In our last music input we learned about Figure notes. Figure notes are an alternative way of reading music, instead of reading notes off a stave you read the coloured shapes which represent notes.  Many people can struggle with learning to read music, and for people with additional support needs or learning difficulties it can be too much for them to compute. This is why I think figure notes are a great tool to use, as it can break down barriers for people who struggle with reading music and allows anyone to have the joy of playing an instrument.

“Music is communication. Music is play. And most importantly, music is for us of us, not just the specialists.” (Page, 1995). This quote reiterates the point that anyone can learn to play an instrument if they have the right resources and the right support.

This also gives children who cannot read music the opportunity to be a part of a band or orchestra and play alongside children who do read conventional music, with a feeling of equality. Opportunities to play as part of a musical group can also develop the child’s team work skills and develop their confidence.

They can also then progress on to reading conventional sheet music, after building up their confidence and a base of music knowledge through the figure notes.

As someone who has read music from a young age, I found the figure notes quite strange at first, but after seeing how quickly some of my non-musical friends picked it up and managed to play a short piece on the keyboard or glockenspiel, I could clearly see that this is a great tool to start anyone off on learning an instrument.

References

Drake Music Scotland (2016) Figure Notes. [Online] Available: http://www.drakemusicscotland.org/figurenotes/ [Accessed 28 December 2016]

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

This week in music we looked at the instruments which would be used in a primary classroom, in particular we look at the ukulele.  I found this to be an interesting choice because when I had class music lessons in primary school it was always either the recorder or glockenspiel. We started off by learning the notes on each string and then went on to learning the 4 chords which make up many songs. After learning the different strumming patterns and fingerings for the different chords, we were able to put all of this together to play ‘Last Christmas’ by wham.

Before todays input, ukulele would not have been an instrument I would’ve thought I could teach to a primary class. After having guitar lessons myself,  I know that chord positions and strumming patterns can be very tricky, and I assumed Ukulele would be too difficult to teach to a full class of primary pupils. However, after seeing how quickly everyone picked it up from watching the ‘Axis of Awesome’ You Tube videos that broke it all down step but step, I have now changed my mind. Having online resources like that are very useful, as it would mean that if the class were struggling with any particular area the teacher could go back to the specific part of the video and go over it again with them until it falls into place. It would also allow children to do their own practice at home if they had access to a ukulele.

I found learning the Ukulele to be an enjoyable experience that I picked up quickly, and would definitely consider using it with a class in the future.

References

Axis of Awesome. (2011) 4 Chords | Music Videos | The Axis Of Awesome. [Online] Available:https://youtu.be/oOlDewpCfZQ [Accessed 5 January 2017]

Hallam & Prince ( 2000) In: 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]

This week in music we explored the music programme “Charanga” (Charanga, 2016). I had heard of this programme before, as it was used in the school I was in on my first placement and I know the class teacher thought it was a great resource. However this was the first chance I had gotten to explore it myself.

It is a website with an incredible amount of online resources for music teachers, it provides them with everything to prepare a music lesson for any stage in the curriculum. There are full lesson plans, which follow a week by week programme making it easy for teachers to track the children’s progression. This is great  support for new teachers or teachers who are not confident with music.

It has various interactive activities, sheet music which can be downloaded and printed out for many different instruments and backing tracks for songs. This is practical as the teacher does not have to accompany the children in singing lessons.

Within the vast bank of songs, there is music relating to other areas of the curriculum such as Times Table songs and numeracy songs. This is an interesting way of integrating music into the other curricular areas and it is a great way of engaging children in other subjects. Personally I find putting something into song helps me to remember it better, therefore with the likes of the timetables song, these activities could aid children who are struggling to remember them.

Charanga also has section dedicated to the BBC’s ten pieces programme (BBC, 2015) which I had not been familiar until now. The purpose of the 10 pieces programme is to introduce children to classical music in an exciting and engaging way by getting them to create their own response to the pieces through the arts, whether it be a composition of their own, a dance or digital art. Charanga provides a whole lesson plan and a tool kit full of activities for each of the 10 pieces. Again this is incredibly helpful for teachers who do not have an in-depth knowledge on classical music but would still like their class to take part in this interesting programme.

Overall I thought that charanga was a great resource for all teachers, no matter what their music ability and it is definitely something that I would consider using in the future. I hope that programmes like this encourage teachers who are not confident in music to give these preprepared lessons a try, and allow more music into the classroom.

References 

BBC (2015) 10 Pieces. [Online] Available: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01vs08w  [Accessed 6 January]

Charanga (2016) Charanga music school. [Online] Available at: http://www.charangascotland.co.uk [Accessed 3 January 2017].

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