In our second music input we looked at alternatives to traditional notation on a stave. First of all we looked at a normal stave and discussed note length and time signatures. Using drum sticks we beat out a simple rhythms of minims, crotchets and quavers.

This then lead us on to talking about how shapes can be used represent notes, in our examples we used a circle to represent a 1 beat note and a square to represent a 2 beat note. I think this is a good way of starting children off with music as it allows them to gain a sense of rhythm, without having to read music off a stave right away, which can be tricky.

We then talked about a 5 note scale, and improvisation. We were all given a glockenspiel and using the five notes we were given and any rhythm we wanted, we all took turns improvising a short 8 bar piece in front of the class whilst the lecturer accompanied us on piano to ‘Hit the road jack’. I think this would be a good exercise to do with children because by it would increase their confidence in performing and it would introduce them to learning about scales (by sticking to the 5 notes). Improvisation has also been proven to increase children’s creativity:

“improvisation activities significantly supported the development of creative thinking as opposed to the didactic teaching. To enhance general creativity music lessons themselves need to be based on creative activities.” (Hallam, 2010)

References:

Hallam, S. (2010) The power of music: Its impact on the intellectual, social and personal development of children and young people. International Journal of Music Education. [Online] Vol. 28(3), pp. 269–289 Available: http://moodle.uws.ac.uk/pluginfile.php/715660/mod_resource/content/2/International%20Journal%20of%20Music%20Education-2010-Hallam-269-89.pdf [Accessed 28 December 2016]