Sunday 6 November 2016

What we're doing in our music classroom

Inspired, as always, by Musical Futures colleagues around the world, I will try to paint a picture of what my students and I are working on here in Niagara, ON, Canada. Please check out Jane Werry's wonderful UK blog "What's going on in my classroom right now" and Stephen Jackman's inspiring blog from an international school in Thailand "What I've been up to in my classroom".



First of all, "YAY!!" to having a music classroom again! We lost our portable last year, so I travelled from room to room to teach music which had a substantial negative impact on the program. The kids are so excited to have a place for music again and the music room is NEVER empty - every recess and lunch break students are working on something.

I teach every child in an elementary school from Kindergarten to Grade 8 and have a wide spectrum of music activities on the go right now. Like Jane Werry, I steal from here and there, working with my students to find our own original way to do things. 


MUSIC TECHNOLOGY


In July I travelled to NYU to attend NYU's IMPACT Conference where I was inspired with new ways of using music technology. Great conference - I hope we get a huge contingent of MF teachers going next summer.

Groove Pizza & Chrome Music Lab

To get things rolling in September, I introduced every class to Groove Pizza and Chrome Music Lab and discovered both are appealing to all age groups. So many kids tell me that they use these websites at home and have introduced them to their moms and dads. 





Here's a little intro video about Chrome Music Lab:



Primary kids enjoyed taking turns on the Smartboard:



Gr. 8 Track & Hook Songwriting Project

Grade 8's are using Groove Pizza and Soundtrap to create their own hit songs. We're working through Adam Patrick Bell's assignment, which is fully and artfully described on his blog. I have rewritten the assignment instructions for my students on our Grade 8 Desire2Learn website. Students have worked in production teams to create tracks and are now struggling to add hooks. This kind of free-flowing creative work is somewhat daunting to these adolescents but a few groups have made progress and are inspiring the others. Here's an example of a student's track made using the loops on Sountrap - now ready to add some hooks:


Favourite New Gadget - Belkin RockStar 5




I bought one, then a parent who works for Belkin generously donated a whole bunch of these five-way audio splitters. I definitely would recommend them for every music room. Students work in groups listening to one device and also easily adding in a keyboard or digital drum kit to play along to a song they're learning. Kids come up with all kinds of creative ways to use them. Each one also comes with an aux cord. Fantastic!

Performances


We were invited to perform at an event honouring staff with 25 years working with the board and also recent retirees. At first, it seemed a bit daunting to get students ready for this with such short notice, but now our recess/lunch break rehearsals have become my favourite part of the day! I asked intermediate students who were available to perform at this Monday evening and despite students' busy scheduled lives, I have 26 students participating. They are learning True Colours, preferring Marina and the Diamonds version, and On Top of the World by Imagine Dragons. Although I did purchase sheet music, students have preferred to use the Musical Futures informal learning approach with both of these songs. This is how we work in class, so that's what they're familiar with. (You can find our more about that on the Musical Futures website which requires a free log-in to access resources - check out getting started with informal learning

I am so inspired by how they listen to find harmony parts, argue over the optimal tempo, experiment to add auxiliary percussion and work together as real musicians!

I will upload a rehearsal vid shortly.

Everything Else

These are just a few highlights. Grade 4's are also learning to play the recorder, Grade 5's are bucket drumming, Grade 6's are learning to play the ukulele and Grade 7's are doing group "In at the Deep" Recreate a Song projects. Since it's a beautiful sunny Sunday, I'm heading out for a bike ride (YES - it's November in Canada) and will continue a Part II of this blog soon!



Sunday 13 March 2016

Creating Song Maps

In my music classes, Grades 7 & 8 students are creating song maps for the songs they are working on in their "recreate a song" projects. Students are collaborating in groups to recreate their favourite songs using their own voices, vocal instrumentation including beatboxing, and any of the instruments available to them in our music program - ukuleles, hand drums, bucket drums, 2 keyboards, an electric guitar, an electric bass guitar, one digital drum kit and various auxiliary percussion such as, tambourines, maracas, etc. (see Music Futures for more detailed resources on recreating a song)



Ideally, song mapping would work so well to launch "recreate a song" process because it involves listening intently and repeatedly to a chosen song to create a visual conceptual map of whatever you hear - lyrics, rhythms, elements of form, such as intro, verse and chorus. There are no rules as to what visual tools you use to represent parts of the song - it could be colour, line, pattern, images, words - whatever. This can help students to hear the various parts of the song that they may choose to recreate.



This year, however, I gave in to my students' initial enthusiasm to get to instruments right away, so instead of using mapping to begin the process, we are using it as a little "time out" in the middle, because I noticed that students were getting away from focusing on listening to the music to direct their recreation work. I wanted to find a way to encourage them to listen, listen, listen, and then listen again.

Song mapping can take many forms and is very open-ended. The beauty of this activity is that there really is no right or wrong way to map a song. I am frequently surprised by elements of the songs that students will choose to represent visually. Also song maps can be on-going and groups can add to their own map as they discover nuances of their song.

Here are a few examples we looked at before we started our own maps:

First we checked out this website and watched the video below:

The Art of Mapping Music - Open Culture



Students were suitably impressed but a bit overwhelmed by the detail and precision of these schematics. So, I shared a few simpler song maps which we discussed. These were created by teachers involved in a Music Learning Group in my district school board.





Questions to think about:
  • Can a song map ever be wrong? or is anyone's visual interpretation of a song valid?
  • How can song maps help students to develop a conceptual understanding of their song?
  • How is visual song mapping a way to consider form more closely?

Saturday 2 January 2016

A Canadian Elementary Music A to Z

Thanks to my Twitter friends @JackieSchneider  https://primarymusicmatters.wordpress.com and @DrFautley https://drfautley.wordpress.com for their wonderful A to Z lists that have inspired me to create my own Canadian Elementary Music version. Happy New Year!


A is for ArtsCan Circle 

My favourite charitable organization working to bring music education to mostly Indigenous youth in remote Canadian communities. http://www.artscancircle.ca


B is for beatboxing and bucket drumming!


Grade 5's excited about their upcoming performance



C is for cowbell - if you teach bucket drumming you gotta have more cowbell! 




D is for doumbek 

Wish I had a class set of these Arabic drums. What a great way to welcome Syrian refugee students being integrated into Canadian schools.

My new doumbek on the rocky shore of Georgian Bay


E is for ear learning. 

All musicians need to learn music by ear - notation is way over-rated.


F is for fearlessness. 

Pushing yourself to try new things and letting go of the fear of looking or sounding stupid in front of students is a liberating experience.


G is for grades

 ...wishing every year at report card writing time that I didn't have to give, especially 5 and 6 year olds, an evaluative grade for music class.

H is for harmonica. 

Thank you Mike Stevens for your inspiration.



I is for Indigenous. 

If you teach in Canada you need to educate yourself about Indigenous culture. Follow @WabKinew, read the Truth & Reconciliation Commission Report, go to a workshop by @EddyRobinson   - doing nothing is not a neutral act.

This package came in the mail from my Dad.

J is for the joy of music class.




K is for Katie Wardrobe 

who is my invaluable resource for all things technological in music http://midnightmusic.com.au

L is for Music as a Language 

Thank you Victor Wooten for the best TedTalk on music ever.  L is also for legacy - what do we stand for and what kind of musical legacy do we want to leave?


M is for Musical Futures

Dr. Lucy Green, informal music learning, Find Your Voice and the wonderful teachers that I have met - some exclusively online - in this global MF community have transformed my teaching for the better.

N is for the nae nae and any other dance craze that comes along.


O is for open mic sessions 

Every so often I set up a mic and amp and go around the circle to give students a chance to do their own thing - Kindergarteners love this! You never know what kids can do until you just let them do it.



P is for performance  

Give students opportunities to develop confidence and pride in what they do.

Golden Beats perform their original hybrid beatbox/dance at School Board Meeting 


Q is for quiet

Try Canadian composer R. Murray Schafer's lesson of passing a piece of newspaper around the room without making a sound.
http://www.artsalive.ca/en/mus/greatcomposers/schafer/index.html#teaching_videos.
Listen, listen, listen.

R is for research

I have returned to school late in my career to study a Masters in Music Education (2 courses away from completion!). More work needs to be done to translate good quality Canadian research into practice in schools.

S is for space 

Every Canadian school should have a designated space for music! I didn't realize how important that was until I lost my music room this year. We study sound and we need a place to make it.


My friend Victoria Simpson's music room in Calgary, Alberta


T is for technology

I agree with Jackie Schneider about the iPad - the absolute best tool for teaching music and every school should have a class set.



U is for the amazingly wonderful ukulele! 

James Hill is right (sorry Denise Gagne) - ukes have a strong advantage over the recorder because you can sing while you play. You can listen to their debate here: Should music teachers ditch recorders for ukuleles?

Gr 7 & 8's at rehearsal for Remembrance Day Assembly


V is for variation

My husband also reminds me that V is for vacation!

W is for winter in Canada 

Cold weather means a full music room at recess breaks - kids playing instruments, jamming, writing songs, or just listening to their favourite music.

X is for xylophones 

Every child should have the opportunity to play an instrument.

Y is for saying "yes" to students' choice in their music learning





Z is for remembering to keep it zippy! 

My internal metronome has slowed a bit in recent years, so daily reminders that my students are buzzing at around 130 - 140 mm helps me to keep in sync with them.