Chapter 8: Developing Musicality in Elementary Students
Introduction
Some students possess an innate musical sense and play musically, while others only achieve correct notes and rhythm independently.
There are students who display technical skills without an interest in musical expression.
Teacher's Role:
For innate students: Make them aware of their musical instincts to use them effectively.
For non-musical players: Teach and develop musicality.
Communicating Musically
Even elementary students can communicate musically. Key steps include:
Learning to produce a musical, expressive sound.
Overcoming technical difficulties that interfere with musical communication.
Elements that go beyond correct notes and rhythm bring music to life.
Teachers can approach pieces differently:
Assign pieces for faster tempo, louder dynamics, varied articulation, or use of pedals to enhance musicality.
Enhancing Musical Experiences
Beyond repertoire, many experiences contribute to becoming musical:
Discovering music communicates mood or emotion and creates character.
Learning to listen to one's own playing.
Understanding music construction (music literacy or theory).
Creating their own music.
Playing in ensembles.
Mood, Emotion, and Character in Performance
Students must associate mood, emotion, and character with each piece to achieve musical performances.
A musical performance tells a story or paints a picture, necessitating students to grasp the composer's intent through imagery.
Example: "Giant Vines Growing" illustrates the growth from low to high registers, with dynamics increasing from mp to ff that reflect the plant's size.
Understanding imagery can encourage musical playing.
Example Analysis
Example 8.1: "Giant Vines Growing", by Jon George.
Describes movement from low to high, symbolizing plant growth.
Dynamics emphasize the plant's characteristics.
Example 8.2: "A Secret", from The Music Tree: It focuses on dynamics (piano) and stimulates students' imagination through questions related to secrets and whisper tones.
Engaging Students with Questions
Questions to engage students include:
How do you tell a secret (loudly or softly)?
What actions accompany secrets?
Encouraging students to imagine their experiences enriches their musical performance.
Impact of Teacher’s Enthusiasm
Teachers can elicit interest by expressing their own love for pieces, commenting positively such as:
"I just love this piece!"
"Doesn't this sound exciting?"
Addressing Generic Titles
Complex titles like sonatina may not evoke clear images.
Discussing tempo indicators (Allegro, Andante) helps recognize musical character via a repertoire of descriptive words.
Educators can expand limited definitions of terms like Allegro to include words indicating mood (joyful, ecstatic).
Developing Touch and Expression
Teachers can prepare lists of descriptive nouns, adjectives, and verbs to help students develop varied touches and interpret dynamic shifts. Example descriptors include:
Joyful, powerful, terrifying, sneaky.
Methods to inspire imagination:
Describe music as a rubber band or ask for delicate sounds by touching keys lightly.
Movement assignments like pretending to pick up a feather to invoke specific sound dynamics.
Importance of Aural Development
Critical listening to one’s playing develops beautiful sounds and improves musicality.
Ear development includes:
Understanding musical content,
The ability to learn music progressively.
Regular aural experiences are essential for ongoing skills development.
Playing by Ear
Playing familiar songs by ear nurtures natural ear development, with instructions on:
Starting intervals and key placements.
Specific examples like:
"Old MacDonald Had a Farm" (F-sharp) can be played entirely on black keys.
Ensemble methods include:
Harmonizing melodies using tonic and dominant chords, e.g., "Itsy Bitsy Spider."
Listening to Sound
Alongside playing, prompting students to describe the sound quality encourages growth in audiation skills.
Provocative questions to stimulate self-listening include:
Was your performance soft or loud? How many phrases did you hear?
Modeling Good Musical Sounds
Teachers should demonstrate effective musical sounds through performance and recordings.
Students need to critique and adjust their playing based on hearing comparisons.
Aural Development with Study Pieces
Aural training linked to study pieces reinforces concepts directly related to music being learned.
Teachers can engage students in identifying musical elements through listening exercises.
Creating Aural Drills
Aural drills can cover concepts such as:
High/Low, Loud/Soft, and Rhythm Patterns.
Drills should clearly state listening objectives and vary their presentations for optimal retention.
Individual reactions to drills may include singing responses, clapping, or movement matching the sounds.
Categories for Aural Drills
Teaching methods can involve identifying similarities and differences in musical ideas, flashcard exercises, clap-back or tap-back, and counting rhythmic notation.
Each of these builds aural competency against concepts explored.
Using Synthesis with Compositions
Listening approaches intertwined with compositional development help solidify learning concepts through practical application (e.g., creating compositions reflecting learned elements).
The Role of Music Literacy
Music literacy enhances performance comprehension, allowing students to bond theoretical knowledge with interpretive skills.
Exercises can include recognizing patterns and scale segments relevant to pieces.
Engaging Creative Activities
Creative activities enhance students’ musical communication, which can manifest as improvisation or composition. They help nurture:
Musical imagination
Self-expression
Increased understanding of musical structure.
Suggested activities can include:
Making pieces about familiar experiences like raindrops or hot potatoes—focusing on staccato.
Creative Activities and Improvisation
Facilitating both improvisation and composition allows students to express their creativity dynamically.
Improvisation exercises can be scaffolded to encourage student explorations while respecting their skills.
Encouraging Improvisation
Simple exercises can focus on matching emotional responses to specific improvisatory tasks.
Examples illustrate using body language to inspire music creation.
Structured Improvisation
Students can explore improvisation relating to realism (e.g., imitating daily life scenes).
Improvisations could link characters from stories to pieces played on their instrument.
Implications of Body Movement on Learning
Merging physical expression with music creation encourages bodily learning and adds clarity to students’ musicality through movement-based improvisation.
Summation of Improv
All improvisational engagements broaden students' musicality, developing skills which they can lean into appropriately.
Acknowledgment of gradual learning through continual engagement with creative and structured musical tasks leads to holistic development of musicianship.