GUEST SPEAKER - Mark Hopkins
Reaction and Reflection - Jo Landry Jan 18, 2017 I really enjoyed this lecture. I believe strongly in his idea that music is very similar to the acquisition of language and that this approach to music education is extremely beneficial to the teacher as well as the student. Like he said, speaking and spelling are two different things and neither is dependent on the other. The same thing applies to playing by ear and learning notation. All the while, neither of these things are less important than the other. And while we all as people learn to speak before we learn to spell, why is learning by ear before learning notation viewed so negatively? Why is someone who plays by ear "not as good" as someone who can read music really well? I was put into music lessons at the age of 4, so I learned notation very early on, but even now I would rather look up and listen to performances of pieces I'm learning. I find it more effective to listen and follow along rather than to play out the notes. My father is one of the best guitarists I know and he has played his entire life thus far solely by ear. So if a classically trained musician and someone who plays by ear are both learning more effectively by listening to the music, then shouldn't that be an indicator to schools about the way we should be approaching music instruction? One of the easiest ways to learn a new language is by listening and repeating, and I believe musicians at any level feel the same, and I love the fact that Mark is implementing this into his new curriculum. What he has done is a small step into changing the way music is taught in schools, and here's to hoping it starts a ripple effect. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Guest Reflection - Lesley Dawe Jo Landry - 01/24/17 The main thing I retained from the Skype call with Lesley was that I saw that she actually uses the approach to teaching "the elements of music" that I suggested in my first annotated bibliography. She said that she doesn't teach the elements in a super structured way such has having a class dedicated to teaching it, but rather she incorporates in naturally into what her class is currently working on. For example she mentioned that while her class was working on various chord progressions on guitar by themselves, she would use that as an opportunity to introduce and talk about harmony with her students. I think this is a fantastic way of still teaching students the core concepts of music while not boring them with a lecture class or making the structure seem too rigid and academic. Another thing I really enjoyed about what she was saying was that she was not using classical repertoire in her general music classroom. Don't get me wrong I love classical music and I'm in school to develop my operatic voice, but I don't think classical music really resonates with children and teens in schools. However, along with pop music, kids tend to have varied, diverse tastes and I like that Lesley doesn't take that away from them in the classroom. Music should be an area of life that promotes creativity and individualism. In her classroom the kids are able to learn songs that they love and that they connect with. If kids are presented with repertoire that doesn't appeal to them, learning it will start to feel like a chore and a burden rather than a joy and an escape. We say that the way we teach "the elements" is taking all the joy and emotion in music; doesn't restricting repertoire have the same effect as well? I was the only person in my Grade 12 year to go into music, and this makes me wonder if the outcome would've been different had we been given the opportunity to play/sing what we really wanted and loved instead of what was given to us. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- CLASS REFLECTION 1 This class has definitely made me think critically about a number of things within the context of pedagogy. What's new in my thinking? I have begun to really think about the idea that a teacher's approach to teaching is a very personal thing. No two people will teach exactly the same, and while it is great to look up to other teachers and draw inspiration from them, it's important as a teacher to find the method of teaching that works best for you and that your students respond well to. Because of that I have been taking a closer look at the teachers in my life, in order to notice the variety of teaching styles they use. It's also very important to experiment yourself with different teaching styles not only for your sake, but for your students as well. For example, my current voice teacher has a very kinesthetic approach to teaching that I have never encountered with any other teachers. She believes that putting the student in various physical positions that will provoke a certain feeling in the body is the best way for a student to learn a new concept. That way, the student can work towards achieving that same feeling in their own practice, instead of trying to grasp a concept they were only told about how to achieve but did not actually go through the process of doing in their lesson. I had always thought that I was a very linguistic learner because that was the teaching style my elementary and high schools were based on, and I did well in school. Had I not been exposed to this different style of teaching by my current voice teacher I would've never known that I am also a kinesthetic learner and respond really well to this teaching style. Another thing this class has made me re-evaluate is the idea that you have to stick to a specific teaching style. Your teaching will always be changing based on the various influences in your life and that's okay. The skype call with Lesley Dawe made me think about trying new things in your teaching. She is constantly trying out new things in her classroom in order to make class more fun for herself and her students. It's okay to try out new things in the classroom and no one is going to penalize you if it doesn't work, so I think it's important to constantly be trying new things to be able to improve our teaching and bring more enjoyment into school. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- GUEST SPEAKER - Randall Allsup My thoughts - Jo Landry 02/12/17 I really enjoyed this workshop with Randall. In fact, this workshop is my favourite thing I have done in relationship to this class this term so far. I think there are a few points that he brought up during the workshop and that were brought up by others that will really stick with me. First of all, he stressed the importance of "not modeling" for students. If you model for your students what you want them to do, they get it in their heads that what you have just done is what you would like to see them do. As a result, students are less likely to be creative in the task, and more likely to recreate something similar to the teacher's model, in order to get good grades. I think this has to do not only with the teacher's model, but also the fact that music is a graded subject. This is also very relevant to the first reading we did in this class, talking about how music in schools has become too much of an academic subject. We want to do well in school, and so instead of taking creative liberties and experimenting as one should do in a musical setting, we follow the model given to us in order to pass with flying colours. The pressure to do well in school should not be combined with music. Music should be a thing that eliminates stress, not creates it. Another point that was made in this workshop that I really enjoyed was that it would be beneficial if we put more importance on the musical process rather than the product. The Western world has become very product oriented and enjoying the journey seems like more of an afterthought. During the workshop Randall gave us some vague guidelines and it felt clear that working with our groups to create something musical was the point of the exercise, not whatever we came up with. As great as it is to perform a final product, we can't be in an eternal state of looking towards the future. The music making that happens in practice is just as valid as what happens in performance and there is no reason we should dismiss it as any less. Both should be enjoyed and cherished. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dr. Ruth Wright My thoughts - Jo Landry I thoroughly enjoyed this lecture/workshop by Dr. Wright. I was very stuck by this idea that our musical teaching system is very elitist in reality and shuts out a good number of people. I had never thought of it this way before however I completely understand where it comes from and completely agree. When I think about my time in high school, there are several people I can think of that absolutely love music, yet they never took the course because they couldn't, or didn't want to play a band instrument. Why should anything that isn't a band or strings instrument NOT be considered a valuable use of a music class? And why should the people who prefer these things be viewed as NOT musical? Or not musicians? If music is an inherent part of the human genome, then by definition we are all "musical". And if we are all musical, then we all have the right to a music education. I don't think band and strings classes should be removed or change, because there are still people who love these areas of music and thrive on this system, but if the interest is there, then the addition of another music class in schools that focuses on the informal learning Dr. Wright spoke of could be very beneficial. This would allow students who are interested in music but don't necessarily have the skill set to be classical musicians to still have that experience with music in school and explore their creativity. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dr. Kevin Watson 03/20/17 I thoroughly enjoyed this workshop with Dr. Watson. I would go as far as to say that this was my favourite session of this class since the beginning of the term. We were taught, and taken through an exercise on improvisation. I was very happy to see that Dr. Watson's teaching style is similar to the model I talked about in the early days of this course. I like the idea of going through an activity, and then being explained afterwards what I have accomplished, and going over the concepts and how they relate to what just happened. In this case, we went through an improvisation exercise, and afterwards were explained that we had been doing a traditional 12 bar blues pattern the entire time. We also learned about swing tempos and metrical accents, in relevance to the melody we were told to improvise. I also really enjoyed the way Dr. Watson handled this improvisation lesson. I didn't think improvisation was a skill that I had or enjoyed, but I think the problem was the way I was going about learning to improvise. Every time I have ever been asked to improvise something, it's a situation where I am on the spot, having to improvise with nothing to go off of. In today's case, we were given a basic melody, and an ensemble of 4 notes to include in our improvisations. I found this framework extremely beneficial. It's incredibly overwhelming to try and improvise when given nothing to go off of. It was much easier for me to improvise when I knew what notes to use and had a general melody to go off of. This workshop really made me wonder about the way I was taught music. I was told that improvisation was an essential skill, but was never eased into it like today, until I was in University. I always felt like improvisation was something that I just wasn't good at. I wonder how many other kids who are currently taking music in school feel the same way, and how different their outlook on music would be if they had been introduced to improvisation in a more gradual way.
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