This weeks music input was very different, we were lucky enough to  have a class of Primary 6’s, who were part of the Greenmail Strings Project, come in and teach us about their instrument.

https://vimeo.com/176221212

The school had formed a strings project where every child in the class got to participate in learning an instrument and being part of an orchestra. I thought this was a great that every child had the chance to learn an instrument because when I was at primary school, everyone was given a musical test and only those who scored highly on the test got the opportunity to receive music tuition. This was presumably down to cost of tuition and limited resources. I also felt it was great that the class had a specific timetabled slot for music  every week, as music is often overlooked and seen as less important as maths and english etc meaning it can get skipped if there is “not enough time for it”. As someone who is incredibly passionate about music and knows how important it can be to many children, I feel there should always be a timetabled slot for it. As Eisner states “In education, the arts are considered nice but not necessary.” (Eisner, 2006 )

Having the roles reversed and being taught by one of the pupils themselves was an interesting concept. The little girl who was teaching me how to play twinkle twinkle little star on her violin was very enthusiastic about her instrument, and she seemed to gain a great sense of pride and achievement when watching me pick up what she had taught me. This showed me that the children had a good base knowledge of music and the instrument they were learning because for them to pass this knowledge on, they would have to have a good understanding of the topic. I think this is a great way for children to reinforce what they have learned themselves, by talking about what they have learned and teaching it to someone else.

After teaching us their instruments, there was some time at the end for the children to ask us questions and us to ask them questions. The little girl who I had been working with asked me if I had any previous musical knowledge and if I played any instruments currently. After telling her that I had grown up surrounded by music and still carried on playing trumpet, piano and guitar, she seemed happy and relived that I had managed to keep my instruments up. She told me that she very much wanted to continue with playing her violin when she was older, when I asked her what she enjoyed about it she said that enjoyed being able to play along with her classmates as part of the orchestra and enjoyed the opportunities being in the orchestra had brought to them, such as performing for Prince Charles. I thought I was great to see how this string project had really inspired the pupils and engaged them with music.

I thoroughly enjoyed the music session this week as it was a much more unusual workshop and I enjoyed learning something new.

References

Eisner, E. (2006) What do the arts teach? 1:00:52 mins. [Online] Available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h12MGuhQH9E&feature=youtu.be [Accessed 27December 2016]

Greenmill Primary (2016) Greenmill String Project. [Online] Available: https://vimeo.com/176221212

In the workshop this week we learned bout the music programme Garageband.  It is ready equipped with a sound library full of bass lines, melodies and mounter melodies, meaning that all the user has to do is piece the parts they want together to create the sound they want.

Here is a clip of the short 8 bar phrase I created, first by starting of with a basic dance beat, then adding synths and a trumpet melody.

“There are some simple and amazing programmes that allow children to compose exciting music with little or no instruction” (Page, 1995 p.26)

I thought this was a great tool as it allows anyone, no matter how in depth or how little music knowledge they have, to create a piece of music. It also allows children who may not play an instrument but still have an interest in music, to express their musical creativity through technology. It also developed children’s independent learning, as once they have been shown how to work the programme, the rest is up too them. There are endless possibilities for the type of music they can create.

I personally feel that the current music curriculum should be updated. Although there are many children who have an interest in learning classical music and traditional composition, there will be some pupils who have more of an interest in dance and electronic music, or who want to learn more about the production of music rather than learning to play an instrument. Therefore I think it is important that teachers vary how they teach music, and it would be beneficial to introduce programmes like Garageband into the curriculum.

References

Page, N. (1995) Music as a way of knowing. Maine: Stenhouse Publishers