Week 3: Music makes sounds

This week has been very successful and productive in my art and music classes.  I am locked into what I am teaching, and just looking for ideas that I can engage my students.

Music has been interesting to teach because I know I have to change some of my previous ideas because of resources and culture. I know that what I have experienced with Classical Music back home is quite different than what is available for students here.

This challenge has led me to want to explore folk music from all over the world and even compose for my students in 7^th, 8^th, and 9^th grade. I’ll see what happens. The weeks end up a little differently than I imagine, but the flexibility right now is crucial to what I do for the rest of the year.  I also need to get into the other music room at the school because I know there are other instruments available.  We must make noise and let it become music!

On Wednesday and Thursday I played a song for the 4^th grade classes. They enjoyed it, and it gave me a lot more motivation to teach my 7^th, 8^th, and 9^th grade classes a little differently.  My 9^th grade classes are a lot of fun because of their brilliant ideas. I had a lecture about the elements of music, including Rhythm, Melody, Harmony, and Tone Color. At first I thought that I’d teach the students Tone Color later in the year, but in order to connect with them I decided to teach it right away. I played Mozart and Bruch and they really understood the differences between styles of music. I hope that this week I can do it for the other grades, but it’s a short week and I’m not exactly sure how it is going to go.

I have had my students brainstorm what kinds of instruments they knew. We took notes on the whiteboard and separated the instruments into their families. I have a lot of work to do, but if I am creative in how I present my material, I can get them to learn about and understand music.  I want them to be able to relate to any kind of music they here and become more sensitive to sounds, as well as see the connections between music, other academic disciplines, and the worlds that they know.