Each Monday evening at 8PM EST, music teachers get together and share ideas about important topics within music education. It’s a great chance to interact directly with educators from all over the world and to get new tips and tricks to help you succeed in the classroom. The entire #musedchat discussion is organized and moderated by Joe Guarr.
Winding down! This is the last week of class. 3 days of finals after Memorial Day, and then 2 days without kids. Now if I could just get my move scheduled. How are you? #musedchat
good to see you too! the baby has been putting us through our paces (usually been too asleep this time monday nights cause of it) and concert tomorrow so only mildly freaking out about everything #musedchat
oh can i put in a Q real quick for all you #musedchat folks, we are streaming my concert tomorrow on facebook live...anything to be aware of? anything going to go wrong?
Q1: Of all the things that fall under the umbrella of 'comprehensive musicianship', what do you spend the most time on, aside from performing? https://t.co/P7UR5nzJFT#musedchat
A1: I’ve changed my focus over the years, but currently I put a great amount of effort into teaching active rather than passive listening. I work to get them to focus on music for music’s sake rather than perpetuating our culture’s use of music as “background” sound. #musedchat
I guess the Strategies? I might be a little too tired to catch the whole gist of it so let me know when i am wrong; I want my Ss to be able to make music without guidance, so they would need to know the how #musedchat
A1: I try to emphasize the communal aspect of what we're doing and that making music *together* is what makes it so special. I've been known to say, "Please sing with me, I can sing alone when I'm in my car but right now I want to sing with you all." #musedchat
That is awesome! I started doing something similar with all grades in the last couple of months. Ss love it. It's great to see the 8th Graders taking off with it--their ease w/ leading the group & working on adding their own touches. #musedchat
A2: Most of the analyzing we do is form. Sometimes I have them figure out the solfege or figure out how to play on xylophone/recorder/ukulele the song we've been singing #musedchat
A2: Personally, teaching others how to analyze music is daunting because the way I was taught was being told to "just listen" and that absolutely is not effective, so I don't have the tools (yet) to go deeper #musedchat
I've had some success comparing simple forms to poetry rhyme schemes. My kids are usually already familiar with using letters to denote form. #musedchat
It's definitely not easy. In my music tech class, we do some basic ABA compositions in Incredibox, and analyze Blue Rondo a la Turk since those sections are very clear. #musedchat
A3: Are the kids having fun? Am I having fun? Are they engaged? Also, I try to incorporate more pop music toward the end of the year so they can see that the building blocks we've worked on all year are the same building blocks of the music they listen to #musedchat
A3 For my 7th & 8th Graders I have a pretty solid idea of where their strengths & weaknesses are at already, so music selection based on need is fairly easy. With my beginners, they are brand new to instruments, so I choose music to excite, motivate, & challenge. #musedchat
A3: Most of my 7th graders are have a couple years experience under their belts, but haven't had me before. We review stuff from their books and learn some easy chorales for a couple weeks while I learn their strengths. #musedchat
A4: Budgeting time. We all recognize the value of the non-performance aspects of music, but how do you make time in a performance oriented world? #musedchat
