What do we mean by Music?

What is music and why is it so important? In this last week of music workshop, we listened to various types of music and looked at the way the musicians are laying and answered various questions that was posed looking at various basic properties of sound such as length, volume, register, timbre(tone colour) and we worked towards the ways in which these are combined to create musical meaning.



Just a brief rundown of the musical terms:
Duration: the varying lengths of sound and silence. When organized into patterns, the refined concepts of rhythm and beat emerge

Dynamics: the intensity and volume of sound. When applied in musical works, refinedconcepts emerge such as cresendo (gradually getting louder), dimineundo (gradually getting softer), forte (loud) and piano (soft) and even ppp (extremely soft)

Pitch: the register of relative ‘height’ (low, medium, high) of a tone. When organized in musical works, refined concepts emerge such as melody (a sequenced organization of different pitches) and harmony (the simultaneous sounding of different pitches).

Timbre or tone colour: the quality of sound with a particular emphasis on the source of the sound (eg. wood, metal, skin) and the ways in which it is produced (struck, plucked, bowed, blown).

Structure: the ways in which sounds are organized in order to create musical works.

The above may be an overly simple way of thinking about music, but it should be the starting point for student’s “own investigations into the language and ideas through which music is described and defined” (Barrett, 2004, p. 66).

Here are a few quotes how some people tries to define music:

1. “Music hath charms to sooth a savage beast.” William Congreve

2. “You just pick a chord, go twang, and you’ve got music.” Sid Vicious

3. “A method of employing the mind without the labour of thinking at all.” Samuel Johnson

4. “Music is the arithmetic of sound as optics is the geometry of light.” Claude Debussy 

Songs we listened to during the workshop:
Carnival of Animals is an orchestral suite made up of 14 movements by Saint-Saëns. Each is based on the character of an animal such as a Lion, Swan and Kangaroo. The animals characters are portrayed by altering the elements, such as pitch and dynamics. Introduced with a poem performed by Roger Moore.

Ask students these questions:
- What part is the piano? (water)
- What part is the cello? (swan)
- Was it stegatto or legatto? (legatto – ask young students to move like it)

Naturally 7 – Wall of sound Naturally 7 is an acapella group who use their voices mimic musical instruments.

We focused questions on:
Tone colour – what instrument are they using their voices to be like/
Structure – come in one by one, layering, verse/chorus/bridge/interlude/coda, call and response.

John Williams (2001) Hedwig’s Theme from Harry Potter

 
We focused questions on:
Pitch – Brass Vs Woodwind
What kind of instruments were used?
What was the tone colour like? Was it plucked or bowed?

Danny Elfman (1989) Batman Theme – Dark Knight Rises

 
Just playing the first 40secs of the song, we can have students articulate what makes low, sudden loudness, slow to fast etc…
From there, we can get students to make use of apps such as Garage Band to create their very own spooky music (Just in time for Halloween!)

References:

Barrett, M., (2003). Musical children, musical lives, musical worlds. In Wright, S., Children, meaning-making and the arts (pp. 63 to 89). Pearson Education Australia.

Incorporating 5 stimuli for Dance compositions

This last workshop involved choreographing our own dance steps based on our group’s response to different stimuli. The stimuli were based on 5 different learning styles and they are: visual, ideational, auditory, tactile and kinaesthetic. We all got to choose which group we wanted to be in.
I reckon this would make for a very good dance lesson in the future as it would be great to give the children the same choice in the classroom.

Visual

• This should just be an object that is visually interesting/stimulating
• We had a wooden object that showed a woman. 
• We were to describe it visually, write down how it made us feel, and then create a context for this object.
• Students then use this to choreograph dance steps based on 2 counts of 8.

Ideational

• This is when a dance is created in response to a story.
• The picture book 'Henry and Amy' was used by Stephen Michael King
• The group that did this choreographed the dance steps based on the theme of friendship.

“Early one morning when Henry was out walking backwards, trying very hard to walk forwards, he bumped into Amy.”
Henry and Amy (right-way-wound and upside down), by Stephen Michael King
Scholastic, 199, reprinted 2005

Iris read the book to the class. We talked about types of contrasting movement which the two characters have. We can elicit these contrasting terms from our students:straight/wiggly, look up/look down, right/left, front/back, back-to-front, topsy-turvy, upside down
We will then get students to explore these movements. Then compose a set of 2 counts of 8 beat movements.
*Note: There are other picture books that we could use. Some activities with The Island (Armin Greder) and My Place (Nadia Wheatley) are outlined in Gibson & Ewing (2011, pp44-48)
Reference: Gibson, R. & Ewing, R. (2011). Transforming the curriculum through the arts. Palgrave Macmillan, VIC, South Yarra.

Auditory

• We listened to the first few bars of a song.
• Create a dance of 2 bars of 8 beats
• an integrate Music into a lesson such as this – focus on the pitch, mood and dynamics of the song in musical terms before allowing students by trying out moves and actions.

I was in this auditory group because when I heard the song, I immediately thought of the dance moves and I really really liked the melody of the song. It was very Christmas-sy and I could in my head imagine a couple dancing in each others arms. We decided to choreograph an up beat and more swinging and lyrical sort of style for this song. With an open-ended task it was a very enjoyable and imaginative process, and one which really promoted collaboration.

Tactile

• Before introducing the other stimuli, Iris passed an object in a bag – and we weren’t allowed to peek. What we needed to do was reach in and feel what it was.
• This involves the students feeling but not seeing an object
• In this case, it was a something that was wooden, and very prickly and thorny. (I immediately thought of a durian).
• Students then use this to create choreography

The students in my workshop were able to recognise that it was an object that was bursting and prickly. They created a dance about a something in the middle shooting to get out from the confines within. 

Kinaesthetic

• This was based on the quality of the movement itself and meaning was made out of those movements and actions.

Soundscaping

In this workshop, we focused on creating soundscapes. In groups of 3 or 4,we came up with an idea or theme and create a sequence of events that can be represented in a soundscape.

We drew them on a piece of paper, and then used the various pitch and untuned instruments to pair up with the story.

Our group came up with a day at the circus. We made use of the metallaphone to represent an acrobat ascending and descending from a tightrope and the drums to signify a round of applause.

As an introduction to this main activity, we tried to link music with literacy. We read The Billy Goats Gruff and used instruments to add to the character. We learned to match the character with the tone and pitch of the instrument.

I think it’s an excellent way to link music with literacy! It would be a very fun lesson for my students in the future! I can foresee myself doing an activity like this!

Just Dance!

Warm Up:Follow the Leader

• Every person is allocated a word to move to with the music e.g. swing, lyrical, percussive, sustained
• Follow the leader’s movements and move around the space
• Change leader so every person gets a couple of turns as leader

I really really liked this warm up activity. It gave us all freedom of expression and creativity. I think it’s also a great warm up for PE lessons as well. We were all really engaged.
Today’s workshop saw us learning the dance steps to the Hairspray song. In the “real” world of teaching, it could probably take a few weeks to teach children the steps. I am beginning to understand how the dance instructions are being broken down. It gives students the chance to practice and be familiar with the steps, at the same time, allows for the teacher to spot mistakes and give feedback on individuals.

We then learnt some choreography to 'You Can't Stop the Beat'. The focus was on timing, characterisation and performance.

How we learnt the steps to a song in just an hour: I think this is a fantastic way for teachers to help break-down the steps, one which we can employ in our future lessons:

• Break up into rows.
• Teach dance steps.
• Students line up in rows of 6 behind a leader at one end of the dance studio.
• Teacher to repeat and demonstrate the first step of the song.
• Play music and allow students who are first in line to dance towards the other end of studio.
• When all steps have been rehearsed and students, teacher puts all the dance steps together.

Half the class then performed the dance to the other half, which was good as it allowed you to pick up good techniques from the others in your class, while at the same time there was safety in numbers.

During lecture, we explored:
SPACE: Where, Dimensions (forwards, backwards, up, down), Pathways (curved, linear, zig zag)
TIME: When, Tempo, Duration, Rhythm, Beat
DYNAMICS: How, Quality (Swinging, Lyrical, Sustained Movement, Vibratory, Percussive), Movement, Force

Singing: Dynamics, Tone, Structure

In workshop this week, we focussed on singing. I was really excited to learn that because I love going to karaoke! I took home a lot of strategies for teaching music this week. I find myself filing away many activities that can be done in the future.

One of my favourite activities during the music workshop this week was the Rap on school bullies. I would absolutely incorporate it in PDHPE or Literacy lessons in the future!

We also sang two simple songs: Beachcombing and Wet Day Blues. We sang beachcombing with little actions which I fell would really help students remember the lyrics.

Here, the class was split up. We were singing Wet Day Blues and had the class singing different notes in harmony.

The most important thing I took away today was the difference between Rhythm and Beat. Like majority of my course mates, we had no clue there was a difference at all.

So, what’s the difference between beat and rhythm?

Beat is the underlying basic unit of time in music while rhythm is what goes on top of that. A good way of demonstrating this to students is to chant a rhyme while keeping beat with your hands. The words represent the rhythm, while the clapping represents the beat.

 

Some useful resources for singing lessons are:

www.jazzbeat.com

www.welcometomusic.com

www.karaokeversion.com (good quality backing tracks)

Dance Warm Ups

Having just ended our Professional Experience, I was geared up for the Creative Arts Dance and Music classes. In my prac school, my supervising teacher was the dance coordinator and was heavily involved in the SCHOOL SPECTACULAR and WAKAKIRRI dance competitions.She had personally cheographed the songs and I saw how students from Years 3 to 6, both boys and girls really enjoyed the whole experience. I was amazed that the students were able to remember the moves and actions. The actions were so sophisticated! I wondered if I would be able to teach dance in the future!It was wonderful for me to watch the dance group dance together during rehearsals, as it was so joyful and free.
When people dance together, it is "the ultimate in aesthetic and visible rendering of coming together, being in one another's heads and bodies, and joining in mutual support and interdependency" (Heath, 2001, p. 14 from Ewing, 2010).
During the first dance lecture, we watched a Hyundai Ad by Pilobolus Dance Company. It was such an amazing ad!

I was excited to learn more that I can implement in the school context – and during the dance workshop, we were taught many activities. I thought that it was pretty similar to some of the Drama workshop’s techniques, in that we made use of free-walking, freezing, levels and the like.
IN THE WORKSHOP, this is what we learnt:
The aim during a warm up is to:

• Increase the body’s core temperature
• Increase heart rate
• Increase blood flow
• Improve muscle resilience

Some warm-up activities for creative dance include:
Chain Tag

• Good for cardiovascular
• One person as tag – the rest of the students traverse around the room using movements the teacher calls out e.g. bounce, walk backwards, twirl etc.
• Once students are tagged they link to form a chain and move in sync with each other to try and tag the other students

Huggy *

• Free walk around, being aware of space around. Teacher will call out “Huggy *″  and students must form groups with the people closest to them based on the number and instructions given by teacher
• Student forms shapes according to the teacher e.g. “Huggy 3, low height, square”

As conclusion for this post, I’d like to share a video of my favourite flash mob. Sound of Music at Antwerp Train Station. I absolutely love how dance brings people together. It knows no bounds. It’s in itself a language.

Reading, Learning and Playing Music

I took away so much just in this 2-hour session alone! I am looking forward to the next few weeks of music!

The instruments we were introduced to. Barred instruments - which are the xylophones (those made of wood), glockenspeil (small metal 'xylophones') and metallophone. The 2 sticks with hit the notes with are called mallets. The other instruments that have no defined pitch are called untuned instruments such as the tambourine, two-tone block, maracas, cowbells etc...

In just 2 hours, we did a MULTITUDE of things! We learned to read beats and rhythms, read musical notes, learn musical terms and even played barred instruments - for a class with students who largely had no background in music! It was amazing that in half hour, we were able to practice and play Purcell's Cannon in C - which sounded amazing to my ears.

I can foresee myself doing this with my Stage 2 or 3 class in the future. I feel that in learning to read music, I could incorporate Math into it. In introducing beats and rhythms and the number of counts of each bar pattern or each note to the students, I could make a little Math activity out of it!

I found a couple of youtube videos of Grade 3 and Grade 5 students playing the very same piece. It's a great way to slowly introduce students into gaining confidence through reading and playing music.

A Grade 3 class in all engaged and performing this tune so well!

Storytelling: Selkie Myth

I walked away from today’s drama workshop with ONE message that struck me.
I felt really motivated to BE a teacher who has the gift of storytelling. I want to take up the challenge that Egan (1997) suggests – which is to “reconceive the curriculum as a set of great stories we have to tell children and recognise… school teachers as the storytellers of our culture” (p. 64).
I experienced the enchanting and engaging effect that storytelling had not only just as listeners but also as storytellers. I absolutely loved how we could all get creative with the storytelling process. Students would be given free reign to imagine their own stories as the story can undergo several changes and hence differ with each re-telling. The workshop fleshed out this idea focusing on the use of storytelling as a way of connecting (meanings, subject matter, ourselves) to the listener.
I’m really keen to do the story-telling activity in class with Stages 2 and 3 in the future.

Steps:
1. Teacher provides the bare bones of The Selkie Myth by acting and dramatizing the story.
2. Have a chat about how they felt as listeners. Were they engaged? What hooked them?
3. In pairs, the students retell the story. One student does the telling and the pair can either say to advance or ask for more detail.
For example, when students ask for detail, it would mean that the teller should create as much detail for that moment in story. “There was a fisherman, who had ginger curly hair falling to his shoulders. He was middle aged and had yellow teeth. He had a big beard that is long and wispy.”
For advance, move the story forward.

Further related activities could be getting students to bring a story from their home to tell.
At the end of the session, time permitting, teachers could do a ‘Conscience alley’ to decide what the Selkie does when she gets her skin back. Should she leave her family? Yes or No.
A great link to literacy would be to write new ending.
References:
Egan, K. (1997). The educated mind: How cognitive tools shape our understanding. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Working with Clay

Working with clay. Making a picture frame.

This week’s art workshop saw us trying our hands at clay. I’ve never had the opportunity to work with clay ever – so, it’s really my first time.

Having just completed a month of prac, I found this art lesson really refreshing. The art lessons in the school that I was at did not leave the students’ much room for creativity. Everyone had to follow guidelines, every student painted and drew out the “same” picture, a picture which the teacher had set as the “standard” for each student to reach.

With this clay activity, I felt that students would be given free reign to express their creativity, and at the same time, also develop motor skills. We had to knead the clay to get the air bubbles out, pound it and shape it into a picture frame. As an introduction for students, we could perhaps analyse examples of clay and sculpting and have a talk about how ceramics are used by people (practical daily use & artistic expression).

Having done that, a teacher could give clear instructions.

Steps:

1. (This step is optional) Have students draw their intended design on a piece of paper first.

2. Students to put on art smocks. Retrieve a board. Hand out small blocks of clay.

3. Throw and knead clay on board to remove air bubbles in the clay.

4. Explain why we need to remove air bubbles – so that when we put it in the kiln, it doesn’t explode and harm other students’ work.

5. Roll out clay with a rolling pin to the thickness of their finger.

6. Use tools to mark out, shape, cut out and carve their photo frame.

7. Lay out the completed work to dry.

8. Fire clay at a local high school or let them air-dry.

9. Paint with acrylic paint.

Some of the previous cohorts’ finished product. Those were great ideas to help give me a direction for my own photo frame. It’s important to have a ready-done model to show the class before they begin.

Readers’ Theatre

This week, we explored yet another form of drama: Readers’ Theatre. “Readers theatre involves a rehearsed reading for an audience. Through gesture and language, participants build, sustain and resolve dramatic tension within the context of the drama. Drama conventions include reading aloud, vocal expression, silent pauses and a direct actor-audience relationship” (NSW DET, 2006, p.97).

Readers Theatre this week was on the shaping of dramatic scenarios around Maurice Sendak’s “Where the Wild Things Are”. We learnt about verbal expression which is basically how we would speak our part, taking into consideration our tone, volume and pace.

There was much room for creativity in terms of this activity. It was a bit difficult for us to decide as a large group how we wanted to perform this particular script. In the end, we settled on having 3 people be Max, and the rest got into 2 groups and split the narration lines. We had little time to rehearse, but it turned out to be a great performance.

In a Primary classroom, there needs to be a lot of guidance and scaffold by teacher. Even as Masters students, we had a difficult time in the beginning getting into groups and deciding how we wanted to perform the script. It really helped that we had the elements of Drama such as Tension, Space, Focus and Contrast to fall back on.

At the end of the session, we discussed assessment and reporting in drama and how to structure a lesson plan on it. We discussed that work samples can be one of several things such as photographs or video taken during the drama lesson. They can be material developed as part of the drama, interviews with students about their dramatic presentations and involvement in activities, extracts from their drama journals, or even a student’s written reflection from the end of a drama lesson or unit of study.

Thumb print & Lino Printing

I loved the idea of how a thumb print can actually engage a child’s (mine as well!) creativity! In Art workshop this week, we discovered print making using ordinary acrylic paint.

We did 2 things today- a thumb print activity and a lino printing activity.

The thumb print activity involved using a thumb print on paper as the stimulus. We were told to put a thumb print on half a page and from there, improve on it. It worked as a stimulus for further drawing of an object, person, or other living things, place and space, or event. Half my class created an animal from that single thumb print, the other half drew plants from that single print. I used the thumb print as a balloon, and continued to draw a girl stick figure holding up the balloon. 

Creating a picture from a single thumbprint.

Following that, we had to make two thumb prints on the other half of the page and turn them into something involving a skeleton. I admit, I had to do a quick google search on the iPhone to get a rough idea of what a skeleton looks like. I used the thumb prints as two eyes, and drew a “cartoonish” skull, with a triangular nose and a smiling face showing teeth.

 
Turning 2 thumb prints into a skeleton.

The last activity was to create 4 to 5 prints. It was a really fun activity. We were first given a square piece of scratch foam and were told to create any pattern on it – with the reminder that drawing a picture would be less complicated than having written words as worlds would have to be written backwards to be printed the right side up.

The next step was for us to use rollers and roll black paint (not too much, not too little) over our scratch foam tile and then use another roller to “print” it on.

Step-by-step Lino Printing process.

Even though we were to only use one side of the scratch foam, I used both sides. The butterfly print was the first one I did, but it seems that 1/4 had too much paint. 2/4 was about the same. 3/4 was the best, however, I felt that I should have drew harder into the scratch foam so that the pattern would be more prominent. I decided to flip the scratch foam over and do another pattern (it’s supposed to be a ‘thumb print’). I think it worked out much better than my butterfly print. By then, I was familiar with the amount of paint and force needed to have a good lino print.

I really enjoyed these printing activities! However, this could turn out to be messy with primary students, so smocks or art T-shirts would be a good idea to keep their uniforms clean.

Artistic Development

The lecture and workshop enabled me to understand why I became so uncomfortable with art. I remember becoming disillusioned when I wasn’t able to draw “real” pictures. Till today, I believe that m art is bad and that I’m unable to draw. I guess this bows down to how my art work was graded when I was in primary and secondary school. My drawings were always given a “C” grade, and I never had high hopes of getting any “A” grade drawings. To me, I was just thankful that Art wasn’t “important” and it wouldn’t count toward an overall academic grade.

In this week’s workshop, we learned how to draw a portrait. I was blown away. Robyn scaffolded the class very well. I felt very “safe” and guided as I started drawing out facial positions of a human face. I never knew that the eyeballs aligned the mouth, nor observed that our ears bridged the sides of our eyes! I loved how I can actually link Math (proportions and fractions) to portrait drawing!

My best attempt drawing Kimberly.

Kim’s better attempt at drawing me.

I also want to remember Wilson’s 7 Graphic Principles – Why children’s drawings look the way they do. (My little comments in italics).

1. Simplicity Principle – Stick figures

2. Perpendicular Principle – defy laws of gravity / birds eye view

3. Territorial Imperative Principle – drawings don’t touch or overlap

4. Fill-the-format Principle –fill in entire page

5. Conservative ad Multiple Application Principle – use same symbol over and over again

6. Draw everything Principle – draws both interior and exterior

7. Plastic Principle – “I” am most important

I found this site extremely useful in explaining in greater detail Wilson’s 7 principles!

Writing in role

In this week’s workshop, my main takeaway was the consideration of writing in role.

“Drama is a method for instruction and learning that involves students in imaginary, unscripted, and spontaneous scenes (Schneider & Jackson, 2000). Through process drama, students can "write in role" (O'Neill, 1995; Tarlington, 1985), enabling them to think differently about the forms and exploring a point of view. This is also a great assessment strategy to get students involved in the story and various points-of-view.

This week’s drama journal is dedicated to writing a 5th voice from the text “Voices in the Park” by Anthony Browne.

Victoria’s Point of View:

Madam decided to take Charles and I to the park this evening. I wagged my tail in excitement to gain her favour, and perhaps she’ll give me an extra treat. I nudged Charles to quickly get dressed. I can’t wait to run around in the park and breathe in some fresh air. I sometimes feel the air at home is a little too stiff. I really want to see Charles smile. Every time he goes to the park, he seems a little more at ease. When we reach the park, I sniffed the air. Another dog asks me to play with her. I readily agree, hoping to set a good example for Charles to make new friends and have fun! I see a girl talking to him! I give a bark of approval. Go for it, Charles!

 

References:

O'Neill, C. (1995). Drama worlds. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Schneider, J.J., & Jackson, S.A.W. (2000). Process drama: A special space and place for writing. The Reading Teacher, 54(1), 38–51.

Tarlington, C. (1985). Dear Mr. Piper...: Using drama to create context for children writing. Theory Into Practice, 24, 199–204.

Drama devices/strategies

I'm amazed how the first drama class has changed my whole attitude towards drama. I've never had the opportunity to do drama of any sort throughout my entire primary and secondary schooling career. Just as well, because I'm no actress nor am I dramatic enough to play a role. However, the first workshop allowed me to get a different perspective of how a one drama workshop has the possibility of linking KLAs together. Geography (from mapping activity), Literacy (from writing, reading and coming up with ideas from The Green Children pretext.

I can definitely see myself making use of several strategies such as the warm up (high/low/medium positions), role walking and tapping-in. I am encouraged to learn more strategies on how to scaffold a classroom surrounding drama, and would love to delve a bit deeper into the inclusion of children with disabilities as well.

The particular pretext chosen, The Green Children, allowed me to see the varying degrees of creativity and ideas that sparked from that pretext alone. I loved that Drama allows for us to as the NSW Syllabus states, "explore personal, cultural and social worlds". There was a great amount of freedom to think out-of-the-box and role playing anything your minds thinks of without fear of a right or wrong "answer".

I absolutely love this still image. The varying degrees of expression and thoughts of each individual in their creatively thought-up roles speaks for itself. We had all come away from the original script and all had a different interpretation of the story.

Incorporating Art into other KLAs

I've never been good at art. When I was growing up in Singapore, art wasn't of much importance as a subject in schools and even then, it was all very rigid. My artworks in school were graded. I mean, how does a teacher give a grade to a piece of artwork? I never want to give my students a grade in art. I simply want them to enjoy the process of creating and imagining.

The first Arts workshop was a really wonderful experience. I loved the idea of getting my students to do a Name Montage at the beginning of the year. Rather than having them write about themselves, I thought that giving them the leeway to describe themselves by creating a montage for themselves is an excellent and fun way to get to know my future students. I will definitely be keeping this activity in mind.

My brainstorm for the Name Montage

It turned out a little different from my brainstorm. As I started on this project, the ideas just grew.

I really enjoyed the Pictionary game as well. Rules can be changed and this activity can be easily scaffolded to suit students of different age groups! I felt that limiting each person to a letter while drawing an attribute of an Art teacher would be a greater challenge for the Upper Primary levels. As it turned out, though no prizes were given, we all had fun and it was an enjoyable task. This activity can be used in any other KLA. Not just visual arts. It can definitely be tweaked to fulfill a literacy (thinking of vocabulary beginning with the given alphabet) or numeracy (keeping score) outcome.

An attribute of an arts teacher starting with "N".