I. Introduction
A. Why Do We Do What We Do? Reasons Music Is Important:
1. Emotional expression
2. Aesthetic enjoyment
3. Entertainment
4. Communication
5. Symbolic representation
6. Physical response
7. Enforcement of conformity
8. Validation of social institutions and religious rituals
9. Contribution to the continuity and stability of culture
10. Contribution to the integration of society
B. What Are We Doing?
1. Melody
2. Rhythm
3. Texture
4. Timbre
5. Dynamics
6. Musical Forms
C. How Do We Do Them?
1. Singing
2. Playing
3. Moving
4. Writing
5. Creating (composition & improvisation)
6. Listening
D. When Do We Do This? When it's age-appropriate (but not dumbed-down, moving from simple to complex)
E. Who Does It? YOU DO!
F. Where Do You Do It? EVERY TEACHABLE MOMENT!
II. The Fundamentals of Music
A. Melody
1. Based on a set of pitches
2. Moves stepwise or by skips
a. Conjunct (stepwise motion)
b. Disjunct (leapwise motion)
3. Range (low & high) & Tessitura (where most notes sit)
4. Phrases‹part of a "musical sentence"
5. Based on a scale (or mode)
B. Rhythm
1. Has a beat (especially a STEADY one)
2. Tempo‹speek
3. Meter‹2/4, 3/4, 4/4, 6/8
4. Slow/Fast
5. High/Low
6. Loud/Soft
C. Textures
1. Monophony‹one dominant melody tune
2. Homophony‹several independent melodies moving rhythmically dependant
3. Polyphonic‹independent melodies moving independentally
D. Timbre (tone color)
1. Nothing is as real as bringing in the actual instrument
2. Size is a matter
E. Dynamics
F. Musical Forms
1. Motives (see p. 10 in syllabus)
2. One-part forms
3. Binary form
4. Ternary form
5. Rondo form
6. Fugue
7. Theme & variation
III. The Child's Voice
A. Three main "breakdowns"
1. Kindergarteners and first-graders (5-6 yrs) have a range of about a minor 6th (+/- half step)
2. 2nd- and 3rd graders (7-9 yrs) should move to about a 9th (B to d')
3. 4th- to 6th- graders (9-11 yrs) they should have a 2-octave range (G-g'); this is girls and pre-cambiata boys
B. Head voice is most desirable among children
C. Four foundations of proper singing
1. Posture‹kids can do proper posture as well as anyone else
2. Breathing
3. Open-throat and tall vowels
4. Clear enunciation (articulation)
IV. The Uncertain Singer‹the child with pitch-matching trouble (pp. 142-143)
A. Exposure‹for most children, it's a matter of lack of exposure
B. Physiological Problems
V. Four Different Types of Voices
A. Whispering voice
B. Speaking voice
C. Shouting voice
D. Singing voice (helps them find their head voice)
VI. Activities
A. Zoltan Kodály: "Rhythm develops attention, concentration, determination, and the ability to condition oneself. Melody opens up the world of emotions. Dynamic variation and tone color sharpen our hearing. Singing, finally is such a many-sided physical activity that its effect in educating the mind and body is immeasurable."
B. Listening
1. Passive listening‹hearing, rather than focusing; choosing to focus on what we have decided is important enough to listen to
2. Active listening‹
a. Involve as many senses in absorbing as possible
b. Lots of repetition; use of contrasting ideas
c. Ultimate goal: musical literacy and retention
d. Hearing, listening, are really more important than reading
C. Reading music‹sound before sight before symbol
1. Sound‹we must immerse ourselves in the sound (music) before anything else has meaning
2. Sight‹ultimately we picture to the sound we've been hearing (though we don't necessarily name it yet)
3. Symbol‹drawing a symbol and attaching a name and meaning to it
D. Creating music
1. Divergent thinking‹the pursuit of multiple possibilities, multiple "correct answers"
2. Convergent thinking‹the pursuit of a single correct answer
VII. The History of Graded Choirs in U.S. Churches (read pp. 349ff, 359ff)
A. Background Developments
1. Music introduced to public schools in Boston (1838): Lowell Mason (the "father of public school music education"); credited with starting public music schools (see preceding article in syllabus)
a. Contrived the "Hawes" school experiment: an initiative he brought to the Boston school boards to start music education programs
b. School board passed it, but city council voted it down, so he decided to do it for free. Eventually, his success prompted the council to back him financially
2. Other cities followed Boston's example
a. Pittsburgh (1844)
b. Cincinnati (1846)
c. Chicago (1848)
d. Cleveland, San Francisco (1851)
e. St. Louis (1842)
f. Lexington (1888)
g. New Orleans (1892)
3. Development of national music organizations
a. NEA (1876)
b. NFMC (1893)‹National Federation of Music Clubs
(1) 1st music club for children: Memphis, TN (1902)
(2) 2500 children's music clubs by 1940s
4. Children's choir school
a. Elizabeth Van Fleet Vosseller, Bessie Richardson Hopewell (1895): first children's choir
b. Became Flemington Children's Choir School, a community choir school for students at other churches as well
5. Home Mission Board
6. Sunday School
a. 1st Sunday School Board established at Greenville, SC in 1863: The Confederate Sunday School Hymn Book
b. Other books
7. WMU began Sunbeam Band (1896); a pre-choir children's music program; lasted into the 1960s
8. Vacation Bible School (1920s)
B. Denominational Support
1. 1920‹SBC supported a Church Music Department for the Convention
2. 1933‹SBC called for Sunday School Board to establish Church Music Department
3. 1935‹Dr. I.E. Reynolds (Dr. William J. Reynolds' uncle)
VIII. Rise of Graded Choirs
A. 1930s
1. Graded choirs began appearing in Southern Baptist churches
B. 1940s: spread of graded choirs
1. Ms. Clancy and Mr. & Mrs. Winters
2. Evelyn Marney (soon to be Phillips)
3. Non-Baptist influences
a. Choristers Guild (in Garland)
b. Ruth Krebiel Jacobs, Mabel Stewart Boyter
4. Graded choirs material
a. Growing a Musical Church by Ruth Nininger
b. Methods and Materials for Graded Choirs by Clifford Holcomb
5. Training Union support
6. Ridgecrest (1940s) and Glorieta (1950s)
a. Dr. Bisher (1980-2000)
IX. Recent Trends
A. 1950s
1. 1957: The Church Musician
2. 1956: Nettie Lou Crowder
3. 1959: Bill F. Leach
B. 1960s & 70s
1. 1961: Saxe Adams
2. 1961: Paul Bobbitt (junion & intermediate choirs)
3. Associational and state festivals
4. Music material sources
a. Broadman
b. Convention Press
C. 1980s
1. Handbells
2. Recorders
3. Orff instruments
4. Music camps
5. State honors choruses (for high school students)
X. Sample Lesson
A. Start with review piece
1. Sing with words first
2. Sing with solfiegge and hand signs
3. Say it with rhythmic syllables (tah=quarter, ti-ti=pair of 8ths, ta-ah=half note, etcŠ)
B. Go to new piece
1. Use a visual while you chant lyrics
2. Sing it once for the class (keep using visual)
3. Have the class sing it, but help them use the body to find the rhythm
a. Point out rhythmic variances from the steady beat
b. Teach "ti-ti" (or other rhythmic anomaly) by using something kinesthetic (some kind of writing; let students configure raw materials‹popcicle sticks, for instance‹so
c. Point out on the kinesthetic exercise as you say again; use Kodály rhythmic syllables (ta, ti-ti, etc.) again
C. Do at least three things
1. Sing
2. Move
3. Write
4. (Also, listening, creating, playing)
D. Two pages (233-235 or so) to handle areas to cover in teaching
XI. Term PapersDue November 6
A. Paper itself
1. Length: 10 pages is enough (a little over is okay; under 10 might be a problem), double-spaced
2. Normal cover page
3. Use Turabian format
4. Either footnotes or endnotes; just make sure you cite references
5. More emphasis on an individuals methods & pedagogy and less on biography
B. Oral Presentation
1. Schedule has been handed out; I go November 13 (I think)
2. Provide an outline for everyone; don't just stand up there and read the paper
3. 12 minutes of presentation, 3 minutes for discussion
4. There will be no videotaping of presentations by default, but if I want to see for myself I can bring a tape
C. Sources
1. A balance‹some books, some periodics, some internet, maybe an interview
2. Six to ten sources is reasonable
XII. Important Children's Music Pedagogues (see pp. ??)‹Sound before Sight before Theory; ultimate goal: Musical Literacy
A. Kodály‹very big on correct pitch
1. Instruments are never used; get your pitch from a tuning fork (A440)
2. Movable "do" (solmization)
3. Hand signs
4. Rhythmic Syllables (don't memorize them for the final)
B. Carl Orff
1. Exploration
a. Speech patterns first‹nursery rhymes, stories, common phrases
b. Musical patterns
2. Imitation‹part and parcel of the exploration procedure
3. Improvisation‹the "ultimate goal for a musician"
4. Used movable do
C. Dalcroze
1. Eurhythmics‹"good rhythm"
a. Until you put it into the body and internalized it, you can't perform it well
2. Ear training‹fixed "do" on C
3. Piano only
4. Taught and highly stressed keyboard improvisation
D. Suzuki
1. Approach was called the "mother tongue" approach‹we learn music the same way we do language‹by listening
2. Rote-note learning (imitation)
3. For very early education
E. Edwin Gordon
1. Audiation‹the foundation of musicianship; not the same as aural perception; it is "the musical equivalent of thinking in language"
2. Important processes
a. Music Aptitude Profile (1965)‹a series of aptitude tests for future music training (is the child actually ready for future teaching?)
b. Music Learning Theory‹a "metacognitive" (understanding of one's own thinking) approach to music content where sequential objectives are identified and used for tonal and rhythmic learning
XIII. The Work of the Children's Choir Coordinator (see pp. 406)
A. Organization
B. Children's Music Calendar
C. Children's Music Budget
D. Leadership Enlistment
E. Training of Leadership
F. Children's Music Resources (Curriculum, Resource Center)
G. Publicity
H. Year Planning/Long-Range Planning
XIV. The Minister of Music as Children's Choir Coordinator‹TEACHER (see p. 414)
A. Recruiting & Training Problems/Challenges
1. Long-term volunteers
2. Lack of talent/ability among volunteers
3. Solutions
a. Try to get your most trained people into leadership positions
b. Untrained volunteers can be made "helpers"
c. Look for people who are committed to the program and to children
B. Yearly/Periodic Training Events
C. Regular Meetings‹how do we use the curriculum?
D. Classroom Management‹the place where we succeed or fail with children
1. See p. 372, 373
2. "Finding Gold at the End of the Rainbow" (pp. 374-376)
3. The Four P's of Classroom management
a. Prepare‹a variety of activities; change often, with frequency dependent on age being taught
(1) Shorter time periods for younger students
(2) Change activities every 5-7 minutes, both activity and position
(3) The more movement the better your management
b. Plan of action‹sequencing: what to do first, second, etc.)
(1) Making sure you are doing what is most beneficial for the greatest number without leaving any behind
(2) Enlist the help of parents
c. Pacing‹fast enough to maintain interest; too fast you'll go over the kids' heads, too slow and you'll lose their interest
d. Participation‹often from students
(1) Sing, move, play more than you talk; activity more than talk
(2) If you're bored, you can bet the students will be also
(3) Reward good behavior; downplay the bad stuff (avoid confrontation)
(4) The best things to do with problem children: listen and care
(5) Pray! PRAY PRAY PRAY!