllabus of Education, Queensland, Australia and its sequential development through grades 1-10. The full Arts Syllabus in CD-ROM format covers the arts areas of music, drama, visual art, dance and media. It is divided into six levels that cover the years of schooling from 5-15 years of age. The syllabus contains learning outcomes for each level, suggested modules of work, assessment guidelines and short video clips of demonstration lessons. The full syllabus is available online at www.qsa.qldedu.au. Listening to art music is a skill that needs to be taught to students. Our lives today are filled with background music. Our ears are bombarded by sounds, and in many cases, our answer is to “turn off” our ears. Students need to be taught that listening to music in a music education program is different from background music. This presentation demonstrated the careful planning of sequential listening allowing students to be introduced to art music at an early age and develop an understanding of a work by returning over and over to the same piece as their own music literacy grows. “What the reader should strive for is a more active kind of listening. Whether you listen to Mozart or Duke Ellington, you can deepen your understanding of music only by being a more conscious and aware listener—not someone who is just listening, but someone who is listening FOR something,” Aaron Copland. The key to musical understanding while listening to art music is “listen for something!” Below is an example from the syllabus while listening to Symphony No. 94 in G Major, “The Surprise” Movement 2 by Joseph Haydn. Each lesson includes elements of preparation, presentation, practice and assessment of learning. “They hear more of the music than what the teacher has given them.” Level I · Sing neutral syllables with beat · Sing rhythm syllables with beat Level II · Students recognize music from rhythm syllables · Present name of music and composer · Listen to variation III, perform sixteenth notes Level III · Derive rhythmic form · Conclude rhythm form differs from melodic form · Sing solfége and/or rhythm syllables Level IV · Listen to entire movement · Sing solfége, rhythm syllables, conduct and listen Level V · Derive harmonic structure · Perform as sight-reading exercise · Perform countermelody and melody (two-part) include lower harmony Level VI · Discuss tonality and instrumentation · Listen to variation II, derive solfége in minor Extension: Listen to variation IV, derive harmonic structure Now that the students are familiarized with the various sections of the work, they should be encouraged to listen to the movement as they follow the complete orchestral score. Judith Johnson is past Vice President of the International Kodály Society. For 26 years, she was Head of the Visual and Performing Arts at Clayfield College, Brisbane, where she implemented a Kodály program, grades 1-12. She received a Master in Music Education from Holy Names College. --submitted by Mary Neeley Stevens “‘We must fi the piano” by Gillian Earlrst rear musicians’: Applying Kodály’s principles to beginners at Gillian Earl first taught piano the way that most of us learned to play, but then she was exposed to the Kodály philosophy of music education. She considered how she might be able to apply the new way of teaching to the study of the piano. As she began to apply what she had learned to teaching her students, she found that their musicianship was profoundly improved. Her pupils were learning music rather than learning notes. One difficulty is that piano students must leave the first lesson able to play a song. Ms. Earl used the same sequence that is used in most elementary Kodály classrooms, beginning with so and mi. She had her student sing the song, then sing it with pitch syllables, and finally play it on the black keys. When they played the two note songs, she had them use their middle fingers. This created a more musical sound and put the hands in a better position than using the index fingers would do, as proven by a quick demonstration at the piano. As the children progressed, she was quite insistent on good fingering. As Ms. Earl continued the Kodály sequence, she continued to have the children play on the black keys. When she began to teach notation, she used the staff without the clef, but she placed do in either the first space or on the second line. Once the children had mastered a number of pentatonic songs, she had them play the same songs on the white keys next to the black ones on which they had been playing. At that point she introduced the treble clef. Later she introduced the bass clef. The children continued to sing the material with solfege syllables before playing it. Ms. Earl had each child sing each piece before playing it. She commented that it was useful to have the children study in small groups. Her video showed one child playing one part of a two-part selection by Bach while a child who was beginning to learn the selection sang the other part. Then they played the piece as a duet. There was also an example of a pupil playing one part and singing the other. In other examples, a single pupil played a selection. During the question and answer portion of the session, Ms. Gilliam replied that she taught rhythm in the same way we would teach it in the classroom. She said that sometimes children were reluctant to sing at first, and that sometimes she would have to sing with them for a few lessons. After a short time, however, they all sang. The singing, she said, automatically provided musical articulation and phrasing. This was clearly demonstrated in her video. Gillian Earl studied piano and voice at the Royal Academy of Music in London. She taught singing at St. Swithun’s School for 15 years and served as Assistant Organist at Winchester Cathedral. A founding member of the British Kodály Academy (BKA), a former Chairman and currently its President, Gillian is author of With Music in Mind, the Kodály Concept Applied to Beginners at the Piano. --submitted by Beth Maupin
“The organic connection between music and physical movement is expressed in singing games. These, particularly in the open air, have been one of the principal joys of childhood from time immemorial.“ --Zoltan Kodály |