Brought to you by Music Education Solutions
Issue 5.0: Autumn 2020 Inside this issue
Body Percussion for wellbeing Introduction to Kodaly Method Music Education theory & research Covid music teaching tips
Best Practice in SEN music Cross-curricular music activities
PROMOTING WELLBEING THROUGH BODY PERCUSSION This term has presented many challenges to music teachers. One of these is a need to promote student and teacher wellbeing, after months of various degrees of isolation and anxiety. Another is how to deliver meaningful music lessons with limited resources, often in non music teaching rooms whilst maintaining social distancing.
Throughout the summer Beat Goes On have delivered online body percussion CPD sessions and workshops for music hubs, arts organisations and educators across the world. We’ve aimed to equip participants with fun, engaging activities that draw upon participants’ own creative ideas and our many years experience delivering in-person workshops. As a former cast member of STOMP I ask how we can develop the visual element of rhythms, so that they look as good as they sound, and get bodies moving (also promoting physical wellbeing). Based on my collaborations with Pie Corbett of Talk4Writing I also explore the rhythmic potential of words, and how they can be used as a stimulus for composition. Below are three activities that explore these areas. There are video demonstrations of each one. The ‘sound sequence’ activity is taken from my body percussion book Body Beats.
1-8 sound sequence (inspired by STOMP’s ‘Pipes’ routine) In 8 small groups, each group is given a number between 1-8 and chooses one percussive sound to play on their number, resulting in 8 different sounds.
Start with everyone whispering the numbers 1-8 as a group in a loop.
Build the rhythm up, one group at a time, until all are playing.
Ask only groups with odd numbers, even numbers, prime numbers etc to continue, to create new rhythmic patterns.
Vary dynamics and tempi.
Shutting eyes can help to internalise the feel of the pulse.
Keep this going for as long as you wish. I once did with this with a class for 25 minutes, and when the finished they commented on how happy, calm and peaceful they felt.
Two part ‘wellbeing’ polyrhythm Here are a couple of grooves that work nicely together. The first is a variation of a ‘clave’ rhythm (a key element of Latin American music, that I explore in Body Beats). This groove has a lovely calming feel when performed at a steady tempo and provides positive momentum when performed faster. View the video demo of Groove 1 here Try building this groove up gradually:
just the stomps for four bars
add the click for four bars
add the clap for four bars
full groove
The second groove is an example of the use of the rhythmic potential of words as a stimulus for composition. To model the idea, I’ve used the dictionary definition of ‘well-being’.
‘comfortable, healthy, happy being’ Students can of course create their own rhythmic sentences, perhaps with a theme of ‘my silver lining of lockdown’ or similar, and then develop these into body percussion routines. View the video demo of Groove 2 here
When playing around with these two grooves you could try:
clave (A) x 4 bars, wellbeing (B) x 4 bars, A and B x 8 bars, repeat all 16 bars just the words on their own x 4 bars, just the body percussion on its own x 4 bars, together x 8 bars varying dynamics, tempo, body timbres giving students opportunities to lead the ensembles, using visual signals to cue and play with the above elements.
I hope you enjoy exploring these ideas with your students (or just for yourself). All of these activities are adaptable to suit all ages.
Ollie Tunmer is a former Stomp cast member, founder of Beat Goes On, and author of Body Beats. @BeatGoesOnUk
For any questions, online and in-person workshop / CPD enquiries, free downloadable resources and to buy ‘ Body Beats’ please visit www.beatgoeson.co.uk and follow @BeatGoesOnUK
MANCHESTER CAMERATA have launched an appeal to raise £250,000 to secure the orchestra’s recovery – in other words, to offset the cumulative loss of income from their cancelled performances – but also to secure their impact during this pandemic. This is their vision behind Untold. Untold is a series of films each telling the remarkable and intimate stories of real people in our community through film, storytelling, prose and - of course - stunning music performed at The Monastery in Gorton by Camerata musicians and collaborators.
Directed by the Manchester-based award-winning drama and documentary filmmaker, Paul Sapin, each film tells a different story addressing universal themes of identity, belonging, loss and love, bound by the same clear goal – ‘to heal through music’ (Gábor Takács-Nagy, Music Director). So far, the orchestra has raised £119,000. However, they still have £131,000 to raise. Without individual donations, the rest of the series will not happen and the orchestra’s future is at risk. Manchester Camerata asks that you please consider making a donation to their urgent appeal to help them survive this pandemic and secure the future of live performance. Your donation will mean such a lot to our musicians and will give them hope at a time when life is very difficult. For more information, or to consider making a donation, please contact Paul Davies: pdavies@manchestercamerata.com
Sponsored Content
SUPPORTING LEARNING FOR MUSICIANS MAKE SOME NOISE AND TELFORD & WREKIN MUSIC
A collaboration between Make Some Noise and Telford & Wrekin Music enabled both orgnisations to encourage learning and foster skills growth opportunities for music professionals of all ages and experiences. Having a highly skilled team compliments the quality of the delivery, something both organisations were keen to maintain and develop further by providing the Certificate for Music Educators, for the first time. Professional musicians, some established tutors and mentors and some looking at this qualification as their launch pad into this career signed up to the Level 4 Certificate for Music Educators accredited by Trinity College London. The Certificate is a flexible learning programme aimed at anyone working as a music educator with children and young people, customised
to each learner's needs with assessment based on a portfolio of evidence including realistic analysis in the real working environment. ________________________________________________________________
Catching up with one of the musicians who took this course, we found out a little more about his journey. Since 2016 musician Scott Belle has been working with Make Some Noise on a variety of projects that are proven to show how music making can empower children and young people to become more confident, resulting in a better sense of well-being and achievement for all those involved. Commenting on his studies, Scott said: “I’m on a journey to build my skills and knowledge in music education, not only through practical experience, which has been the majority, but also through theory which strengthens those experiences. I wanted to add to my portfolio of expertise which is why the Certificate for Music Educators appealed to me. The course helped me to look back over my time as a music educator and see the development through different avenues. For anyone considering a career in music education I would say that the practical experience and the theoretical knowledge go hand-in-hand and without one of them, you lose the beauty of why, what and how you’re doing something.” ________________________________________________________________ Tracy Hall, Music Team Leader at Telford & Wrekin Music commented: “Although the tutors that took part had lots of practical experience joining the course allowed them to develop a better understanding of the principles and practice of working with young people and gave them an opportunity to improve their skills and knowledge in a more theoretical base which they may not have had an opportunity to do in their normal peripatetic role.” This unique collaboration brought together musicians from the community music sector and the music service sector, studying and sharing experiences together. Made possible thanks to the funding from the National Foundation for Youth Music, who share Make Some Noise and Telford & Wrekin Music’s belief that the power of music should be accessible regardless of background.
Music education’s theory and resea Gary Spruce, Birming Introduction
‘What works’ and ‘Evide
Education theory and research has something of ‘the dog that has been given a bad name’ about it, particularly, perhaps, amongst schoolteachers. For example, Carl Hendrick, head of research at Wellington College, an independent school in Somerset, has opined that much educational theory, ’has little or no value for effective classroom teaching’ (Cited in Ashman, 2015). The policy rhetoric of government over the last decade, whilst not seeking wholly to dismiss the value of educational theories and research, has selectively promoted those theories that resonate with and support policy aims- for example around direct instruction and ‘knowledge rich’ curricular. - whilst at the same time seeking to marginalise alternative perspectives and those who promote them. In music education, the ubiquitous attachment of ‘practical’ to resources, workshops and CPD sessions often seems designed to assure readers and participants of their ‘relevance’ and ‘usefulness’ whilst simultaneously holding the promise that fundamental beliefs about music education will remain undisturbed. The research evidence upon which the efficacy claims for particular approaches, resources and methods is based is rarely made clear.
The critiques of education lacking usefulness and v teacher has promoted a around research and th separate research that ‘h which shows ‘what work ‘evidence-based’ are highl would question research a what works or practice evidence? However, Biest dangers of accepting th arguing that they leave intentionally - ‘the norms decision making’ (np). Fo about the purposes of education and the values teach. He argues that crud relationship between ‘evidence-based practice’ theories coming to be und instructions that teacher potentially robbing teach make professional decision setting and the children they support and nurtu However, as he says:
arch: looking beyond ‘what works’. gham City University.
enced-based Practice.
nal theory and research as value for the classroom long-running discourse heory which seeks to has no value’ from that rks’. ‘What works’ and ly seductive tropes. Who and theories that show us that is underpinned by ta (2007) warns us of the hese tropes too readily, unquestioned - perhaps and values in educational or instance, assumptions – in our case - music s underpinning what we de understandings of the ‘what works’ and results in research and derstood as akin to sets of rs need to follow, thus hers of their agency to ns pertinent to their own whose musical learning ure within that setting.
‘research cannot supply us with rules for action but only with hypotheses for intelligent problem solving. Research can only tell us what has worked in a particular situation, not what will work in any future situation. The role of the educational professional in this process is not to translate general rules into particular lines of action. It is rather to use research findings to make one’s problem solving more intelligent. This not only involves deliberation and judgment about the means and techniques of education; it involves at the very same time deliberation and judgment about the ends of education — and this in a strict and conjugate relation with deliberation and judgment about the means’ (Biesta 2007, np.)
Looking beyond ‘what works’: the field of music education research. Within the limitations of a short article it is possible only to scratch the surface of music education research. However, the field is replete with examples of research which, whilst not having an immediate and direct bearing on classroom teaching in terms of offering a template for action, has much to offer to music teachers’ deliberations and decision making and the development of professional agency. Work in the development psychology of music education presents a range of models of musical development which help our understanding of how children relate and respond to music at given ages and stages of development. Swanwick and Tillman’s eight mode spiral of musical development (1986) which arguably adopts a broadly Piagetian perspective, is one of the most influential of these. Originally applied to composing it has been developed and adapted both by the authors and others to provide a model that can be applied holistically to children and young people’s musical development. Similarly, Adam Ockelford through his work on the Sounds of Intent project http://soundsofintent.org/ has developed a framework for musical development for children and young people with learning difficulties, developing this later for use with all children in early years (Voyajolu and Ockelford, 2016). Models of development have also been advanced which focus on particular aspects of musical development such as singing (Welch, 2006) and children’s symbolic representation of music (e.g. Davison and Scripp, 1988).
None of these seek to teaching but all have the professional decisions ma Moreover they can also e fundamental questions su by musical development? puts it, ‘What develops in
provide a template for e potential to inform the ade by music educators. encourage us to reflect on uch as ‘what do we mean ?’ or as Bamberger (2006) n musical development?’.
Research and theoretical perspectives can also encourage us to question our unexamined assumptions about children, their music making and indeed music itself. One criticism levelled at some research into children’s musical development is that it takes as a reference point arbitrary adult ideals and conventions and considers children’s music making and understanding as a deficit model in relation to these. However, other approaches particularly into children’s music making in the primary school and early years encourages us to consider children not simply as novices seeking to enter an adult musical world but as sentient musical beings who use music to make meaning within their own worlds at that point in their lives:
Children have a musical vitality, their own way of being musical in the world. The teacher, with an awareness of what is possible, must find a way of meeting children on their own musical terms, yet extending their learning along pathways which are mapped within the wider musical culture. (Young and Glover, 1998 i).
and the outcome of teac as seen from the teache to learn, the content o learn, the way of learn various musical pheno experienced and express by the learner (Folkestad
Again, whilst such perceptions do not provide a set of instructions for action, they have the power to cause us to question the pedagogical relationships (the relationship between the teacher, the pupil and what there is to be learnt) that underpin music classroom practice.
Moving closer to the prim last fifteen years or so, have had a significant imp education experiences of p first of these are progr learning that have em Opportunities Programme Variously known as Fir Instrumental Teaching an Teaching (WCET) they teaching instruments in key stage 2, for periods o Recent research from, for e and Whittaker (2017) and a significant contribution the differences of aims an its pedagogies across the developed over the years, informed debates and disc
Similarly potentially disruptive of conventional pedagogical relationships is the body of social-cultural research (a perspective which looks at children and young people’s cultural and social settings and experiences within and beyond school) that offers insights into children and young people’s musical worlds and an understanding that what they experience in formal education is but one part of that music education.
(A) music teacher never meets musically ignorant, untutored or uneducated pupils: on the contrary, when pupils come to school they all possess a rich and in some ways sophisticated musical knowledge, acquired from a variety of outside-school musical activities (Folkestad, 2006, cited in Daubney, A. 2017, 5). Here the pedagogical shift is:
of focus, from how to teach (teaching methods)
The second are the El Siste e.g. In Harmony, England which seek ‘to inspire an children in deprived comm and disciplines of ensem Council England Web significant funding over t along with uncritical government and sections
ching in terms of results er’s perspective, to what of learning, and how to ning – in our case, how omena are perceived, sed in musical activities d 2006, 136).
mary classroom, over the two particular initiatives pact on the formal music primary age children. The rammes of instrumental merged from the Wider es of the previous decade. rst Access, Whole Class nd Whole Class Ensemble y are characterised by whole classes, usually at of one term to one year. example, Fautley, Kinsella d Hallam (2019) has made n to our understanding of nd purposes of WCET and e country, as these have enabling us now to have cussions about them.
ema inspired programmes and Big Noise in Scotland nd transform the lives of munities using the power mble music-making’ (Arts bsite). Having enjoyed the course of the decade advocacy from both s of the music education
community, the work of the musicologist Geoff Baker into El Sistema (e.g. Baker, 2014) has informed research into its manifestations in the United Kingdom and, importantly, made the distinction between the advocacy narratives that have promoted these programmes and, research which seeks objectively to examine the extent to which the claims that are made by the programmes are met and, indeed, the desirability of these aims (e.g. Baker, Bull and Taylor 2018). Having noted the impact of a musicologist on the debates and discourses of music education, it is with the relationship between musicology and music education that I conclude this brief- and inevitably superficial- survey of some music education research. Two aspects of musicology have had a particular impact on music education thinking. The first is the work of ethnomusicologists such as Blacking (1887) and Small (e.g. 1987) who many decades ago challenged the notion of ‘musical universals’ that underpinned formal western music education, demonstrating how musical values and functions varied immensely across different societies and cultures. More recently, Schippers (2010) has made the powerful case for drawing on global musical perspectives to shape music education and its pedagogies. The second musicological strand is the ‘new musicology’ of the last decade of the twentieth century which focused on the cultural study of – particularly- classical music, bringing into question received notions of ‘genius’ and ‘great works’ of music, demonstrating how both are fundamentally social constructs.
Conclusion. David Elliott’s (1995) Music Matters, which argues for a ‘praxial’ approach to music education and to an extent draws on this new musicology, poses a fundamental question for music educators which goes to the heart of music education practice: is music a thing or something that people do? Both of these aspects of musicology ask us to question our fundamental beliefs about music; its nature and purpose. Such questions are vital for music teachers because our beliefs about the purposes of music education are intricately bound up with our beliefs about the nature and purposes of music itself. As both Swanwick and Schippers argue:
‘A particular teaching method is nowhere near so important as our perception of what music is and what it does’ (Swanwick, 1999: 45). and
to a large extent, what we hear, learn and teach is the produce of what we believe about music’ (Schippers, 2010, back cover). Whilst the present author, some years ago, noted that:
‘...the way in which music is perceived - the understanding of its nature and purpose - is critical to the way in which it impacts upon curriculum design, what we teach and the way we teach it’ (Spruce 2002: 4).
What I am arguing for in and research not to be teaching but rather for between theory/research rooted in critical reflect [music] educators. For, w relationship, as Freire says ‘’blah, blah, blah’’ and p (Freire 1998, p 30). The m and theory cited here d templates or sets of inst follow but rather to info deliberations.. Furthermor simply about the techniqu ‘how to’ - but also about underpinning what we do
However, perhaps the m theorising and research provides to enrich th education. The lack of the the discourses of music e years led to an almos advocacy as the primary importance of music ed educators to cling, someti a life raft, to any evidenc how music making or m impacts on behaviour or d numeracy. Rarely enterin considerations of what mu of itself and uniquely brin people’s understanding o music education’s future c questions are engaged w obtaining a definitive an
n this article is for theory e seen as templates for a symbiotic relationship h and practice which is tion on what we do as without such a symbiotic s ‘ theory becomes simply practice pure ‘’activism’’’. music education research does not seek to provide tructions for teachers to orm decision making and re, this deliberation is not ues of teaching – about the t the purposes and values in the music classroom.
most important benefit of h is the opportunity it he discourse of music eoretical underpinning to education have in recent st unrelenting focus on means of justifying the ducation, leading music ime like drowning men to ce that purports to show music education positively developments in literacy or ng these discourses are usic and music education ngs to children and young of their world. However, can only be assured if such with, not with a view of nswer, but rather for the
benefit to be gained simply from engaging with them. It is to the development of such discourses that research and theories have much to offer. For, as Swanwick noted more than thirty years ago:
it is only through theorising that any wisdom won by practical experience …can be formulated, shared and refined. Reflections on practice can only be exchanged through a mutually shared network of ideas…No profession can develop without debating key ideas or theories on to the table for public scrutiny.’ (Swanwick, 1988. p, 8) It is through the emergence of and engagement with such discourses that music educators - and particularly music teachers in schools - can best advocate for the place of music in the curriculum and agency in determining the music education that best serves the children and young people in their classroom.
Gary Spruce was a secondary school music teacher for eighteen years before joining The Open University as subject leader for their Music PGCE course. He is now subject leader for the Birmingham City University’s PGCE music course. He is a co-editor of the recently published book Creative Projects in Classroom Music Education: Fifty Years of Sound and Silence.
Music across the UK
In the second of a series of articles, we explore the different approaches taken by each country of the UK to the music curriculum
England The National Curriculum for Music in England was revised in 2014. In the six years since that date, many teachers have commented on how slight the information now is - the primary section can be printed on less than two sheets of A4! Depending on your perspective, this might be seen as a good thing or a bad thing! For confident music specialists, the sparsity of the information means ultimate flexibility to do things ‘your’ way. For non-specialists, it’s more of a struggle to fill in the gaps! At KS1 the end of key stage expectations are more experiential than measurable. Pupils must:
use their voices expressively and creatively by singing songs and speaking chants and rhymes play tuned and untuned instruments musically
listen with concentration and understanding to a range of high-quality live and recorded music experiment with, create, select and combine sounds using the interrelated dimensions of music
These points give a good idea of coverage, but not of the level of skill that needs to be attained. For a start, what exactly is playing instruments ‘musically’? For me, at KS1 that means the discipline to only play when you’re meant to be playing, to keep a pulse, and to play at an appropriate volume, not bash the life out of the instruments - but I’m sure to others it means something entirely different! Another area that causes some consternation is the idea of listening with ‘concentration and understanding’ - which is about as wooly as it gets! I often think they could just have stopped after ‘concentration!’ There is no clear indication of what understanding pupils are meant to have about the music they listen to, and in my experience it could take the whole of KS1 to learn just to sit and listen to a piece of music without starting a conversation with the person next to you! What is really nice about the KS1 curriculum, however, is the focus on creativity both in singing and in the sense of making up their own music. Pupils of this age are at their most creative, before peer pressure and hormones get in the way, and if we don’t allow them to explore this musically then they may never tap into their creative potential. For me, it’s really important not to just sing and play the music written for our pupils by adults, but to sing and play music they have created themselves. This is the best way to show them that everyone can be musical. At Key Stage 2 there is slightly more to hang on to in terms of creating some kind of measurable outcomes from the curriculum:
play and perform in solo and ensemble contexts, using their voices and playing musical instruments with increasing accuracy, fluency, control and expression improvise and compose music for a range of purposes using the interrelated dimensions of music listen with attention to detail and recall sounds with increasing aural memory
use and understand staff and other musical notations appreciate and understand a wide range of high-quality live and recorded music drawn from different traditions and from great composers and musicians develop an understanding of the history of music
I often joke that performing progress is the easiest to evidence, since the statement just says pupils should have ‘increasing’ levels of skill - so as long as they are slightly less rubbish than they were when they started…!
One of the most successful parts of the KS2 curriculum, in my opinion, is the caveat that music should be improvised and composed for ‘a range of purposes.’ This means that pupils will be creating lots of different types of music, and really getting to grips with musical styles, structures and devices - rather than what I often saw pre-2014 which was the same basic activity every single week (usually a ‘soundscape’) just with a different stimulus (rainforest, space, the city…) I also think we should be grateful for the fact that the listening statement explicitly says that we should be listening to music from different traditions, otherwise with the current focus on ‘cultural capital’ - which has a very narrow definition - we could be tempted to feed our pupils a diet solely of classical music. The part of the KS2 curriculum that gives me the biggest headache is ‘the history of music.’ There is no such thing! There are multiple histories of musics which are embedded in different cultures and not necessarily linked into one gobal map of musical progression! Whenever I teach this element of the curriculum, I link it to something tangible, like a country, religion, or historical period we’ve been studying, or to the different cultural backgrounds of the children in my class. As a specialist, the great thing about the national curriculum is that I have the flexibility to interpret all the above statements as I see fit. As a non-specialist I can see how daunting this might be, which is why there are so many commercially available schemes of work out there! Look out for our feature in next term’s issue where we compare some of the most frequently used schemes!
Expert-led CPD sessions for all music teachers, delivered via Zoom in small groups of no more than 12. 4.15pm-5.45pm. ÂŁ45per person. 18th November 2020: Inclusion in Primary Music, with Phil Mullen 20th January 2021: Sonic Pi in the Music Classroom, with David Ashworth (THURS!) 4th February 2021: Improvisation in Primary Music, with Kay Charlton 28th April 2021: Supporting students to compose, with Dr Kirsty Devaney 9th June: The latest Singing research, with Professor Martin Ashley
Click here for further information & booking
Also available‌. Looking for the personal, interactive touch of a face-to-face course with the convenience and price-tag of an online course? Our Group Training Webinar option is made just for you! Each training session lasts one hour, and can be booked to take place at a time that suits you and your colleagues. All you need is an internet enabled device! Each participant can use their own device from wherever they are, or you can all meet together and participate as a group via a whiteboard or large screen.
ONLY ÂŁ69.95 TOTAL!
Introducing the K The Kodály Approach is in many ways traditional - often teacher-led, knowledge rich (at least procedurally), at times formal, as you would suspect from an approach which Kodály started to form nearly 100 years ago. However, at other times the approach is very progressive, based as it is on inclusivity, play and being very conscious of holistic child development. A Montessori teacher may use the tools and sequencing in a very different way to an educator of a more Govian disposition, but their Kodály practice will share common elements. How far down the rabbit hole you want to go is up to you. Whether you’re a deep diver who studies precise methodology for a decade in Hungary or someone who dips their toes in more casually and goes to the odd course, there are some very useful tools and strategies from the Kodály Approach which you can start to use straight away. Many principles are shared by other effective approaches to early music education, such as Orff Schulewerk and Dalcroze. There is a world of several lifetimes of learning out there, but here is a quick run down of some of the fundamentals of the Kodály Approach.
Learning through play Playful learning is at the heart of all good early music programmes. Kodály said that music education should always be joyful and “never a torture”.
Jimmy Ro
Kodaly Approach Many of us have probably had music education experiences where a teacher will tell us to try something again and again as our boredom and frustration increases. Play based learning reverses this - the children want to play again and again long after the principle you were teaching has been mastered. Play can be free and child led, or very structured, for example using movements to reinforce understanding of pitch relations or to practice a particular rhythm. In this way, understanding music theory is fun, and based on concrete experience. Additionally if children are focused on a game, they are not self-conscious about singing whilst they play, leading to a good natural singing style.
Prepare, present practice For me , “The 3 ps� are the most powerful element of the Approach for ensuring deep learning and understanding of concepts through sequential, scaffolded learning. It can also be applied to learning concepts in other subjects. The preparation stage can often be missing from musical learning. The preparation stage is experiential and based on the familiar. A new element will then be added to those that children are already comfortable with. Children will absorb the new concept unconsciously, and already have a good practical understanding in the concrete world of experience before the unfamiliar, absract, theoretical conceptualisation is attempted. For example, in teaching semiquavers over several weeks they would hear, play games, move to and learn songs with semiquavers without naming or
otheram
seeing them (rote learning). They would possibly recognise that there is a new rhythm and it that it is different to the quavers and crotchets they are familiar with. In the second, presentation stage, We would then add the rhythm syllable (tikatika), then a simplified version of what they look like notated (stick notation)
We can then start reading the above symbol as a “tikatika” (of use alternative syllables e.g. Takadimi), which we already know the sound of with familiarity. The practising stage, or course, lasts for a lifetime musicians of all levels practice semiquavers. Over time they will learn to read the above with pitch information attached, on a stave, with other rhythms, and so on. That example takes several weeks, but we can also use the three ‘p’s in the short term. A warm up activity could prepare the rhythmic elements of the song you are going to sing next. A later song might reinforce these rhythms. They can also overlap, so can be juggling several concepts in different stages of the learning process. It can lead to some satisfyingly joined-up lesson and curriculum planning.
Sound before Symbol
£45 per person
In keeping with the “three ‘p’s” principle, any aspect of musical notation must come after children have experienced and internalised the sound. The best example of this principle can be shown if I places try to verbally and Limited available graphically explain to you how dotted crotchets, syncopation and compound time work, before you had even heard a musical example of them, and were able to internalise and reproduce that sound. Many would struggle to understand the abstract symbols of notation if they have no aural context..
Age/Developmentally appropriate materials Can all the children in your class comfortably sing a song at the pitch on a recording or from your demonstration? Nursery rhymes in particular can be very difficult for nursery aged children to sing as they can be musically complex and with a range that children find impossible to sing. Songs that children can easily sing with accuracy will get better results for tuneful singing and understanding music. There are plenty of songs in the folk traditions of children’s singing from many cultures which form the basis of the Kodaly Approach.
Start as early as possible. Many people say music education begins in the womb. Kodály went further, saying it began “9 months before the birth of the mother” - as the mother is the first music teacher of the child (whether they think they are or not), her musical experiences are the starting point. Also, children will come to school with songs and musical experiences that they have had at home, and if they are appropriate, these can be a rich source of fertile soil in which to start growing musical lives.
Singing should be central to musical development and precede instrumental work Zoltan Kodály said “Nobody can play well if he does not feel and know where the essence of the melody is, and if he cannot bring it to life with his voice... To teach... an instrument without first... developing singing... is to build upon sand”. Singing helps to internalise musical understanding of pitch, and movement (especially, in my opinion, if combined with Dalcroze Eurhythmics) helps to internalise the concepts of rhythm, pulse and tempo)
Inner Hearing Also known as “inner thinking”, “audiation” and “thinking voice”, internalising and imagining the sound is as vital a component of Kodály musicianship.
Only the best is good enough for a child People often regret not learning an instrument. We have a moral duty to ensure children receive a thorough musical education. Whatever your thoughts on private education, over 50% of fee-paying schools have dedicated concert halls and take children’s progress in music and the arts very seriously. Why should an education rich in the arts be the preserve of the wealthy and the aspirational middle classes? From classical times to Einstein, great thinkers have advocated for music to be an essential at the heart of any education system. Our current system does not provide this for all children. It’s too easy for schools to brush musical learning under the carpet, but to be fair to them they often feel under systemic pressure to do so. However, all the arts rich schools mentioned in the Arts Council’s report have excellent academic standards benefitting a wide cross-section of society, so cutting the arts for core subjects is a fallacy.
Tools for a better understanding of music Relative Solfa makes both playing by ear and understanding the functional music theory side of things SO much easier, and when combined with hand signs for each note, can link the aural to the visual in a scaffolded way which makes reading music easy. Unlike a fixed -do system where notes are given letter names A-G or where do is always C, relative solfa sees the root of major key pieces as always being ‘do’ - the second is re.
Musical snacks Finally the songs and games are often quite short, and the classroom teacher can pull them out at any point during the day when the class needs livening up, calming down or even when they need to revise times tables or phonics. See them as little snacks of learning you can eat between meals.
Music as a core subject Feversham headteacher Mr Idrees is enthusiastic about the approach being used as a core part of overall learning, and to also support the wider curriculum.
“The Kodaly pedagogical approach brings improvement across all curriculum areas. It's contagious - and produces great learners, it has a great transferability factor. For example, if we are teaching algebra, we might start with the practical and experiential using everyday items before we begin crunching the numbers, and then after presenting the concept clearly and succinctly, move on to reinforcing the concept through recall activities. Music teachers should be at the heart of curriculum development - not just see themselves as niche practitioners. Kodaly has a lot to offer for all subjects and areas, from unconsciously preparing mathematical concepts to practising and memorising domain specific information. The prepare/present/ practice model can be applied to many areas of learning”. Criticisms of the Approach “Methodolatry” is a portmanteau term which fuses the words “methodology” and “idolatry”. It’s defined by Collins Dictionary as “Worship of a method that employs it uncritically regardless of everchanging particulars and steadfastly ignoring past negative results.” Critics of Kodály point to the limitations of adhering to a strict method, which takes children down a chosen musical path of Western Classical music, uses children’s folk songs no longer sung by children, and is sometimes seen to potentially limit children’s musical experiences. The religiosity of some adherents is not helped by talk of “revelations” when undertaking the training, nor by talk of Kodály’s “disciples” and their “evangelism”. When such methodology helps the children to enjoy music more, learn to read and write notation, learn to develop their musical ear and memory, and play close heed to their developmental needs, it is easy to become swept up in “methodolatry”.
However, like religions, it’s open to different interpretations and changing conditions. What did Kodály mean by “only the best is good enough for a child and “high quality”. Did he mean only Western Classical music is good enough for a child, or only the best teaching? What would Kodály’s thoughts on the importance of the mother tongue be if he were teaching a very multicultural cohort rather than Hungarian children necessarily sharing a commonly familiar repertoire and similar home lives. Do we base repertoire on what is familiar to the child, or what is familiar to Kodály teachers? Would Kodály now see advertising jingles and computer game music as more familiar starting points than playground games which most children don’t get to do as much these days? Does the Super Mario Brothers now count as a “folk” tune?I think these are important questions to ask, and there are many different answers. This is part of the fun. Some people will become scholars and priests of the church, others will become apostates or form splinter groups. Personally, I’m the sort of person who cherry-picks. I can learn about expressive improvisations and embodied cognition from the Dalcroze Approach and incorporate more of that. I can steal ideas about instrument work and composition from Orff practitioners. I can put the blues scale into my sequence and branch off into jazz. Why not? We need our undbending keepers of the faith but we also need our innovators, our frontier folk. We need to keep the integrity of approaches, and conversely we need our innovators who shake it up and learn from adaptations and other approaches. In the same way, I can adapt the repertoire to not use songs with offensive or racist lyrics (many of which exist in the historic Kodály repertoire which practitioners need to be aware of.) I can start with “m r d” rather than so/ mi if I want a less childish starting point for older beginners or if children have a recorder or trumpet unit next term. I can do musical storytelling and dancing (which aren’t excluded from the Kodály approach but not necessarily an integral part of it).
Another criticism is that children do not learn in a linear way, or all develop at the same speed. However, I don’t see this as an issue. Firstly, an approach does not necessarily define a whole music curriculum or programme. A good programme can provide linear certainty for all children, and at the same time provide the space for exploratory musical learning, or for developing skills beyond where the class is up to in the programme. There are no limits to what a creative teacher can include in a programme or a lesson, but sequenced learning can provide a good structure to pin everything on, This is another argument for giving enough time to music education, so that it can be truly “broad and balanced”. The approach was always meant to be flexible and adaptable to the needs of the specific children we teach rather than a set-in-stone method. Some may disagree. The important thing is that we value music as an integral part of every child’s education and develop our practice using the best approaches and tools available to us. This is how the approach was developed by Kodály, his colleagues and the next generations - it was never one man dictating how music should be, but rather the act of taking good practice and adapting to new knowledge and understandings. It’s the reason so mi became the starting point, based on knowledge of verbal communication and child development, rather than the subject centred logic of starting with do re mi. But you can start with do re mi if you want.
Evolving approaches I now use a range of approaches but Kodály Approach makes the great spine of my chimerical beast. Thanks to my Kodály training, I will always prepare, present, practice, I will always teach using play as a learning tool, I will scaffold learning from the simple to the complex over time. I will repeat the mantras that music is for absolutely everyone and should never be a torturous experience. But that doesn’t mean I can’t use Orff activities or Dalcroze improvisation, jazz experiments or child-led project work.
Like every music teacher across the world, I have been grappling with the possibilities for teaching practical music lessons during the Covid-19 pandemic. Here in England, the DfE sent out (very late in the day) several pieces of (conflicting) advice which schools have had to try and make sense of. I’ve been lucky that my school have trusted me to interpret these as I see fit, and have been really supportive of making music happen this term. Originally the DfE said that singing could only take place in groups of 15 or less, but then they removed that number caveat just before the beginning of term, after every single music teacher in the country had already planned their lessons…! I teach in classrooms, and for me there is not enough space or ventilation to meet the new DfE requirements for singing, so this is still off the menu for us!
Back to Basics Coping with the new normal of music teaching We’ve also been careful about the sharing of equipment, and the type of instruments that we use. Year 2 used to learn the pBuzz, which has got to be one of the spittiest instruments known to man, so we swapped this for the glockenspiel. We now keep the glockenspiels in the Y2 cupboard, and no other bubbles are allowed to use them, plus they are numbered so the same children get the same instrument each lesson. They do have to share with a partner, but in fairness that doesn’t require them to sit any closer together than they do normally! Year 2 is the first (and last) time I meet the children, as the rest of the music curriculum is taught by class teachers. This means that I usually feel the pressure to get the children to the correct standard for the end of Key Stage Expectations, so that I can mop up everything they need to learn in KS1, and prepare them to go on with music in KS2. However, thanks to Covid there are parts of the curriculum that are just impossible to teach at the moment - hello again singing!
After a few days of worrying about this, and about how to adapt my normal pBuzz curriculum (which relies heavily on singing, and uses flat notes) to suit the requirements and use the glockenspiel, I suddenly realised that I was looking at everything the wrong way round! I often worry that my Year 2’s aren’t coming up to me with the basic musical skills that they need, but there is limited time to do anything about this as I need to ensure that the whole curriculum is covered. Now that Covid has destroyed the possibility of teaching the curriculum as is, this is finally my chance to get back to basics! I threw all my plans out of the window, and started again! This term we have been concentrating solely on pulse and rhythm using clapping, body percussion, and the glockenspiels (using one note, or an ostinato pattern). We start by clapping the pulse while we go round the room saying our names over the top, then we clap along to a song, then we use words as an inspiration for some rhythms (we’ve used pupils own names, favourite foods, and animals so far!), and then we perform these to each other on the glockenspiel. We usually finish up performing body percussion to a song.
Dr Elizabeth Stafford Editor, Primary Music Magazine To me as a musician, this feels very limited. However, I have been surprised that the children absolutely love it! They show no difference in enthusiasm between this and the more ‘interesting’ curriculum, and it has the added advantage that I am slowly able to instil the basic skills that I had to gloss over before. This has completely changed my outlook, and now I think I will always start Year 2 this way (but with the addition of singing so that we can work on pitch matching too), and concertina the rest of the curriculum into the remainder of the year. The only issue I have had so far is the children wanting to sing along to the songs as they play. Who ever thought they’d be in a position where they had to tell children NOT to sing in a music lesson?! I feel like a musical Grinch!
Online Courses from £45 per course or £195 for a full subscription
Click here to view our full range!
Music Education Solutions are delighted to have won one of this year’s coveted Teach Primary Awards! This award means all the more to us since it was judged by the Teacher Development Trust, who are the national experts in teacher CPD! We are also glad to be flying the flag for music education in a non-subject-specific category.
The courses are tightly linked to the subject-specific pedagogy behind effective music teaching and designed for maximum usability by non-specialists; with a consistent focus on objectives and outcomes for pupils and a clear link to the primary curriculum for music. There is a valuable range of resources available to teachers including case studies, further reading lists and advice on how to embed research-informed strategies in a whole school approach. The significant discount offered during the coronavirus pandemic offers impressive value-for-money. (Teacher Development Trust) You can read more about the awards in the latest edition of Teach Primary magazine, and on the Teachwire website.
Best Practice in SEN Music During the summer, I began a research project on behalf of Jersey Music Service looking into music provision in Special Schools and Specialist Units within mainstream schools. In the course of my research, I came across Dr Sarah Mawby’s PhD thesis Music in schools for children with Special Educational Needs (Leeds 2018), in which she sets out 7 ‘best practice’ recommendations for music provision in Special Schools. I found these so useful that I knew straight away that I wanted to share these with the readers of Primary Music Magazine.
The first three recommendations are: Adapt provision to suit pupil needs Adapt provision to suit pupil preferences Know the students This means that pupil needs (both musical and non-musical) and preferences will need to be taken into consideration before planning any lessons. This will require detailed discussions with teachers and teaching assistants, as well as consultation with parents / carers, as well as conversations with the pupils themselves where possible. The aim should be to amass enough knowledge about the pupils to design and deliver provision which meets pupils’ needs and preferences, and keep this up-todate through regular reviews and check-ins. I really like the focus on pupil preference here, so that rather than saying ‘they won’t be able to do that’ we think ‘how can we help them do that’, whether that requires adaptive instruments, use of technology, or new teaching and learning methods. For me that is the spirit of true inclusion.
The remaining best practice recommendations are: Offer musical opportunities Make it accessible Make it participatory Have fun
Mawby highlights a lack of opportunity for music making outside of a school setting for children with special educational needs (although since publication a number of Music Education Hubs have started to focus much more strongly on out-of-school SEN provision). This means that there must be as many musical opportunities as possible within the school to make up for the limited amount of out-of-school opportunities. When planning school sessions one aim should be for them to be ‘basic’ enough for everyone to join in as independently as possible, so that it is the pupils and not the staff who are ‘making’ the music. However, sessions should also provide a meaningful level of challenge so that everyone can achieve something, which may take a significant amount of differentiation. Thought needs to go into communication strategies - as pupils may not be able to rely on short term memory or literacy skills - and therefore repetitive lesson structures and activities are a great way to frame sessions and build up pupil confidence over time. This should ensure that pupils are not stressed out, and are able to have fun with music! If this has piqued your interest, I would highly recommend that you read Mawby’s thesis, which is accessible, detailed and fascinating! You can download it for free via this link.
You might also be interested in Music Education Solutions’ forthcoming Inclusion in Primary Music webinar with Phil Mullen, which takes place on 18th November at 4.15pm GMT. Further details and booking via this link.
Dr Elizabeth Stafford is Editor of Primary Music Magazine, Director of Music Education Solutions, Head of Academic Studies at Resonance, and Senior Lecturer in Professional Studies at Leeds Conservatoire. @DrLizStafford
This taught course comprises three half-day training sessions across the course of the academic year. These will be supported with access to online learning materials, and challenges, ideas and activities to try out in the classroom, culminating in a short assignment. On completion of the assignment participants will be awarded with the Music Education SolutionsÂŽ Primary Music Leadership Certificate. Session 1: Leading Music in your school In this session we look at how to motivate, inspire and support staff to teach music with confidence, how to manage an extra-curricular programme, and how to address differentiation including for SEND pupils. Session 2: Planning & Assessing Music in your school In this session we look at how to create pedagogically-sound schemes of work and lesson plans, how to satisfy an Ofsted Deep-Dive, and the resources and
software available to help deliver the national curriculum for music. Session 3: Delivering music in your school In this session we look at activity and resource ideas to help you deliver performing, listening, composing and improvising activities in the classroom.
West Midlands dates for 2021 (other regions coming soon!) •
Wednesday 27th January
•
Wednesday 24th February
•
Wednesday 24th March
Price: £150 per person
Further information & booking HERE
Never miss an issue! Join our mailing list here and follow us on Twitter here
brought to you by Music Education Solutions Grove House, Coombs Wood Court, Steelpark Road, Halesowen, B62 8BF. Company Registered in England 06624386
