This music workshop was led by Julie and the aim of this session was to reinforce that music matters and that every child, no matter if they can read music, can play along to ‘the beat’.
Above is the Pentatonic Scale which consists of 8 keynotes to play any tune, rhythm or song.
We looked at several music notes and their meaning to gain some understanding when we moved onto to reading/ playing a piece of music. We were shown a piece of music which did not have the typical symbols on it but instead squares and circles to represent one beat notes and two beat notes. We played through a variation of patterns using those two symbols. This was an easy way of playing a piece of music and would be an excellent technique to use with primary children. This made reading music very clear and children would understand it easily as it using shapes they are aware of instead of musical notes. We practised this using any form of ‘beater’ against the floor before moving onto a glockenspiel.
It is essential to reinforce that music really does matter and plays a significant role in a child’s education. According to the Curriculum for Excellence, they believe that ‘through music, learners have rich opportunities to be creative and to experience inspiration and enjoyment. Performing and creating music will be the prominent activities for all learners. I feel that through this session I gained many tasks and activities which I can take into a school in order to create an engaging music lesson.
Below is a short clip of myself playing a freestyle rhythm to the song ‘Hit the road Jack’.
References
- 2016, E. S. (2016) Corporate zone home [Online]. Available: https://education.gov.scot/ [Accessed 7 Jan 2017].
