Using Repertoire that Isn’t Connected to a Rhythmic or Melodic Concept
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Season 1 | Episode 54
Show Notes
How often do you integrate other repertoire that is not just focused on preparing and practicing specific melodic or rhythmic concepts? Is it just when preparing for Christmas or Spring concerts?
What goes into learning rhythmic and melodic concepts?
What is the role of incidental learning?
How are these decisions impacted by scheduling?
Integrate other repertoire often as you want, and as often as you see it serving your students in the long run.
Incidental & Deliberate Learning Experiences
When we have deliberate learning experiences, we have a clear objective, we have an activity that meets the objective, and we have an assessment to make sure the objective was met.
Incidental learning is like allllll the learning that takes place around the target objective. Students are always learning. Students are always watching and listening.
Incidental learning creates the backdrop for aural awareness that students use later, especially in audiation, or making predictions. In audiation, students collect musical patterns, they hold on to them, and then use them as predictions on new situations. We need the patterns to exist authentically before students can use them later.
In my opinion, a convenient parallel is with language acquisition. Students hear and engage with language outside of the sight words they learn at school. The sight word objective still stays. But movies, TV, conversations with friends, books they’re read….. all these things play into an aural landscape of language.
This is a field of study I haven’t jumped into yet. Lucy Green and Ruth Wright have done work on a related field of informal music education.
What goes into learning rhythmic and melodic concepts?
Sometimes we talk about learning a rhythmic or melodic concept and we imagine that means primarily reading the notation. That’s true in some situations - for some teachers, that’s what they care about.
However, there’s another way to approach learning that’s much more holistic. When we prepare and practice musical concepts, we are engaging in singing, speaking, playing, moving, partwork, improvisation, arranging, aural identification, community collaboration, critical thinking……
Preparing and practicing involve so so so so so much more than figuring out the number of sounds on a beat and learning how to read it in standard notation. That’s part of it. But that’s the tip of the iceberg.
If we were learning how to read and write a symbol primarily, we would probably need a lot of additional music to round out our musical skills beyond reading.
Some people do divide the curriculum into isolated units on musical elements - like a unit on form, a unit on dynamics, etc. - I’ve created these lessons in independent contract work. And at the end of the day, these can be joyful, active music rooms where learning takes place.
Interdependent Elements
When we present music authentically, in a context, there’s no way to separate rhythm from melody from form from expression. We’re always using repertoire not connected strictly to the objective because that’s how repertoire works. The way to get away from interconnected elements and move toward isolated elements is to move to something like a sight-reading drill.
Rhythmic Objective, Melodic Unknown. Melodic Objective, Rhythmic Unknown.
Because there’s no way to isolate elements
Betty Larkin
Sulla Rulla
One, Two, Three, Four, Five
When Can I See You Again?
“Just for Fun” as a Curricular Objective
Very often, we’re using material that isn’t connected to a rhythmic or melodic learning objective. This is especially true for younger grades, but it applies to older grades as well. Warm up routines, change of page sections, or closing routines are all great places for this.
What happens after the fun activity?
Basically every day there’s something used that isn’t connected to a specific learning objective.
Sometimes it’s time to shake things up. Sometimes we feel like we’re in a rut and for our own sake, it’s time to try something different. Especially at the end of the year, using more folk dances, children’s literature, or other “one-off” units can be like a breath of fresh air.
Isolated listening activities, movement activities, instruments, etc.
These to me are like the garnish on top of the dish that brings the whole thing together. But if you were just to hand someone a fist full of cilantro and some salt, they might not feel happy about the meal as a whole.
An important point: listening activities and movement are absolutely a crucial part of what I consider to be a well-rounded curriculum. But again, these are movement activities and listening activities that are naturally embedded.
Scheduling Considerations
How often do we see students?
If we have a schedule where we see students several times a week, we might make a different curricular choice than someone who sees their students once every eight school days, or once a week for one trimester out of the year.
What vocabulary and learning experiences will best equip students to engage in music?
Concerts, Repertoire, and Curriculum
In general, my preference is for the concert to be an authentic showcase of what’s happing inside the classroom. My preference is not for learning to happen in a play-based, active way, and then have learning paused while we learn songs that are divorced from the musical learning. My preference is for the public-facing storefront to be reflective of what’s going on inside the store.
How Often will we Include Repertoire Not Connected to a Rhythmic and Melodic Concept?
It depends on what our rhythmic and melodic work look like.
As often as you want, and as often as you see it serving your students in the long run.
