NJMEA Early Childhood Music And Advocacy Highlighted On Caucus NJ With Steve Adubado, Amy Burns

NJMEA Early Childhood Music And Advocacy Highlighted On Caucus NJ With Steve Adubado

Amy Burns Far Hills Country Day School aburns@fhcds.org

Last fall, I was contacted by the producers of Caucus NJ with Steve Adubado to appear on the show to discuss the benefits of exposing infants to music and the benefits of technology in music education. After speaking with the administration at my school and researching more on the topic through Missy Strong’s articles and resources she gave in the course, First Steps in Music by John Feierabend, I decided to participate. I took part in a solo discussion and a panel discussion about the importance of music in early childhood education, as well as the benefits of technology in music education.

The Importance Of Early Childhood Music

Zoltán Kodály (1882-1967), a Hungarian composer, ethnomusicologist, educator, and the inspirer of the Kodály Approach to music education, was asked at what age music education should begin. “Nine months before the birth of the child”. Later he refined his answer: “I would go further: the musical education of the child should start nine months before the birth of the mother”. (Kokas, 1970; Salbert, 2015)

When reading articles and works written by Zoltán Kodály, John Feierabend, Missy Strong, Lili M. Levinowitz, and more, there is a strong case for the importance of early childhood music, especially ages 0-9 when the brain is developing rapidly. When reading Missy’s article titled, Neuroscience and Music Education: Why What We Do Is So Important published by SmartMusic, we learn that “a baby is born with about 100 billion neurons, each with approximately 2,500 synaptic connections. By the time a child is three years old, it is close to 15,000 per neuron.” (Strong, 2019). The neurons are basically the cells for communication and the synapses are the connections between the neurons. By the time a child is five years old, the brain “reaches approximately 90 percent of adult size…unless cells form complex neural networks and negative blocking is avoided, unused cells are pruned and not recaptured. Peak times for learning are diminished.” (Gordon, 2013)

Why is it important for music educators to know this? Due to the facts that nurturing stimulates synaptic growth in the early years, synaptic connections among neurons are vital and significant, and repetition during these early years develops habits, exposing music to infants is essential for their musical aptitude to grow (Feierabend, 1995; Gordon, 2013; Strong, 2019). According to Edwin Gordon, music aptitude is a measure of the potential to learn music. When children reach a certain age, around nine, children’s musical aptitude peak. After that peak, the loss of creating a musical foundation of learning cannot be rewritten (Gordon, 2013). However, this does not mean that students cannot learn or appreciate music. It means, as Feierabend states, that “there is an irreversible loss of that musical potential” (Feierabend & Strong, 2019). As Missy points out from Stefan Koelsch’s research, all children are inherently musical. In her podcast with John Feierabend, they speak to the fact that just as schools do for subjects such as math, art, reading, etc., children need excellent instructors of music to draw out their musicality (Strong, 2019; Feierabend & Strong 2019).

The benefits of music education in early childhood are numerous. As stated above, children’s musicality will develop greatly during that period of time. In addition, learning music from the ages of 0-6 is similar to how children learn to speak a language at that age. As with the language babble stage, children learn music through a sequence which includes singing in tune and marching to a beat (Levinowitz, 1998). Exposing children to music has also shown an acceleration in brain development, particularly in the areas of language acquisition and reading skills (Bright Horizons Education team; Gersema, 2016). Steve often invites experts in the field of early childhood brain development onto his show to show support for the Right From the Start NJ Campaign (https:// rightfromthestartnj.org). Right From the Start NJ is a public awareness campaign created to educate the public at large and New Jersey policymakers about the critical importance of the early years of child development, from birth to three.

Fostering A Positive Musical Environment

When Steve asked me about how we can expose the youngest of children, even those who are not born yet, to music, I answered that a parent can do many things to expose their young children to music. They could find a Caregiver and Me type of music class. There are many to choose from offered throughout the state. In addition, music educators can offer a class in their own community or at their school for their own staff. Four years ago, I approached the administration at the school I teach, Far Hills Country Day School, to ask them if I could give a Mommy/Caregiver and Me music class once a month to those in the community that wanted to attend. I started off with one 45-minute class at the beginning of the school day using materials that I had gathered over the years. The class had a few families with children ranging from twelve months to three years old. It was mostly comprised of younger siblings of students who attend the school.

Currently, the classes have grown immensely. I have had to split the class into three classes: Crawlers (ages four to twelve months), Waddlers (ages one to two years), and Toddlers (ages two to four years). I host these classes once a month on a Monday morning at the beginning of the school day. I now use Dr. Feierabend’s First Steps in Music for Infants and Toddlers program. One of my most joyful moments occurred during a class this past summer. I was playing a songtale on my flute and as the parents and caregivers were slowly rocking their children, I heard them quietly sing to their children. I was in awe of these parents. They were truly becoming musical for their children.

This brings me to what we can do to foster a positive musical environment. For parents, I tell them that the classes are a great start. However, the best thing they can do is sing to their young children. Their children love them unconditionally at this age. No matter what the parent thinks of their own voice, they should sing. The more they do, the more the children will listen and learn about music and their aptitude will grow.

As for music educators, we know that young children’s brains are developing rapidly during these first three years of their lives. Therefore, repetitive and positive, high-quality musical experiences are important for this age level. Constantly sing, move to, listen, and respond to fun, authentic, wonderful music with your young children and students.

The Benefits Of Technology In The Music Classroom

Steve continued the interview by asking about the benefits of technology. I always emphasize when I give workshops about integrating technology into the elementary classroom that, I am an elementary music teacher. Therefore, my students sing, perform on instruments, move to music together, create music, listen to music, respond to music, and most importantly, do music. If technology can assist in a way for students to successfully do this, then I will utilize it. However, I feel that active technology, one that engages the student on the musical task at hand, is more effective than passive technology, one that research reports on where a child is watching YouTube for exuberant amounts of time per day. When I utilize technology, it is in an active way.

Technology is best used when it can enhance the music classroom in a way that traditional methods cannot. There are several examples that have been very effective in my music classroom. One is when a traditional instrument cannot be successfully played to make or create music or the music program lacks funds to own enough instruments for each student to play. I then bring up a virtual instrument on a device and plug the device into a decent pair of speakers. The student that could not make music with the traditional instrument, can now perform with their classmates by tapping and playing a virtual instrument. Virtual instruments can be found in numerous apps, such as GarageBand or Timothy Purdum’s Orff Xylophone iOS app, or at virtual instrument websites found with a Google Search on a Chromebook.

Other examples include using a music composition program such as Noteflight (noteflight.com) to help students who are challenged by composing with the traditional methods of paper and pencil. Finally, the students sharing their work with an authentic audience empowers them. For example, students create music and then want to share it with another music class in school, or in the state, or around the globe. Digital Audio Workstations (DAW) such as Soundtrap (soundtrap.com), give students the opportunity to collaborate, create, and share music online with other students from various countries. Digital student portfolios and engagement tools such as Seesaw (web.seesaw. me), ClassDojo (classdojo.com) or Flipgrid (flipgrid.com), empower students by giving them a voice and the chance to reflect and share their work with a larger audience. These programs also encourage the practice of digital citizenship skills by commenting on each other’s works. This helps them realize that when they communicate with other students from around the world, that music is not something that is just in their classroom, or just in their town, or just in their state. It is something that is global and universal.

continued on next page

PBS aired the episode of Caucus NJ with Steve Adubado last February. However, the solo interview is found at https:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mc3wk4quDd0. In addition, the roundtable panel discussion about how the arts are essential to a complete education and to the overall healthy development of communities is found at https://www.thirteen.org/programs/caucus-new-jersey-with-steve-adubato/arts-educationand-its-impact-on-child-development-ipy2eo/. The panel included Lauren Meehan, Matt Ross, and Lawrence Tamburri. I was proud to represent NJMEA and to advocate for music education for early childhood.

Amy M. Burns (aburns@fhcds.org) has taught PreKgrade 4 general music for over 20 years at Far Hills Country Day School. She has authored three books on how to integrate tech into the elementary music classroom. She has presented many sessions on the topic, including four keynote addresses in Texas, Indiana, Saint Maarten, and Australia. She is the recipient of the TI:ME Teacher of the Year, NJ Master Music Teacher, Governor’s Leader in Arts Education, and the NJ Nonpublic School Teacher of the Year Awards.

Resources:

Bright Horizons Education Team. (n.d.). Children and

Music: Benefits of Music in Child Development.

Retrieved August 9, 2019, from https://www. brighthorizons.com/family-resources/music-and-childrenrhythm-meets-child-development Feierabend, J. M. (1995). Music and Intelligence in the Early

Years - Feierabend Association for Music Education: A tuneful, beatful, artful learning community. Retrieved

August 9, 2019, from https://www.feierabendmusic.org/ music-and-intelligence-in-the-early-years/ Feierabend, J. M. (2000). First steps in music for infants and toddlers: The curriculum: Birth through 36 months.

Chicago, IL: GIA Publications.

Feierabend, J. M. & Strong, M. What is First Steps in Music:

The Infant/Toddler Curriculum, Part 1 [Audio blog interview]. (2019, June 20). Retrieved August 9, 2019, from https://www.feierabendmusic.org/what-is-first-stepsin-music-the-infant-toddler-curriculum-part-1-s1e11/ Gersema, E. (2016, June 24). Children’s brains develop faster with music training. Retrieved August 9, 2019, from https://news.usc.edu/102681/childrens-brains-developfaster-with-music-training/ Gordon, E. E. (2013). Music Learning Theory for Newborn and Young Children: 2013 Edition. Gia Publications. Levinowitz, L. M. (1998). The Importance of Music in Early

Childhood. General Music Today,12(1), 4-7. doi::10.1177/ doi:104837139801200103 Kokas, K. (1970). Kodály’s Concept of Music

Education. Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music

Education,22(Fall), 49-56. Retrieved August 9, 2019, from https://www.jstor.org/stable/40317114 Right From the Start NJ (2019). Retrieved from https:// rightfromthestartnj.org/ Salbert, D. (2015, July 14). Collecting Repertoire for

Kodály-inspired Music Lessons in Dutch Elementary

Schools. Retrieved August 9, 2019, from https://www. researchcatalogue.net/view/154479/154604 Strong, M. (2019, July 22). Neuroscience and Music

Education: Why What We Do Is So Important. Retrieved

August 9, 2019, from https://www.smartmusic.com/ blog/neuroscience-and-music-education-why-what-wedo-is-so-important/?utm_content=buffer7d5e1&utm_ medium=social&utm_source=facebook&utm_ campaign=daily_post&fbclid=IwAR2MEtgz-rYuFlYBgAIe

RhGfBVdI9XElJWiq0CgqoddVB85Ot2CMBAgPh64

What is Kodály Music Education? (n.d.). Retrieved August 9, 2019, from https://www.loyola.edu/school-education/ academics/graduate/kodaly-music-education/about