RECENT EVENTS Summer Professional Learning Day

Ruth Saffir

by Wendy Heiligenberg

When: 25 January 2023

“Reading as a language précis.”

“To read music is to learn a language. Despite music surrounding us from birth, to understand and decipher symbols which relate to the sounds we hear is a formidable challenge. For the process to be manageable and enjoyable for children, there must be immediate and sustainable rewards built into the process.

By relating each aspect of music reading to music activities which are pleasurable and exciting, this journey can be one of exploration and curiosity.”

The precursors to reading music are the reactions to music which involve recognising concepts such as rhythm and pitch. How are they related to existing skills, such as movement, singing, letter reading and writing? Then there are the spatial relationships to pitch, rhythm and the specific instrument involved.

Ruth suggested we need to explore the student’s primary connection to music: what is the relevance of music to the student? This will help us establish their motivation for learning to play music.

We need to teach the note durations and note placements both visually and by name. For the former, Kodaly ta and ti-ti are common in schools. For the latter, do-re-mi syllables are easily learnt, particularly for singers, (moveable or fixed do, that is the question), but as instrumental teachers we still must end up with the letter names.

With reference to rhythm, finding a relationship to existing skills is advisable. For example, locomotive actions such as walking, running, skipping, sliding, swaying build a clear rhythmic sense. Then using more restrained movements such as tapping, clapping and patsching becomes a bridge from whole body movement to learning rhythm names. Spatial concepts are useful. Rhythm – duration is speed, distance and energy. Pitch is high or low, tight and loose, long and short, thick and thin. Ruth referred to the spatial concepts of pitch which are different for each instrument – for the piano- left is low and right is high, for horizontal strings far is low, close is high, left is low, right is high, left close is higher than right far. For vertical strings close is low, far is high, right far is higher than next-left close etc. No wonder it is confusing She suggested exploring the spatial concepts that apply to pitch on your particular instrument.

The steps to reading music are: 1. Separation of rhythm and pitch. 2. Visual recognition of rhythmic symbols. 3. Using rhythmic symbols as incitation to action (on or off the instrument) 4. Visual recognition of pitch symbols: the staff. 5. Recognition of the various sounds of the symbols. 5. Whole body exploration of the staff.

Ruth’s message was that reading music is an adventure. “Good preparation helps ensure the journey is, if not always smooth, full of variety and meaning.”