Two Articles by John Feierabend
Beyond the Music Class: Expanding the Musical Influence of the Elementary School
(describes a school program that seeks to extend music learning out of the classroom, to involve the wider school community, including students’ families.)
Developing Music Literacy: An Aural Approach for an Aural Art
(describes a Kodaly-based approach to teaching music literacy to younger students.)
Edwin Gordon & Music Learning Theory
Edwin E. Gordon is probably America’s leading theorist of music education and learning, particularly as it regards the young. He was a bassist for Gene Krupa in the 1950s before going into academic work. Gordon’s primary focus was on the phenomenon of “audiation” or inner-hearing: when a person knows a song or piece of music well enough to be able to actually hear it in his or her head. Developing children’s inner hearing is an important part of teaching music literacy.
Gordon’s field is known today as “Music Learning Theory.” Not everyone will want to spend time looking at all the research, but there are a lot of very useful ideas in Gordon’s work; The Gordon Institute for Music Learning is one place to explore music learning theory, on-line. Books, teaching tools, and song collections inspired or affirmed by Gordon’s work are available from GIA Publications.
They also publish the Conversational Solfege series written by John Feierabend, a Kodály specialist and professor at the University of Hartford’s Hartt School of Music.
Summaries of Research Articles in Early Childhood Music Education
What real research looks at: following are some selected summaries of research that's been published in the Journal of Research on Music Education or available as doctoral dissertations from University Microfilms. (more…)
Lyrics
Yo Quiero music and lyrics by Leonardo Croatto
Yo quiero que a mi me quieran, yo quiero tener un nombre
Yo quiero que a mi me cuiden si me enfermo o estoy triste
Porque yo quiero crecer.
(I want everyone to love me; I want to have a name. I want to be taken care of, if I´m sick or if I´m sad, because I want to grow.)
Yo quiero saberlo todo, yo quiero que a mi me enseñen
Mi familia y mi maestra, a contar y a hacer las letras, y me quiero divertir!
(I want to know everything; I want them to teach me, my family and my teacher, to count and to spell, and I want to have fun!)
A jugar, a cantar, que me enseñen a ser libre y me digan la verdad.
A jugar, a cantar, que me escuchen cuando hablo y que no me hagan llorar.
(To play, to sing… let them teach me to be free, and tell me the truth. To play, to sing… let them listen when I talk, and not make me cry.)
Pero quiero que también todos los niños del mundo
tengan todo lo que quiero pues lo quiero compartir.
(But I also wish for all the kids of the world to have everything I wish for, ‘cause I also want to share it.)
A jugar, a cantar, que tengan todos los niños en el mundo su lugar
Vamos todos a cantar: pa’ que los niños del mundo tengan todos un lugar.
Vamos todos a ayudar todos los niños del mundo merecemos un lugar.
(To play, to sing… let all the kids in the world have their own place
Let´s all sing… for all the kids in the world to have a place.
Let´s all help all the kids in the world: we all deserve a place.)
(source information here)
Elementary School Choral Music
The Choral Information Site offers a lot of useful material for directors and teachers.
The Choristers Guild serves primarily church choirs. Their catalog offers literacy materials and videos, including some on the master teacher Helen Kemp. Kemp’s video, Body, Mind, Spirit, Voice is sometimes hard to find.
At Musicanet, browse through 143,000 choral works available for download, for free.
Young People’s Chorus of New York City
MENC has a page of choral resources that includes an on-line forum for discussion or posting questions.
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Books:
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Teaching Kids to Sing by Ken Phillips (Wadsworth 1996).
Teaching the Elementary School Chorus by Linda Swears (Parker, 1985).
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Choral Music Experience by Doreen Rao, Vols 1-5, (Boosey & Hawkes, 1987).
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Choral Music for Children. (MENC, 1990).
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We Will Sing! (Boosey & Hawkes, 1994).
Kodály, Orff, Dalcroze
Zoltan Kodály (1882-1967) and Carl Orff (1895-1988) are two 20th-century European composers who developed approaches in music education that are especially valuable for teachers working in early childhood and elementary settings.
Both concepts are also valid choices for urban schools, whose students might have fewer opportunities for private instrumental lessons.
Listed below are the addresses for the national professional organizations for Orff and Kodály methods in the US and overseas, as well as for NY-area chapters which host valuable professional development events several times each year. Essential texts on the Kodály method are among the Books for Music Teachers.
Training for certification in either of these approaches can be pursued at various schools in the area, or at summer programs around the country.
The Organization of American Kodály Educators (OAKE) offers an on-line forum where teachers share ideas and material, raise questions and discuss problems.
The Kodály Music Education Institute of Australia (KMEIA) has a lot of useful material, including well-written introductions to Kodály’s life and work and the methodology. The Teacher Resources page includes big flashcards for melodic solfege practice.
Holy Names University, in Oakland, has one of the top US schools for Kodály certification. The program’s website includes short introductory videos and an extensive, searchable database of folk songs and traditional music, including notation and audio files.
Kodály Organization of New York (KONY) is New York City’s active OAKE chapter.
New York University offers an intensive Summer Kodály Institute the first three weeks in July of each year. (For new teachers, the NYU School of Education credits can count towards your 30-above.)
The American Orff Schulwerk Association (AOSA) has a New York City chapter (NYCCAOSA) and a Long Island chapter (LIAOSA), both of which schedule clinics and workshops for teachers on weekends.
Trevor Day School in Manhattan offers training for Orff certification in NYC.
Westminster Choir College in Princeton, NJ offer both weekend and summer workshops as well as certification courses (Orff and Kodály).
Dalcroze Eurythmics
Jacques-Emile Dalcroze (1865-1950) believed that the core of all musical art is human emotion. He taught that it is not enough to train just the mind or the ear or the voice. Instead, the entire human body must be trained since the body contains all of the essentials for the development of sensibility and analysis of sound, music and feeling. Through participation in simple games, exercises, and improvisations, children learn to combine music and movement in order to develop rhythmic unity between the eye, ear, mind, and body.
One of the top U.S. teachers of the method (Dalcroze Eurythmics) is Robert Abramson who teaches in NYC at the Dalcroze Institute, a good starting place for exploring this method.
In 2007-2008 season, The Diller Quaile School of Music in Manhattan is offering a program in Dalcroze methodology.
Music Technology
Music technology applications in elementary school can include notation software, software for learning, and the hardware and software used to record and reproduce children’s musical performances.
Notation Software
Various companies make software for music composition and notation, that allow users to print and share professional-looking charts or song sheets.
Finale is the most-used by professional composers and arrangers.
PrintMusic! is a simplified version of the Finale program.
Sibelius 5 is the name of another widely-used software with specific educational components.
Click for free Sibelius browser that displays music scores with an audio playback feature.
Recording
Recording children’s singing or musical performance can be a powerful teaching tool. There are basically three ways to do this:
- use a cassette recorder that has a mike input or built-in microphone.
- use a digital recorder such as a mini-disk or hard-drive audio recorder, with an external microphone or one that’s built in.
- use a classroom computer or laptop with appropriate software, such as an i-Mac with Garageband.
Garageband is Apple’s software that allows users to record and produce a song, using either live instruments and voices or by combining pre-recorded “loops” of various instrumental sounds in a layered composition. Quality is good, ease of use is not-so-good.
Garageband is part of the standard “i-Life” package of software on Mac computers found in many schools. Since these classroom desktops and laptops have built-in microphones, teachers willing to spend some time exploring and learning have the ability to record student performances and even burn a CD or post the performance on a school website. However, the basic functions require a little patient study. The Apple store in Manhattan offers free classes in using Garageband.
Software for Music Learning
The choices for software that supports music learning are extensive. There is some question whether time spent interacting with a computer is as valuable as time spent singing or playing music, or listening to recordings and live performances. One exception may be the Clearvue line of music appreciation DVDs, CDs and videos.
MusicAce by Harmonic Vision.
Juilliard Music Adventure (Rhythm & Melody) by Tom Snyder.
Essentials of Music Theory by Alfred Publishing.
Groovy Music is designed especially for 5-11 year olds, by Sibelius.
GNU Solfege is a free software program written to help people do ear training: it includes exercises to train chords, intervals, scales, rhythms and harmonic progressions.
File-sharing
Downloading audio files from the so-called “peer-to-peer” networks such as Limewire and similar sites is illegal and represents an infringement of the rights of the artist whose song is acquired. ASCAP, the professional body that protects the rights of composers and publishers, has a strong position on the issue.
With the Music Educators National Conference, ASCAP has developed a curriculum program (Creativity in the Classroom) to teach children about their own place in a creative community that includes creators, consumers and legal copyright. According to ASCAP’s definition of fair use, there is no allowance for a teacher to download a file of a copyrighted song or reproduce lyric sheets for use in a classroom setting.
Resources
Music Education Technology is a magazine that offers free resources and lesson plans.
Technology Institute for Music Educators (TI:ME) has extensive web resources.
The NYC Department of Education does a lot of work to support instructional uses of technology. Contact your regional Office of Instructional Technology to learn about after-school technology training events and series (some with per-session).
Professional Organizations
Most of the activity of national and state groups for music education seems to be focused on middle and upper school music — where the performances, competitions and budgets are concentrated. Annual membership fees for these groups can add up. However, all the organizations listed here offer valuable resources; in some cases non-members can have access as well, through the group’s website. See also the local and national professional groups listed under Kodály, Orff, and Dalcroze.
- Music Educators National Conference (MENC) Memberships include subscription to several publications. A combination MENC/NYSSMA membership is $108 annually. The MENC website hosts a lively General Music discussion on-line.
New York State School Music Association (NYSSMA)
Music Educators Association of New York City (MEANYC) $30 annually, 1st-year teachers free.
Texas Music Educators Association TMEA is included here as an exemplary professional organization: see especially what’s available under the heading Resources.
