If I am teaching a high school choir a piece of music that needs to be prepared for a concert date, I can incorporate some of the concepts from our reading and from the video to actually teach it to the class, instead of making a daily ritual out of simply running through it. Tom Wujec finished the video by saying that in order to make an idea meaningful, we have to make ideas clear by visualizing them, make them interactive, and make them persistent. Luckily for music educators, persistence and interactivity are key components of music, and music organically creates meaning in the brain. But to take the learning experience a step further, I could add more to the daily routine of reading through parts. One easy step I can think of would be to start work on the piece by suggesting a different angle to attack it from everyday. One day, I might have the class close their eyes and describe how performers of the day might have sung the piece. Another, I might map out the structure of the piece on the board, and have members of the choir come up and suggest where the climaxes are, and let them share their input on some of the artistic decisions of dynamics and interpretation. The video makes it very clear how big of an impact visuals can have on meaning, so in these contexts, I would try to include as many visuals as possible. Each day there would be another avenue into the music, making as much use out of visuals as possible.
Even though I agree that repition in music classes(especially performance classes) is a key to learning,I also think you could incorporate kinesthetic activities to learn the parts other than just "running through them". Maybe a game that involves students to use just themselves and other people to learn the rythmn and melodic contour of the piece to enrich their minds in many different ways to learn the piece and how their parts work together.
ReplyDeleteI really like the idea of having your students close their eyes and think of how a performer of the day may have sung the piece. The reason I think this is such a great idea is because it is so important for performers to be as individual and original as possible. Thinking of how one may perform the piece is in my opinion a better idea than having them watch someone perform. Rather then copying someone else they can create their own idea of how it may have been performed and go off of their own imagination.
ReplyDelete