Responding to Music

This week has been exciting reading about how we respond to music.  From Music Learning Today (Bauer, 2014) it is discussed that researchers have found that music listening has a social context (p. 112).  This is true, everyone I know listens to music in a different social setting from when they are working-out, at home, a party, church, or a sporting event- each one is different.  I agree that a primary goal of music listening activities in my classroom and even in my home are to develop my students and children’s desire to become a lifelong music listener.  

It is logical that it is hard to listen to music with understanding when it is an unfamiliar style, genre, or from a different time period.  When I think back to my freshman year in college, I dreaded going to a music theory class when we were studying atonal music. It was music that I struggled to appreciate because I didn’t understand it.  Now I am much more open to various styles when there is an opportunity to research and understand the background of the composer and why he or she wrote the piece. My own life experience has given me understanding for my high school choir students when they don’t alway like a piece of choral literature that I select.  It takes time to learn and understand new things.

It has been fun downloading and setting up a Spotify account.  I have created 2 playlists so far and it crazy to see how many choices there are on Spotify.  My husband and I were talking about how I pick romantic love songs and he enjoys energetic selections.  After dinner he is often dancing with our small children in the living room but it looks more like a workout session :)  I on the other hand enjoy more laid back tunes because when I come home from a work day after teaching over 400 students I don’t care for “noise”.  My spirit is instantly tranquil when I listen to Yo-Yo Ma selections on the cello or some jazz.  My current life both professional and personal is so full that I like to counter it with peaceful music.  This week has reminded me of the simple pleasures that listening to music brings.

How I Teach

This week’s reading has caused me to reflect and evaluate the way I teach and what I incorporate into my choral classroom. Here is a quote from Vince Lombardi, a famous coach from Wisconsin’s Green Bay Packers.  “Football is like life-it requires perseverance, self-denial, hard work, sacrifice, dedication and respect for authority.” (http://www.brainyquote.com/search_results.html?q=hard+work)  I would like to apply this quote directly to teaching and learning.  Teaching takes time to develop and it is through hard work and dedication that lesson plans and teaching applications are created.  

A lot of my teaching is known as Backward Design. “Backward design… is an approach in which the teacher begins with the end in mind” (Bauer, p. 152).  My choral classroom literature is driven by the many performances each year.  For example the first concert of the year is 4 weeks from the start of school.  The goal is to have each of the 5 choirs perform 2 selections individually and then have them combine as 400 voices on 4 numbers.  The purpose of this fall concert is for freshman groups to see the example of the upperclassman.  This concert allows the audience and the performer to see a professional presentation and hear the difference in maturity between a senior and a freshman voice.  Because of the time constraint I pick repertoire that gives students’ success but also provides me with a baseline of what they are capable of doing for the following concert.

One of my advanced classes, a theater troupe, is a project based learning environment.  In the fall they are the cast of a broadway musical.  These students collaborate with a professional choreographer/director, a set and light designer, professional pitt, and a costume designer.   In the spring, the students become the directors, choreographers, light designers, and costume designers for Music Theater Nights.  My teaching model is to provide students with many opportunities to collaborate and learn from various music professionals and then provide them with the opportunity to take what they’ve learned and apply it.  It is important for students to learn how to follow and lead.

Bottom line:  I believe that a teacher should push their students toward excellence and set high standards that encourage results and teach a process that develops a strong work ethic.

Chromatik and SmartMusic

This week I had the opportunity to learn about two music technologies Chromatik and SmartMusic.  Below is a screenshot from the Chromatik website (https://www.chromatik.com/static/about).  

What is really neat about Chromatik, a completely web based program gives you access to a lot of popular sheet music and provides the “student” tools in order to practice the song.  You can record yourself using video or audio, adjust the tempo,  and transpose the music to a key you are comfortable with.  Chromatik offers this sheet music catalogue for various instruments, but I focused on the vocal section.  As a choral educator, I think Chromatik would be most beneficial to a private voice teacher or an educator that has more opportunities to work one-on-one with a student.  I can introduce the program to my high school students as an opportunity to practice, record, and self critique for the solo voice but it does not provide opportunities for a singer to develop vocal independence while another voice sings harmony.

SmartMusic is definitely a program that I plan on investigating and implementing into my high school choir classroom.  I watched a podcast about SmartMusic in the choir classroom (http://www.smartmusic.com/products/educators/features-and-benefits/).

There are vocal exercises, vocal sight reading, and rhythmic sight reading examples that develop a singers musicality and music reading abilities.  There are also vocal solos that provide accompaniment and opportunities for a student to sing the piece and be given instant feedback on pitch and rhythmic accuracy.  This program would also be very beneficial in a private voice studio but I believe that a choral classroom could benefit from the various vocal warm-ups and sight singing exercises.  I wish SmartMusic had more activities for a choir such as singing your vocal part against the soprano, alto, tenor, or bass part.  The program focuses on the soloist not the ensemble member.

Increase the Level of Performance

This week’s reading and lectures exposed me to an incredible amount of technology that is used to increase student learning in order to raise their performance level.  It was exciting to watch online video about student and parent experience with SmartMusic, a music program that allows students to practice and give instant feedback on accurate pitch and rhythm playing.

Another online guest demonstrated Chromatik a music program that allows a teacher and student to share practice sessions with one another and provide feedback concerning one’s playing, it seems to be similar to Google drive yet completely of a music perspective.  One interesting aspect to Chromatik is that students can rehearse various popular songs. This in and of itself would be motivating to many that have a natural curiosity to play the newest radio hit.

The point of these music technologies is to inspire and equip a musician to have accountable practice sessions and thus become a better performer.  As a teacher it is my job to give my students as much meaningful feedback as possible in order to help them mature not only as a musician but as a person.  I hope to encourage my students and provide them with enough opportunities that they develop intrinsic motivation to create great music. In my high school choral classroom I provide students with many opportunities to perform. With each performance, students collaborate and are taught by a new clinician or professional musician.  They present 3 choir concerts, perform at district and state solo and ensemble, and the symphony.  One of the top groups also presents the fall musical, christmas caroling, a performance at historic Holy Hill, and spring music theater nights.  With each performance we reflect on what we did well and what could be improved and listen to feedback from various audience members who saw the performance.  

I have not integrated SmartMusic or Chromatik in my music classroom but I would like to explore these technologies in more depth.  I want to realistically look at how I can implement them into my classroom.  There are so many technologies available that I want to choose well and actually provide music technologies for my students that will inspire them to practice and become better musicians and performers.