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| Part Songs Singing in parts is an activity reliant not only on skill as a singer, but the preparedness to work with others as a unit. In this sense it is almost a ‘sport’! There are a number of part songs on this CD and vast numbers more elsewhere. Obviously any project focussing on part singing must conclude with a presentation of part songs. These might include rounds and canons, call and response songs, and part songs in both polyphonic and homophonic texture. Check these: 'Jackaroo'; |
| Pentatonic
Music Many schools have tuned percussion instruments. Working with pentatonic music is an almost ‘idiot-proof’ way of introducing students to the composition of music that almost invariably works. Pentatonic scales are apparently at the core of our perceptions of pitch – little children learn them almost intuitively and they feature across virtually every culture’s music. Check libraries, the internet and these pages for inspiration regarding projects and presentations of pentatonic instrumental music. |
| Performing
Music Check the internet for ideas. Look at this page: |
| Play More Together - Recorder Music for Ensembles |
| Play Some More': An easy arrangement for classroom band |
| Popular
Music While we all have an idea of what is inferred by the notion of ‘popular’ (or even ‘pop’) music, nevertheless the title could also suggest the notion of ‘...with whom is the music popular?’ Perhaps that suggests some ideas for approaching this vast topic as a project. Are we inferring modern popular music, the current MTV hits, or could we examine the notion of popular music across history? Several of Mozart’s operas, including the ‘Magic Flute’ were written for presentation to the ‘masses’. |
| Prahu, The, Original music for angklung |
| Prioritising Musical Strands |
| RECORDER, Suggestions for introducing... |
| Recording Music ‘Recording’ music could easily embrace far more than the idea of electronically ‘storing’ music. In a sense music has been ‘recorded’ from its very inception as a human arts form. Music can be recorded in both short term and long term memory (as our retention in old age of songs taught us in early childhood illustrates), transmitted across generations (as folk music often demonstrates – with the changes that are bound to happen), as written ‘scores’ and, of course in recent times) on gramophone disks and CD’s and electronically in a range of different ways including the computer. Does this outline suggest a diversity of possible projects? |
| Resources |
| Rhythm Because music exists and happens in TIME, one of its significant components is its ‘rhythm’. Arguably even the most obscurely rhythmical piece of music will have ‘rhythm’ as a means of moving it through time. A project might ask why and how the rhythms we are familiar with came about, and illustrate such a project with performed examples. ‘Rhythm’ as a concept should take an investigation across the arts, including poetry, literature and drama, and into a range of other learning areas – eg science, sport and PE, SOCE – in fact there will be rhythmic characteristics to almost every area of human activity. |
| 'Rosellas' bird songs and music |
| Sample Lessons - 1 |
| Sample Lessons - 2 |
| Setting up and running a
Classroom Band I suggest some approaches but do investigate others. Finding an informed and experienced musician to help would be a great asset! Much depends on your willingness to learn on the job, to utilise existing skills among your students, and to be prepared to make mistakes, laugh them off and learn from them! Shared, the students ought to be sympathetic, particularly if they successfully mount a music ensemble as a consequence. You could start by reading the introductory material and how to manage instruments in a classroom, then work with untuned percussion, work through pentatonic suggestions, have some students learn recorder, and others ukulele, add some untuned percussion, then begin the classroom band sequence. |
| School Productions |
| Setting
up and running a
Singing Ensemble School choirs do not need to have multitudes of students – what they do need to have is success, virtually from the first rehearsal. If your approach and relationship with your students is not relevant even making it begin may not happen. Stating the obvious, students will want you to present them with songs they’ll enjoy but which have a degree of challenge – that can be increased later. So a degree of democracy is important. Your approach needs to be friendly and positive but situating you in the position of control. You will probably need to emanate – even if it’s not totally true – a level of knowledge that they can respect. Rehearsals need to take place somewhere that is acoustically positive, not aurally too ‘flat’ but neither full of echo and reverberation. It needs too to ensure that the students are not subjected to viewing by other students but - and this is critical to both your and their safety – open to scrutiny by other staff. Have you noticed an exodus of boys from the school choir? What’s happening? Numbers were never large but in this day and age it’s not unusual for the school choir to be entirely female. So what can be done to shift the gender balance? No matter what the balance the music should grab students so that this, together with a positive reputation, almost compels them to belong to the ensemble. I believe singing ensembles should be open to all in a school. If you must, audition special ensembles, but the main school choir is part of the learning that must be available to any student. Some argue that calling it a ‘choir’ alone will lose the boys. Look for snappy contemporary titles for music groups. There are many project opportunities available in the evolution of school singing ensembles and smaller groups – duos, trios and so on – created, owned and operated by students themselves. If you are supportive they will probably ask for your support but be careful that they are allowed to retain that ‘ownership’. Repertoire is infinite. Try my offerings: ‘Squash’, ‘Dripstone Cliffs’, ‘At Four Twenty One’, ‘Making Music Matters’, ‘Rosella’, ‘Jackaroo’, to suggest but a few. You will almost certainly come up with a more satisfactory rendition than mine! ‘Boys Business’ might even switch the boys on! |
| 'Singo Nebah' - music for gamelan |
| 'Slow School Blues' - music for class band |
| Sound and Silence |
| Sound
Sculpture and Graphic
Notation Canadian music educator Murray Schafer wrote a series of excellent texts in the ‘70’s including ‘Ear Cleaning’ and ‘When Words Sing’. These are well worth resourcing as a means of introducing students to some alternative views of music and music making. Sound Sculpture and Graphic Notation are huge new fields related to alternative views of music, too. John Paynter’s ‘Sound and Silence’ is another worthy resource. There is much on the internet relating to these topics as well. I have some sketchy outlines on the website but they barely introduce what is an enormous field of new music. This might integrate well with a focus on Music in the Future and Space Music. You might also like to investigate the sound files, ‘Ocean’, (There are several more of those...), ‘Dogs’, ‘Fireworks 1’ & ‘Fireworks 2’. |
| Space' Music I’ve suggested a focus – why not talk about this topic with the class, and carry out a survey based on internet and library searches. Any project you and your students come up with ought to conclude with a performance based on the focus. |
| 'Squash', a round |
| Sri Lankan Music |
| Staff Notation |
| Stick
Music This suggests several different approaches – one of manufacturing ‘sticks’ – see the newspaper rolls project – to working with ‘sticks’ as musical instruments in different settings. There might be a focus on the use of ‘clapsticks’ in Indigenous Australian music – with the proviso of sensitivity in the research. Dancing with percussive sticks features in a number of cultures. Students could investigate this. |
| Street
Music and Dance There is nothing new about the notion of ‘street music and dancing.’ Musicians and other performers have kept pedestrians and others in streets all over the world entertained for centuries. Thus a project about street music and dance might involve music and dance from the past, from another cultural setting or, perhaps more obviously, contemporary street music and dance and the culture associated with it. There are opportunities here for performance and for those with expertise in street music, such as Rap, to shine. Given that some of these students may be your already ‘streetwise’ and perhaps challenging in class, this could be highly advantageous to behaviour management! |
| 'Sumer is Icumen In' |
| Texture Perhaps this suggests venturing beyond music to survey and present displays of other sonic and visual examples of texture – in nature, and in human settings. It might also suggest texture as it relates to music, where melody and harmony change the aural ‘texture’ of a piece of music. |
| 'To the Contrary' - original music for angklung |
| Tonic Solfa |
| 'Too Many Questions' |
| 'Topi Saya Bundar' |
| Tuned
Percussion in World
Settings I’ve suggested a focus – why not talk about this topic with the class, and carry out a survey based on internet and library searches. Any project you and your students come up with ought to conclude with a performance based on the focus. |
| Twelve Bar Blues The twelve bar blues format has a long history influenced both by African and European input. It is a template for a particularly satisfying balance of tension and release in a sequence of twelve bars where one chord predominates, providing ‘release’ and the remaining two take turns to break an otherwise repetitive cycle. It fits in the planning area of understanding music and how it works as a part of ‘FORM’. Much has been written about the 12 bar blues and is worth surveying. A project ought to lead to performances of music, existing and preferably CREATED, constructed on this ‘floor plan’. I have in introduced several twelve bar blues based musical items here. Check ‘Whatcha Gonna Do Today’ and ‘Slow School Blues’ |
