How to Match Songs with Musical Concepts
We’ve discussed how to choose repertoire for your classroom and where to source songs for your song collection.
When we have a collection of songs we like, how do we know they’ll work in our classrooms? How do we know what songs are appropriate to use with a specific grade-level, or a specific concept?
The answer is song analysis.
Here’s a practical guide to song analysis in the real world. It’s not as detailed as the guide I wrote here, but it’s the approach I’ve found to be a bit more practical when planning for my year.
This is not a guide to Kodaly song analysis
In the Kodaly philosophy, song analysis is a huge part of making responsible decisions that maximize student musicianship.
This is not a guide to Kodaly song analysis.
Brilliant Kodaly-inspired pedagogues have already done that through levels training. This is a practical guide to extracting the most appropriate and musical segments of repertoire for conscious literacy work.
If this is a topic that interests you, I encourage you to look for Kodaly levels training near you so you can dive in deeper! The purpose of this specific guide is simply to move songs into the classroom with efficiency and integrity.
THE REPERTOIRE IS THE CURRICULUM
Musical learning takes place within the context of repertoire. In an active musical classroom, students use repertoire to discover musical concepts on their own.
The musical materials we use become the foundation of every other musical experience. Because of this, the repertoire is the curriculum.
When we have repertoire picked out, how do we know how to use it in the classroom?
BEFORE WE BEGIN…
Song analysis will be easiest if we have a few things already in place.
We’re set up well to analyze songs when we have:
A curriculum outline so we know what musical concepts to look for in each grade level
A scope and sequence that budgets our time, so we have an idea of how many songs we might need for each concept
A way to source quality musical materials
Matching Songs to Musical Concepts
There are two primary steps to take in order to know what songs can be used for specific musical concepts.
The first step is to take a musical inventory.
The second step is to analyze a song for classroom use.
These two distinct steps may take a few minutes to organize, but they will add clarity and intention to the rest of your year!
Musical inventory
Making a list of the musical components that make up the song can help us know what songs would be appropriate to use with specific grade-levels.
For example:
If we choose a song with an toneset of an extended full scale and hope to use it with Kindergarten, our students will not be vocally safe as they attempt to sing the song.
If we choose a song with a large variety in its rhythm and no repeated sections, we run the risk that the material will have too much contrast and not enough repetition for students to grasp easily.
Taking inventory ensures that we can use the materials safely and musically in the classroom.
What to Catalog
We’ll start by taking a scan of the musical elements in the song. This is just a way to get inventory. Not every element we record will necessarily be a focus in the classroom.
What are the rhythmic components?
What are the melodic components?
What is the form?
Where did you find it? (You can read more about sourcing quality materials here)
Example:
Here’s a musical inventory for the song, A Tisket A Tasket.
2. Matching songs with Musical Concepts
After a musical inventory, we’ll have an idea of what songs would be appropriate to use with what grade-levels. We also know what elements are in the song for students to explore.
Now, the question is where those elements fall in the curriculum.
When we answer this question, we want a new musical element to exist in a complete musical unit, and we want it to be surrounded by old material.
Find the musical units
When we target a rhythmic or melodic element, we want it to exist in a musical unit that is short enough for students to consciously work with. However, it also needs to be long enough for students to easily hear the tonality and meter.
The balance of these two is often found in a subphrase.
A subphrase is a small section of a larger phrase. It is enough material to constitute a musical idea, but it may not be a complete idea in and of itself (since a true phrase is marked by a cadence).
When you’re ready to match a song to musical concepts, identify its subphrases.
If you’re not sure where the subphrases are, start by looking at groups of four beats, especially if your song came out of the Western musical tradition.
Example:
Here’s an example of subphrases marked in A Tisket A Tasket.
2. Compare the material to your curriculum
The next step is to see where the musical material in the subphrase falls in your curriculum. This is where the curriculum outline and the scope and sequence come back into play.
Here’s the magic question:
When would students have conscious knowledge of the rhythmic or melodic materials that make up the subphrase?
Use your curriculum outline and your scope and sequence to find the grade-level and the time of the year students would consciously know the material.
As you cross-reference the material in the subphrases to the material in your grade-level curriculum, it will become clear which elements will be old, and which elements will be new.
Quality education moves the student from the known to the unknown. Because of this, we want to make sure the rhythmic or melodic materials in the subphrase are consciously known so students can compare them to the new, unknown element.
When you’ve identified a new element, surrounded by known material, in a complete musical unit, you’ve identified the classroom use!
Example:
In A Tisket a Tasket, the melodic material in the subphrase would be known around 2nd grade, with the exception of la. Since la is the new element, it becomes the pedagogical focus of the song. Here’s the song again with the units of melodic focus circled.
3. What will it look like?
This is the fun part!
With the new musical element picked out, the next side of the page addresses what you might do with the song in your classroom.
What active experiences could students engage with? How could they sing, play, move, read, write, improvise, or listen to discover the characteristics of the element on their own?
On this side of the page, jot down your ideas.
This process can take a bit of time.
However, at the time this blog post is being published, many of us are experiencing changes in our routine that leave us with more time for things like song analysis and long-term planning.
This may be the perfect time for you to pull high-quality materials, compare them to your scope and sequence, and analyze them for how they might live in your classroom - whatever your classroom looks like in the fall.
