I’m feeling drawn more and more to using pop music with my students. I was wondering about your thoughts on how you can include some of these same principles that help students really learn well through this elemental idea with also using current pop songs.
Framework:
Elemental style - what’s here that I can use? What’s here that students can experience?
Pedagogy - How will it live in the classroom and how will I craft intentional experiences for students?
Basic Musical Structures
Elemental music uses the most basic musical elements. This doesn’t mean that the music isn’t artistic. It just means that it uses foundational musical elements.
Elemental Forms and Patterns
Elemental forms are how we piece music together. A few of the most common elemental forms are aba, aabb, abba, and aaab.
Natural Fit: A hook is designed to be memorable, which happens when we have a combination of familiar and novel subphrases.
Clean Bandit - Higher aaba
Frosty Weather - aaba
Challenge: Length
Choice: What part of the song will we use? Bridge? Chorus? Verse?
Elemental Instruments and Mixed Media
Music starts with humans. For most people, the most naturally-occurring instrument is the human body. Elemental music is centered around the body as a way to express music through movement, speech, body percussion, and singing.
Where instruments are used, they are going to be the most accessible and the most natural extension of the human body. Often this means things like barred instruments and unpitched percussion. The barrier to entry is extremely low.
Natural Fit: Vocal music and drums
Challenge: Guitar, piano, drum set, computers, are limited in terms of being a naturally - occurring extension of the human body.
Choice: How can we translate the song into the classroom? We’ll probably sing the melody. We could also sing or play the bass line on barred instruments. We could play an instrument part on barred instruments. We could add our own instrumental parts. We can use technology that is developmentally appropriate.
Dan Bremnes - Up Again - play trumpet part on barred instruments (LH lead)
Rocky Mountain - Play in a round
Accessibility
A hallmark of elemental music is that anyone can - and should - actively participate in it, regardless of their level of formal musical training. Elemental music uses basic musical structures so it can be as accessible as possible to any child, or any adult.
Natural Fit: People love pop music. You don’t need to have university training to engage with pop music.
Challenge: Written by adults for adults - content aside, the vocal range and dynamic level isn’t always a healthy model for children. That’s okay because it wasn’t intended as a model for music pedagogy.
Choice: Select music appropriately
Application
Expanding out of “elemental” music and add a layer of pedagogy: I’m picking the pedagogy part up from Emily’s question and I want to add another lens - Emily and I are colleagues and internet friends so I’m comfortable doing this :) In real life application, let’s talk about moving from the known to the unknown in a way that lets students build their own musical experiences.
Part of The Planning Binder
What are we going to teach?
What will we use to teach it?
What will students experience so they can construct their own musical knowledge through intentional musical interactions?
What Are We Going to Teach?
Melodic patterns with a toneset using the extended pentatone : low sol (This could be anything)
What will we use to teach it?
Alabama Gal
Zayn - Tightrope
*This is not the correct way to use this song. This is one application but there are many possibilities
What will students experience?
Experience low sol in a musical context
Alabama Gal - play the game and sing the song
Tightrope - Sing the song and step / snap
Notice low sol (move from the known to the unknown)
Alabama Gal - which phrase has the lowest pitch? Is that pitch higher or lower than the lowest pitch we know? Figure the target phrase out on barred instruments with a partner
Tightrope - which phrase has the lowest pitch? Is that pitch higher or lower than the lowest pitch we know? Figure the target phrase out on barred instruments with a partner
Do something with that information: Improvise and arrange with low sol
Alabama Gal - sing the first two sub-phrases, improvise a new melody to the next two sub-phrases
Tightrope - sing the melody, fill in the missing space
Whole-class, then with partners at barred instruments
Just for fun: Arranging with Alabama Gal and Tightrope - what was the compositional technique the artist chose? What do you notice about the way these phrases are spaced that makes it easier for us to improvise? There’s empty space between the phrases. What if we tried that with Alabama Gal? Play
Music and Meaning: Social Emotional Learning Competencies and Artistic Processes
Create and Relationship Skills:
Utilize positive communication and social skills to interact effectively with others
Create and conceptualize artistic ideas and work
Artists conceptualize and generate ideas and works in relationship with others