Music and Art

Listen on…

Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Spotify

Season 1 | Episode 17

Show Notes

Hi Victoria

I was wondering if you have any advice about collaborations between music teachers and art teachers. I’m really interested in collaborating more with the colleagues here in my building and I’m just not quite sure where to start.

 
17 - Collaborations with Music and Art_1.jpg
 

What systems already exist in the school culture?

Do you have a concert or another sharing event that you already do?

  • Could students design the cover of the concert? (competition or the back is a collage of student work - I’ve done both)

  • Could they display artwork leading up the hallways to the event? (“My favorite part of music” in K - 3rd)

  • Could a few pieces be on display for parents to look at before and after the event like at an art gallery?

    • Maybe a few students from a different grade are standing outside the school like at an art gallery and they’re wearing their school shirt

  • Could art students set up a few pieces that you display on the table for programs when parents show up?

    • Another way to do programs is to have a qr code that parents scan as they walk in, that way the program can be in full color. If you’re already directing parents to a website you’ve made for the program, it’s even easier to include digital scans of artwork

  • Have you ever watched live art?

    • This could be a digital illustration that’s projected onto a screen. This could be chalk on a chalkboard. This could be markers.

What are students already learning about in art? Where can we partner?

  • Art history

    • Abstract art: Kandinsky (Drue Bullington The Noisy Paint Box lesson)

  • Art media

  • Levels and planes

    • levels in movement

    • levels in melodic contour

    • leveled bordun

  • Balance

    • Form: ABA

  • Space:

    • Positive / negative space in movement and music (notes and rests)

    • Overlap: texture in layered ostinati

    • Perspective: Dynamics - what should be louder (i.e. bigger)?

What are students already learning about in music? Where can visual arts partner?

  • Music from Mexico: El Patio de Mi Casa, Zapatitos Blancos, Dale Dale Dale, etc.

    • Diego Riveara / Frida Kahlo other visual artists

  • Music from Japan: Tsuki, Donguri Korokoro, Chu Chu Kokko

  • The Great Wave or Anime

Using the Standards:

  • National Core Arts Standards

  • We’re already working off the same standards!

Hip Hop and Graffiti - AOSA session

Blue Is The Sea: Music, Dance & Visual Arts

Increasing Parent Involvement in the Music Program

Hello Victoria,
Thank you so much for responding and considering my question on your podcast. I work at a low income title 1 school and I noticed that there is a lack of parent involvement with the Arts programs. I’ve spoken to other music teachers and it seems to be an issue at their schools as well. I was wondering if you have any advice on how to encourage parent involvement and develop positive parent teacher relationships as a music teacher.

 
Increasing Parent Involvement in the Music Program
 

  1. Space between community support, professional success, and human value

Your level of parent involvement doesn’t impact your quality as a teacher. Your success as a professional doesn’t impact your quality as a person.

Let’s separate other people’s actions from our professional success. Let’s separate our professional success from our human value.

Having a huge amount of community support where every concert is packed and your classroom wish list is always gets filled and you get daily emails from parents about how much their child loves music….

  • If you’re experiencing a deficit in encouragement and support and validation, where else could you get those things besides the outside school community?

2. Define Our Terms

  • How much family support? In what ways? What do you actually need from families? What is realistic for your community?

3. Music as a part of the School Community

  • What does parent support look like at your school? How can we partner with the school culture?

4. What are parents coming to?

  • Events / informances

5. Informances

  • Kids do the marketing

  • Seesaw - not everything needs to be location and time dependent

    • “We’re taking this video, so be sure to watch it at home with your family”

6. How can we partner with families?

  • Have we ever asked families what would help them show up?

  • Are there times that could be more convenient? (Do concerts always need to be in the evening?)

I believe you are a fabulous music teacher. The work you do is valuable. Regardless of the amount of parent support you observe in the music program… your community, your school, and your students are better off because you are their elementary general music teacher.

How Can I Use the Ideas of Elemental Music to do Pop?

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.

 
Pop Music in the Elemental Style
 

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

  1. What are we going to teach?

  2. What will we use to teach it?

  3. 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

Using Movement to Teach Musical Concepts

Listen on

Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Spotify

Season 1 | Episode 14

Show Notes

Do you have ideas for movement activities tied to creativity or as a scaffold to notation?

 
Using Movement to Teach Musical Concepts
 

A Movement Framework

  • What is the purpose of the activity?

  • What is the essence of the musical concept?

Rhythm:

  • Rhythmic understandings are duration understandings. How can we use our bodies to show duration?

    • Who Has Seen the Wind

  • Metric understandings are about duration and weight. How can we use our bodies to show duration and weight?

    • As I Was Walking Down the Street - combining skipping and stepping

Melody:

  • Melody is about relationships of pitch - high and low. How can we use our bodies to show high and low?

  • Harold and the Purple Crayon: vocal exploration and movement exploration in the first page, connected with barred instrument exploration and movement

    • (Movement influences the melody or the melody influences the movement?)

  • Lines That Wiggle: Make a line that you see in the book, transition to singing the line

Form:

  • Form is about same and different. How can we use our bodies to show same and different through echoing and contrast?

  • Create eight beats of ______ expressive word. Then create eight beats of a contrasting word ______.

    • Could be done as a solo, could be done in partners

    • Could be done to the teacher improvising or it could be done to an existing song

  • Structured movement: form in folk songs

Expression:

  • Dynamics are about large and small sounds. How can we use our bodies to show large and small?

Texture:

  • Movement round

Do You Have Tips for Music Teachers On a Cart?

I just found out I will be teaching on a cart this year! Our school is getting bigger and there is no space for me nor the art teacher right now. We will be opening up a new building to our growing campus but that’s in two years. Would you have any tips or know of any resources I can go to? Thank you again.

I need help planning for at least half a year on a cart. I know I will start that way and push-in to classrooms. Thank you so much for all the help!!

 
13 - Teaching on a Cart
 

  1. You can do this!

Part 1 - Logistics

  1. Have somewhere to land

    1. If it’s your car, have a bin of water bot tles and granola bars / your healthy snack of choice. Keep the front seat clean.

  2. “Kon Marie” your cart

    1. Take out everything in your classroom, then mentally choose your very favorite things you love using every day

    2. What’s in My Bag - beach bag tote with a ball, rhythm sticks, finger cymbals, glockenspiel

  3. Map your route and preview the classrooms

  4. How can we collaborate with teachers?

    1. Would you like to be in the room or somewhere else?

    2. Do you have specific routines or practices that I can honor while I’m a guest in your space? (I am a real teacher - not a substitute - students test boundaries)

    3. Are there any academic projects coming up that we can collaborate on?

  5. How can we create a new environment from general ed to the music room?

    1. Line up outside

    2. Opening song

    3. How can we support students?

Part 2 - Planning

  1. As you plan, decide on the purpose of the activity.

    1. We are exhausted

    2. Resilient pedagogy

      1. Bee Bee Bumblebee - Arrange with a beat and beat subdivision (ta and ta-di)

        1. Play the game (adapted)

        2. Rhythmic building blocks

      2. Frog in the Meadow: Purpose - Move to a mrd melody

        1. Play the game

        2. Show the melody on your own

        3. Show the melody with a partner

      3. Yurikago no Uta - Perform body percussion to accompany the form of a song

        1. Listen to a recording of the song. If it’s new, discuss its origin from Japan, look at Japan on the map, allow students to offer information they may have about Japan, look at images of Japan.

        2. Analyze the form - if each phrase is four beats, what would we call the form in this class? (ABCD)

        3. This is a lullaby. What lullabies do you know? Let’s think about how this song would be performed in its context. When we add our ideas to it, how can we stay within that same context? (probably perform quietly, probably show fluid movements instead of agile movements, etc.)

        4. In partners, create four different stets of accompanying body percussion rhythms match the form of the song with the rhythm: ta-di ta-mi ta-dimi ta-dimi

Moving Forward and Looking Up

  1. Some people prefer teaching on a cart

  2. Collaboration opportunities

  3. You can do this!

Resources:

  1. Ask colleagues in your district! Many educators were first time carters this past year

  2. musiconacart.com

  3. Music a la Cart

  4. The ABCs of Navigating Music on a Cart - Danielle Ingram

Music Lesson Planning When You're Burnt Out

How do you overcome planning burn out? I have literally zero interest in planning my lessons right now, and I’m pretty much just playing random games every class to pass the time. How do you suggest picking myself back up?

 
Music Lesson Planning and Teacher Burnout
 

During the Year

  • Run the clock

    • This phase won’t last forever

    • Not every lesson plan is instagram-worthy.

  • Play “random games every class to pass the time” until you’re bored

    • Our brains don’t stay with one emotion very long

    • It’s like eating cookies every single day for every single meal - sooner or later you’re ready for salad

  • Teach what you care about

    • A particular piece of music

    • A particular genre of music

    • What would be fun to teach?

My Burn Out Lessons

  • Different from end-of-the-year lessons

  • K - 3rd - Carnival of the Animals

    • What the students do: Color and move, or watch

    • What the teacher does: Organize a shelf, organize a binder, review assessments

  • 4th - 5th - Found sound / unpitched percussion song-writing

    • What the students do:

      • Graphic notation or standard western notation of rhythms

      • Assign your own version of body percussion symbols

      • Check with the teacher to move to unpitched percussion

    • What the teacher does:

      • Walk around and talk to students

Summer Planning and Burnout

  • Take a break

  • Celebrate the wins

  • Research what you care about and dream about how it could be incorporated next year

  • Set a reasonable deadline to start planning

Weekend Research: Music Teacher Burnout

This year, it’s entirely possible that you had times you felt burnt out. If that’s the case, you are certainly not alone.

Today we’ll dive into some research studies on music teacher burnout. This conversation will build on the one we had last Friday about using research as an approach to problem-solving in the music room.

We’ll talk about some studies that have been conducted on music teacher burnout, some characteristics of burnout, the factors that impact burnout, and finally, what we can do about it.

 
Weekend Research - Music Teacher Burnout
 

Research Referenced on Music Teacher Burnout

  • Bernhard, 2016 - Investigating Burnout Among Elementary and Secondary School Music Educators: A Replication

  • Cheek and others, 2003 - Using Music Therapy Techniques to Treat Teacher Burnout

  • Gordon, 2000 - Sources of Stress for the Public School Music Teacher: Four Case Studies

  • Hedden, 2005 - A Study of Stress and Its Manifestations among Music Educators

  • McLain, 2005 - Environmental Support and Music Teacher Burnout (is burnout impacted by other factors in a teacher’s life? 

  • Sindberg, 2011 - Alone All Together—The Conundrum of Music Teacher Isolation and Connectedness

What is Burnout?

  • No set definitions, but many symptoms

  • Physical Symptoms of Burnout: insomnia, fatigue, headaches

  • Emotional Symptoms of Burnout: increased crying, increased yelling, increased drug / alcohol use, detachment, low productivity, absenteeism, higher risk-taking, feeling helpless / hopeless

How Can We Measure It?

  • Maslach Burnout Inventory - Educators Survey

  • Likert scale 0 (never) - 6 (always)

  • Three areas: 

    • Emotional exhaustion 

    • Depersonalization 

    • Accomplishment 

  • Emotional exhaustion example statements

    • “I feel used up at the end of the day” 

    • “Working with people all day is really a strain for me” 

    • “I feel like I’m working too hard on my job” 

  • Depersonalization example statements

    • “I feel I treat some students as if they were impersonal objects” 

    • “I don’t really care what happens to some students” 

  • Personal accomplishment example statements

    • “I deal effectively with the problems of my students” 

    • “I feel very energetic” 

    • “I have accomplished many worthwhile things in this job”

What Impacts Burnout?

  • Social Support (the human element): We have less burnout when we’re surrounded by a supportive community of colleagues and lead by supportive administration

    • This was the finding in McLain (2005) and Sindberg (2011) 

    • Research (and perhaps life experience) tell us music teachers feel isolated a lot of the time (Sindberg, 2011). This is was particularly true for teachers who traveled to more than one campus 

    • The Cheek study (2003) also referenced marital status is strongly correlated with lower burnout rates

  • Professional Development: We have less burnout when we have training in pedagogy and other areas of teaching

    • Many teachers feel underprepared when they get in the music classroom, and many teachers feel that their pre-service training wasn’t enough or wasn’t relevant at all. This theme of needing more professional development was in Gordon (2000) and Hedden (2005).

    • Many of us teach at more than one campus, or teach more than one subject area (like band or choir). Both those factors are connected with higher levels of burnout and stress (Bernhard, 2016; Sindberg, 2011) 

  • Classroom Management: We have less burnout when we’re confident in our approach to increasing student motivation and handling teaching disruptions. 

    • McLain (2005), Gordon (2000), Hedden (2005)

  • Stress Management and Time Management: 

    • We feel less burnt out when we feel like we have tools to manage our stress and tools to manage our time well (McLain , 2005; Hedden 2005)

    • Music therapy, combined with cognitive behavioral therapy was used in Cheek et al. (2003) to decrease burnout symptoms in elementary teachers

    • Hedden (2005) surveyed the same teachers in a 7 year study and the area of stress decrease was mostly in time management. Bernhard (2016) noted that initial certification teachers specifically showed higher levels of emotional exhaustion in the MBI-ES

So What Should We Do?

  • Prevention is more effective than treatment

  • Social Relationships and Support: When we have the vocabulary to communicate our burnout experience, we can be more communicative to people in relationships with us

  • Professional Development: Use available resources (books, colleagues, courses, podcasts) to learn about areas of teaching

  • Classroom Management: Use available resources (books, colleagues, courses, podcasts) to learn about mindsets and approaches to building relationships with students

  • Stress Management and Time Management:  Mental health training, drink some water, take a walk, then take a nap

Opposite of burnout: Energized. Inspired. Refreshed 

How Many Songs Should I Teach Each Grade Per Month?

As I continue to prep for for next year, I have a question about how to prepare and practice concepts. About how many songs a month or even quarter, do you aim to use per grade?

I plan very intuitively. But I'd like to streamline my work a little, to be a more focused. I have a fun classroom, but sometimes the concepts are so buried or I forget about them and move on to something new too quickly. Right now I am experimenting a lot with many ideas combining art and music.

 
 

How will we break up our year?

  • Quarterly?

  • Monthly?

  • Concept?

Choosing songs by concept

  • We provide the musical context

  • Students provide the pacing

  • We still write the map for the roadtrip (long-range planning)

My Curriculum Planning Process

  • The big dream (curriculum outline)

    • Road trip from Tennessee to LA

  • The map (scope and sequence)

    • Map the route

    • If I want to realize the big dream, how many weeks can I devote to this concept?

    • Students still provide the pacing, and we still make the map

  • The context (repertoire)

    • The stops along the way

    • How can we build a musical picture of this concept?

Song Decisions

  • Tied to how much time per concept you have

  • How deep into each song will you go?

    • Just for fun at the end of class?

    • Game and notational literacy?

    • Extended creative project?

    • Memorized? Listening lesson?

Songs Per Concept

  • 3 - 5 songs per concept

    • Rhythmic and melodic

    • Form, texture, expression, and “other” are embedded

  • Might overlap more than one concept

    • Rhythm vs beat and sol and mi

      • Pala Palita (Spanish-language game)

      • Jack and Jill

    • Rhythm vs beat

      • Apple Papple (counting out game from Sweden)

      • Bee Bee Bumblebee

      • Pala Palita (Spanish-language game)

      • Jack and Jill

      • Popular song

    • Sol and mi

      • Jack and Jill

      • Que Rorro Que Nene (lullaby from Mexico)

      • Ickle Ockle

      • List of four songs that students choose from

Kindergarten

  • Around 20 - 30 songs by the end of the year

5th Grade

  • Around 15 - 25 songs by the end of the year

This is a conversation we will continue to have throughout our planning process.

We’ll think about the balance in the opposition between planning intuitively and planning in a way that is streamlined. We can use repertoire that has many playful, creative, open-ended opportunities and opportunities for students to build their content knowledge in an intentional way in order to streamline our planning while relying on our intuition.

How Should I Use Percussion as a Vocalist?

Hi Victoria, I’m a PreK - 12 general music and chorus teacher in upstate New York. My experience is strictly in vocal singing and not with instruments. How do you recommend going about creating lessons for little kids if I don’t have a huge amount of experience with pretty much any percussion instruments?

 
How Should I Use Percussion Instruments as a Vocalist?
 

What’s the Purpose?

  • Long-range plans: Why did I choose this song? What musical concepts are we exploring? What is the musical outcome?

  • Musical outcome and sound properties of the instrument

    • Examples:

    • Clapping the rhythm of the words - rhythm sticks

    • Playing four 16th notes or 16th note combinations - tubanos

    • Speaking a sound elongated over two beats (half note) - finger cymbal

    • *Flexible, but intentional (half notes don’t always equal finger cymbals)

Intuitive Progression to Percussion Instruments:

Blog post: Beginning Unpitched Percussion in Early Elementary Music

Blog post: Scaffolding Mallet Instruction in Elementary General Music

  • Voice (speaking or singing)

  • Body Percussion

  • Instruments

Bee Bee Bumblebee:

  • Beat

    • Speech and body: Speak the rhyme and pat the steady beat

    • Instrument extension: Speak the rhyme while a few students at a time pat the steady beat at a tubano

      • This is one reason I like having a tubano as a first instrument

  • Rhythm

    • Speech and body: Speak the rhyme on “long” and “short” and clap the rhythm of the words

    • Speech and body: Inner hear the rhyme and clap the rhythm of the words

    • Instrument extension: Speak while playing the words on rhythm sticks

      • one reason I like having rhythm sticks as a first instrument

  • Rhythm vs beat

    • Body: The person who is out chooses if the class will pat the beat or clap the rhythm

    • Instrument: The person who is out plays a steady beat on tubano while the rest of the class plays the rhythm of the words on rhythm sticks

    • Every other student in the circle has rhythm sticks and plays the rhythm of the words, the other half plays a steady beat. Hand rhythm sticks to the right.

      • A few episodes ago about handing out instruments

  • Loud and Quiet

    • Speak loud and quiet

    • Speak and clap the words loud and quiet

    • Inner hear and play the words loud and quiet

  • High and low

    • Speak the rhyme with a high and low voice

    • Speak and clap the words high above your head, then pat them on the ground with a low voice

    • Play the rhythm of the words on the high or low part of a barred instrument

  • Just for Fun / Expression / Exploration

    • Speak the rhyme, then speak “buzzzzzzz, buzzzzzz, buzzzzzz, buzzzzzz” as you move in open space. Land back in your spot.

    • Speak the rhyme, then use jingle bell bracelets to buzz in open space, landing back in your spot

    • Pull families out - What instruments sound like rain? Snow? Sun?

      • Pat the rain, shake the snow, clap quietly for sun

      • Read The Boy Who Los his Bumble - pat the rain on hand drums, shake the snow on maracas, play triangles for the sun

How can we create lessons for young students that use percussion if we’re trained as vocalists?

You may not have percussion experience, but you do have experience as a musician, as a pedagogue, as a vocalist, and as someone who uses your body to create music. If you have experience in all these areas, you are set up to think creatively and pedagogically about the percussive experiences you want your students to have.

We’ll start by clarifying the purpose of the activity, and then use percussion as a natural extension of the voice and the body.

Research for Elementary Music Teachers

This year has been a ride. The year before this was also a ride. Today we’re talking about an approach to problem-solving, questions, and looking for solutions in elementary general music. That approach is research.

 
 

Why Research?

  • Very simply… you have questions that need answers. We have challenges in teaching elementary general music.

  • You have questions no one can answer but you.

  • We have biases and unproductive ways of thinking. Humans tend to seek out ideas they agree with and avoid ideas they disagree with. If it confirms our view of the world, we have more confidence in that idea.

  • We default to tradition (this is how I’ve always taught recorder) and authority (this is how my methods teacher said to do it) which can have limitations in the classroom.

Data Stories

The problem with research studies:

Research studies are not very satisfying

  • Most of the time, they end with phrases like “more research is needed”

  • “In this specific case, the evidence suggests that 3rd grade students in this part of the country can improve sight reading”

  • Here’s a phrase you won’t find in a research study: “research proves that ___.”

They are not always actionable

  • Because they are so measured and careful

They are not designed to be accessible to anyone

  • Not meant for elementary general music teachers specifically to read. They are meant for researchers, PhD students and professors in higher education.

  • They are not designed to be public information on YouTube, a blog, or Facebook. They are designed to be behind a paywall.

Here are some examples of research questions you’d probably like answers to.

  • What musical content knowledge do students recall after the disruption to school routines in 2020 and 2021?

  • To what extent is there a content knowledge gap for students who were virtual and students who had in-person instruction?

  • Does my morning routine before school impact my energy level at the end of the school day?

  • What are effective differentiation strategies for 2nd grade musicians after a disruption of instructional time in 2020 and 2021?

  • What activities do 5th grade musicians find engaging?

  • What strategies improve vocal improvisation?

  • What are some ways to increase parent involvement in the music program?

  • Does the musicianship of my students improve when I use the National Standards for Music Education?

  • How are my students’ aural skills impacted by the use of the Kodaly, Orff, Dalcroze, or MLT frameworks?

  • To what extent is my teaching accessible to students with physical disabilities?

  • How can 1st grade students manage conflict productively when working in small groups?

  • What is the impact of a behavioral reward system on student behavior vs a constructivist approach?

And the list goes on and on.

These problems are personal. They involve your situation, your students, your community.

Action Research

Action Research: Teachers investigating solutions to their own problems with curiosity and an open mind.

  1. Start with a good question. It should be personal to you. It should be specific. “How can I be happier at work?” is too broad. “What activities and musics do 5th grade musicians find engaging?” is a better question.

  2. Grab some current information - what’s the situation right now? Where do we stand? If I want to improve my 5th graders’ experiences, I might spend some time reflecting on what music and music activities I’m currently teaching and how I notice 5th graders respond. I can articulate the problem I observe in terms of student engagement. I can also make a hypothesis that student engagement would improve if I added more pop music.

  3. Has anyone had this problem before? What did they do? Did it work?

  4. Make a plan. How will I know what types of music and activities 5th graders find engaging? I could ask them in a survey. I could also try a few new activities and see how they respond.

  5. Do the research! Ask the questions, try the activities, and observe your results.

  6. How did it go? Let’s compare some scenes from the beginning of the process to where we are now after implementing this plan.

  7. Brag about it. Tell your principal. Tell the music teachers facebook group. Spread the word because we all want to know.

  8. What’s next? Maybe we move to 4th grade. Maybe we notice an improvement, but we want to keep the momentum going.

Closing the Gap.

We need a research mindset in the classroom. We have questions that need answers. We have problems that need solutions. We need strategies to find answers and solve problems.

What if we could fill each other’s social media feeds with our solutions to problems, and encouragement to each other? What if we could collaborate on pathways forward?

What Classroom Instruments Should I Buy First?

I’m moving to a brand new school which I’m really excited about, and I have the opportunity to open up their primary music program - I’ll be the founding music teacher. My current school as everything: all the Orff instruments, all the percussion, full sets of drums and boomwackers and everything. I’m wondering, if you're on a budget and you're starting from scratch, what do you consider those key items that you’ve got to have to get your primary music program going? What are some of the things I need to prioritize my budget for? Thanks!

 
What classroom instruments should I buy first?
 

The correct answer is you should buy what you’ll use the most!

Fewer but Better or More but Lower Quality?

  • Age old question

  • Both are valuable options, neither is correct

  • Does every student need an instrument? How am I using the instruments?

Unpitched Percussion

  • Rhythm sticks

  • Tubanos

    • Tunable

  • frame drums

  • Prioritize woods and skins, move to metals, shakers / scrapers

Barred Instruments

  • Melodic work or harmonic work?

  • Prioritize mid and lower pitched woods first, move to metals and higher pitches

  • Brands I recommend: Studio 49 and Sonar

    • (studio 49 series)

Five Year Plan

  • Start with a big dream

  • Of those items, what will I use every day?

Five- Year Ensemble:

  • Unpitched percussion: 6 tubanos, 25 frame drums, 25 sets of rhythm sticks, “color” auxiliary

  • Pitched percussion: 2 soprano glockenspiels, 4 soprano xylophones, 1 soprano metallophone, 4 alto xylophones, 1 alto metallophone, 2 bass xylophones

  • Each year is a comparable price, with the exception of year 1

  • Year 1

    • Unpitched percussion: 1 tubano, 6 frame drums, 25 sets of rhythm sticks, 1 set of finger cymbals

    • Pitched percussion: alto xylophone (how are you using them?)

  • Year 2

    • Unpitched percussion: 2 tubanos, 6 frame drums, auxiliary

    • Pitched percussion: Bass xylophone, alto xylophone

  • Year 3

    • Unpitched percussion: 3 tubanos, “color” instruments (crash cymbals, vibraslap, rainstick, cabasa)

    • Pitched percussion: bass xylophone, 1 soprano xylophone

  • Year 4

    • Unpitched percussion: frame drums, fun stuff!

    • Pitched percussion: 2 soprano glockenspiels, 1 soprano metallophone, 3 soprano xylophones

  • Year 5

    • Unpitched percussion: fun stuff!

    • Pitched percussion: 2 alto xylophones, 1 alto metallophone

  • Five Year Flexibility

    • Adjustable, but priority order stays the same

    • Five year ensemble will be different from the ten year ensemble

  • Where to Buy

  • Woodwind Brasswind Open Box

  • Judy Pine West Music

Make Noise

  • Create a five year plan and share it with your administration

  • It’s not for “you” or “your program” - it’s for students and by extension, the school and community

  • When you do an unboxing, film it or write about it - depending on the privacy contracts parents sign at the beginning of the year - and send it to your principal, school board, PTA, or whoever has the power to support the music program.

  • Use common vocabulary to explain the benefits (innovation, authentic assessment, cooperative learning, etc.)

  • Tell students how much the instrument cost, and that you’re trying to get more.

At the end of the day, slow and steady wins the race. It is not likely that we will have a whole set of instruments dropped in our laps the first year we build from scratch. That’s fine.

We’re going to be measured and strategic, and make well-informed and musical decisions about budget and quality.

Any instrumental experience is better than no instrumental experience. Any musical experience with you as the teacher is better than no musical experience.

What you are doing every day in the classroom is valuable. We are going to move toward quality musical instruction that we build over time, little by little.

How Do You Assess Improvisation?

 

Do you have any tips for assessing improvisation? I always feel strange assigning a grade since I view improvisation as something personal and subjective. Thanks!

 
 
How Do You Assess Improvisation?
 

There’s a video on this topic inside the assessment course.

Definitions:

  • Improvisation - thinking and outputting musically

  • Assessment - how we know what students need from us

1 - Clarify Improvisation Goals

The assessment is directly tied to the purpose of the activity. What is the point of students improvising?

Some goals are broad (“I want to develop musical thinkers who can actualize their ideas”). For the purpose of assessment, it’s helpful to look at more narrow goals.

These goals are dictated by the larger curriculum planning process.

Here are some sample goals for an improvisation activity:

  • Improvise 8 beats

  • Improvise with fluency

  • Improvise in question and answer form

  • Improvise within a specific toneset or rhythmic set

  • Improvise with speech

  • Improvise in a head voice

  • Improvise with an instrument

  • Improvise with a clear recorder tone

  • Improvise

2 - Determine the Type of Evidence

Qualitative Data and Quantitative Data

  • Quantitative Data: Data that show quick summarizations through numbers or other means that show an absolute value

  • Qualitative Data: Data that narrate or describe characteristics

  • Which gives the best evidence of growth or achievement?

  • Should we combine them?

Improvisation Examples with Quantitative Data

  • Improvise with speech - yes or no

  • Improvise - yes or no

  • Improvise with fluency

    • 4 - complete fluency throughout the entire improvisation

    • 3 - clear sense of pulse throughout the entire improvisation. Some articulations may occur slightly ahead of or behind the beat

    • 2 - Improvises with an inconsistent pulse

    • 1 - Does not improvise

Improvisation Examples with Quantitative Data

  • Improvise!

    • Describe the improvisation - lovely phrasing, question and answer form, repeated rhythms, good use of rests

  • Improvise a specific scene

    • Describe the text painting and use of phrasing

  • Improvise with speech

    • Describe the situation around a classroom management error that could have contributed to a low score

3 - Partner with Students

  • “How do you think you did?”

  • “Why do you think that?”

  • Asking students to narrate their thinking and describe their performance can give us valuable insight into their musical development

When we assess improvisation, we’ll start with clear goals as defined by our larger curriculum planning process.

We’ll choose the type of data - qualitative or quantitative - that best represent our goals.

We’ll partner with students so the feedback loop stays strong.

When we combine all these approaches, improvisation assessment becomes much more fun and manageable, both for us and our students.

What Are Some Ways to Efficiently Pass Out Classroom Instruments?

“Hi Victoria! I’d love to hear more about some strategies you have for classroom setup of barred instruments or unpitched percussion. My students are new to barred instruments but they've had many experiences practicing both rhythm and pitch concepts in our class, so I'd love to then transfer that over to the instruments. I’d love to hear about some strategies you have for taking out the instruments and setting them up in a way that's time-efficient. That would be wonderful, thank you!”

 
How Should I Pass Out Instruments in the Music Classroom?
 

Guiding Questions

  • What do students do in your music classroom? How can the setup serve the function?

  • How are we using the instruments? What’s the role of the instruments - accompaniment to the ensemble, or the ensemble itself?

  • How often are we using the instruments?

  • Does everyone need an instrument? Does everyone need an instrument every class?

The purpose of the activity will dictate the setup of your classroom and it can impact how you choose to facilitate instrument distributions.

Unpitched Percussion Storage:

  • Storage: Ikea bins or tubs organized by family

    • Easy to move around the room before and after class, and during centers

  • Tubanos, djembes, standing drums are out away from the door traffic if possible

Pitched Percussion Storage:

  • Stacking

  • Floor tape

    • In an arc

    • Lower pitch in the back, higher pitches toward the front

    • Movement in the center, barred instruments away from the door around the perimeter of the room

  • If possible, keep a few instruments out all the time

Classroom Transitions

  • How we move from activities, procedures within an activity, or class to class

  • Eliminate empty space where students don’t have a direction

  • How can I add music in between point A and point B? What will students be doing as we move from point A to point B?

  • Where am I trying to go? What’s the point? What will students do?

Transition Ideas

  • Unpitched percussion is often logistically easier than barred instruments (less expensive and smaller)

  • The teacher passes them out:

    • While students are doing something else like playing a game

      • Bee Bee Bumblebee - students play the game while you walk around and put instruments behind them

    • Teacher passes them out to every other student

  • Check for readiness

    • Older students working on a stick tossing game or hand clapping game that will move to rhythm sticks - Students work in partners and practice hand clapping. When they’re ready for the teacher to watch they give a thumbs up. The teacher watches and then hands rhythm sticks or motions for the partners to go get rhythm sticks

    • Small groups practice their compositions and notate body percussion. When they’re ready to move on, they give the teacher a thumbs up and perform their composition. If they’re ready, the teacher motions for them to get an instrument

    • Small groups practice singing and signing solfege to the melody of a known song. When they’re ready for the teacher to watch they give a thumbs up. The teacher watches and motions for one student to bring a barred instrument back for students to play the melody

  • Students put them away:

    • One partner walks to the Ikea bins or labeled instrument tubs and puts away the unpitched percussion

    • The person in the group who got the barred instrument is the one to place it back on the floor tape

  • The teacher picks them up:

    • As the activity happens: Students speak the text while clapping the rhythm of the words, teacher walks around with the bin and keeps going around the circle. When students drop off the sticks they speak and clap

  • The pass off:

    • Students take turns at the instruments and pas off their mallets to new classmates

      • Plainsies Clapsies - A few students play the melody while others play the game. Those mallet players walk around the instruments and hand their mallets to a classmate. The mallet player takes the scarf, game player takes the mallets, and the game continues for another round

  • Part of a game:

    • In an elimination or counting out game, students move to an instrument when they are “out”

  • Ending activity / opening activity

    • As a transition from one class to the next in your daily schedule, end a class with an unpitched percussion activity. Students leave the instruments at their spots and go to line up. When the next class walks in, they do their rhythm activities on unpitched percussion instead of body percussion.

When we think strategically about how to keep musical activities and musical thinking moving through logistical setups, we’re thinking about classroom transitions. Those transitions are what make a music class woven together in a way that feels play-based, musical, and magical - both for us and for our students

How Do You Explain to Parents What an Informance Is?

 

This year we are not able to have our big singing concert at the end of the year, so for the past several weeks I have been recording the in class performances of each class. I was hoping to move into more in an informance direction for future years, and I was hoping to get a definition of an informance that is simple and easy for parents to understand.

 
 
How Do You Explain to Parents What an Informance Is?
 

It is no secret that I am a huge fan of the informance model of a musical sharing event. I am in love with how it highlights the learning process instead of a final product, and highlights students’ creative musical decisions as opposed to making everything teacher-directed.

That said, if you are in a situation where perhaps this philosophy of the music sharing is new to you or your students, it can be kind of strange to explain this to your administration and then in turn to the parents. We have a really good idea of what a music performance looks like. That something that we are all familiar with. This model of an informance might be a little bit less familiar.

Today we’ll talk about what an informance is and compare it to a performance. We'll talk about a process to explain the informance to administration and parents, and then I also have a resource if you want some of these scripts a little bit more fleshed-out.

What is an Informance?

  • Centered around education, not solely around performance

  • Simple or more formal

  • What is a typical music class

Performance vs Informance

Performance

  • Showcases a final product

  • Designed to entertain an audience

  • Students are discouraged from making mistakes

  • The production is separated from the “behind-the-scenes” work

Informance

  • Showcases the process

  • Designed to educate an audience

  • Students are encouraged to show how we recover from musical mistakes

  • The production is the “behind-the-scenes” work

Explaining an Informance to Parents and Administration

  • What is your music class like? Describe it. If you were to sit in on music class, what would you hear? What would you see? If you were to participate in music class, what would you be doing?

  • You’ve just described your informance.

  • Take that description and edit it down to the length you feel you need.

  • I want to highlight the process of learning and the movement towards growth. My musicians are expert learners at whatever field they try.

An Informance Template for Parent Invitations and Welcome Letters

A Concert Schedule for a First Year Music Teacher

 
 
A Typical Concert Schedule for Elementary General Music
 
 

“Hi Victoria! Loving all of your resources! What is your typical program schedule and do you have a set plan for which grade level does what for each program? First year teacher without programs and I feel like I’ll need to hit the ground running with them next year and have no idea where to start. Thank you!”

 

Your First Year as a Music Teacher

The first thing to say is a gigantic congratulations to every teacher in a new position.

Writing applications, searching for job postings, sending resumes, writing cover letters, asking for recommendations, and going through the interview process are all exhausting. Now that the job search is over, the real fun begins.

However, it can be tricky to plan ahead for programs. It’s like jumping in with two feet without knowing where your feet are going to land. Let’s talk through some ideas.

There is No Correct Event Schedule

Each teaching situation is unique. The factors that impact your program schedule will be things like your students’ previous experiences, their musical backgrounds, your administration’s expectations, and community input.

Even when you find a schedule you enjoy, it’s subject to change given the needs of your school.

The Purpose of a Music Event

  • Highlight students’ musical growth

  • Educate the school and parent community

  • Raise awareness and support for the music program

First Year Music Event Options

  • Contribute to the school culture: PTA events, class celebrations, school events, service projects

  • Isolated event: Winter concert and spring concert

  • Informances: in the spring, especially with younger grades

Teacher Goals:

  • Showcase students

  • Keep it flexible

  • Keep it manageable

  • Keep it simple

  • Remember The Music Man

What is Elemental Music?

 
01 - what is elemental music
 

If you are like many music teachers out there you have probably heard the term Elemental Music before. You may have also wondered at some point in your life what that phrase means.

It's one of those things that we hear thrown around at workshops at clinics at conferences… and even when people stop to explain what Elemental Music is, sometimes that definition can still feel fuzzy.

So is this question is very simply ….. What is Elemental Music?

Standard Definition

There isn’t a standard definition for elemental music out there. Different pedagogues use the term in different ways and actualize it in their classrooms differently.

However, in general, there are a set of characteristics we can expect to observe in elemental music.

Characteristics of Elemental Music

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.

Elemental Instruments

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.

Mixed Media

Elemental music uses a combination of textures and sounds.

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.

“Elemental Music is never music alone, but forms a unity with met with movement, dance, and speech. It is music that one makes one’s self, in which one takes part not as a listener but as a participant.”
— Carl Orff

At its core, elemental music is created by humans with the intention that other humans will participate in it. In this style, everyone has something to contribute. It is music that humans make themselves. They can make it in an ensemble with each other in a way that is organic, and in a way that celebrates community.

Read more here.