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.

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!

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)

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!