For New Music Teachers, I recommend...

     For new music teachers, I highly recommend Aspiring to Excel: Leadership Initiatives for Music Educators by Kenneth R. Raessler.  It was a required reading for me at the University of Florida, and I am so glad it was -- every music teacher needs to read this book!  Thank you, Dr. Russell Robinson!

     This book is an incredible resource on how to start and build your music program, be it at the elementary, middle, high school, or even college level!  He also gives wonderful insight on why it is important to recognize your role as a leader within the education system and how you can use your role to make a difference in your schools and communities.

You can get the book on Amazon by hovering over the link here.

I Can...

I Can.....

These wonderful "I Can" posters were taken from Ms. Benson's website, So La Mi: Music Elementary Class!  She has a lot of wonderful sources for music teachers so I highly recommend her blog!

I Can...

I Can.....

These wonderful "I Can" posters were taken from Ms. Benson's website, So La Mi: Music Elementary Class!  She has a lot of wonderful sources for music teachers so I highly recommend her blog!

I Can....

I Can.....

These wonderful "I Can" posters were taken from Ms. Benson's website, So La Mi: Music Elementary Class!  She has a lot of wonderful sources for music teachers so I highly recommend her blog!

Introduction to Solfeggio and the Instruments

     I showed all of my students a music clip from the movie classic, The Sound of Music, called "Do-Re-Mi" -- can you tell it's one of my all-time favorite movies?

Solfeggio

In this clip, it introduces the concept of naming pitches in a major scale "non-sensical" words to create different melodies.

     I have a poster of the solfeggio with hand-signs in my classroom, for reference.

I focused on this lesson on only Do, Mi- and Sol.  I did not really explain what I was doing, but instead just said "sol" with the hand signal and asked the children to copy me.  After a few repetitions, I added in "mi," then finally "do" -- all in speaking voices, no singing yet!  I mixed up the hand signals, saying it with the children a few times before dropping out and simply showing the hand signals while they did and said the solfeggio.  Once I felt they had a grasp on the hand signs and names, I went to the piano and played a D major triad (this seems to be a very good key for children to sing in).  I started with "Sol" on A4, singing down to "Mi" on F#4.  I changed between those notes a few times until the children seemed to get the minor third before adding in "Do" on D4.  I was careful only to do the exercise for a few minutes -- if I drill something too much it no longer becomes challenging and fun, but instead tiresome.  After successfully completing this exercise, I made sure to use Kagan praise strategies to reward the children!

Instruments

I had the children transition to Orff instruments and had them find C, E, and G.  They practiced transitioning from one note to another, and when I felt they had a basic idea of where to find the bars, I challenged them to follow my hand signs -- whenever I did a "Do" hand sign, they would play C, for "Mi" they would play E, and for "Sol" they would play G.  I proceeded to show them the hand signs in a variety of orders and they all, for the most part, were successfully able to follow my direction and play the notes according to the hand signs I showed them!  This helped to reinforce the sound of a major triad, and I could see many of the children having an "a-ha!" moment as they recognized that this is what they had been singing earlier, albeit in a different key.

Here is one of my third grade classes!

Amazing for the very first time being introduced to solfeggio AND for playing on the Orff instruments!  I could not be more proud.

Standards Being Met

Kindergarten

MU.K.S.3.1, MU.K.S.3.3
Sing age-appropriate songs using proper vocal technique.

First Grade

MU.1.S.3.2
Play three-to-five note melodies on classroom instruments.
MU.1.S.3.3, MU.1.S.3.5
Respond to la-sol-mi patterns by singing and representing them visually.

Second Grade

MU.2.S.3.1

Sing age-appropriate songs using proper vocal technique.
MU.2.S.3.3
Sight-sing simple melodies.

Third Grade

MU.3.S.3.3

Sight-sing pentatonic melodies.

Fourth Grade

MU.4.S.3.3

Sight-sing pentatonic melodies.

Fifth Grade

MU.5.S1.4
Sing melodies learned by ear.

Introduction to Rhythm Reading

 New School, New Things to Learn!

    I was blessed and fortunate enough to be selected as the brand new music teacher for an elementary school a few weeks ago, after their previous educator retired.  Obviously as a new person coming in during the middle of the school year, I had many challenges and for the first two weeks spent much of my time focused on classroom organization and management.  With that out of the way, I can now begin the fun stuff!

     None of my children know what solfeggio is yet, nor have they ever truly sight-read, which is actually wonderful for me!  Now I can teach them something brand new and exciting!

Rhythm Reading -  Part 1

     To begin the introduction of rhythm reading, I had the children keep a steady beat on their laps.  While they kept a steady beat, I would start a call and response.  I would use the words "cheese" and "pizza" to create rhythms (cheese = quarter note or 1 beat, and pizza = 1/8 note or 1/2 beat):

1. "Cheese, Cheese, Cheese, Cheese" and "Pizza, Pizza, Pizza, Pizza"

2. "Cheese, Pizza, Cheese, Pizza" and "Pizza, Cheese, Pizza, Cheese"

3. "Pizza, Cheese, Cheese, Pizza" and "Cheese, Pizza, Pizza, Cheese"

     Obviously you can alternate "pizza" and "cheese to come up with lots of different and fun rhythms using quarter and 1/8 notes.

Rhythm Reading - Part 2

     I then asked my children how many times they clapped their laps when I said "cheese" and "pizza."  The correct answer is one, but sometimes they will answer four because they misunderstand the question as the exercise is in 4/4 time.  I then use an English concept, syllables, to explain that cheese is one syllable, and pizza is two.  I say, "Isn't that so interesting, that I can make two sounds: piz-za on one beat?"

     I then ask one of the students what their favorite sandwich is.  I use their favorite sandwich to incorporate a math concept, fractions, and to help them understand that an 1/8 note is half the value of a quarter note.  I say, 

T: "Imagine your mom made you this amazing ____________ (insert favorite here) sandwich, but your friend (point to the person next to them) forgot to bring his lunch.  Now, since you are such a nice person, you cut your sandwich right down the middle; you keep part of it and give the other part to your friend.  Now you each have 1/2 a sandwich.  You didn't magically make two big sandwiches from cutting one sandwich in half, did you?" 

S: Resounding "no," with laughter.

T: "So if you two put your pieces together, how many sandwiches would you make?"

S: One!

T: "So how much of a sandwich do you think each person has, if we take one sandwich and split it up?"

S: "Half!"

      Note: Some students might not fully understand.  I drew on the blackboard to give them a visual, but in general, it's nice to just throw the students some pearls, even if they don't quite understand the concepts just yet.

Rhythm Reading - Part 3

     I created a large bulletin board with all the grades listed, as well as dry erase staff posters beneath each grade.  This has become my new sight-reading board, where the children can practice saying rhythms while keeping a steady beat on their laps.  I will change the notation on it each week as we discover more notes and learn about their rhythm values.

     For this week, I used quarter notes and 1/8 notes for the rhythm readings.  I pointed to the quarter notes, asked what kind of value it had, and then asked the students to say "ta" every time they saw it.  I then pointed to the 1/8 notes, asked what value they had, and asked the students to say "ti" every time they saw one.  I obviously grouped two 1/8 notes together every time, so they would always say "ti-ti."  I then related "ta" to "cheese" and "ti-ti" to "pizza."

The students were able to sight-read the rhythms while keeping a steady beat with very few problems, if any.

Conclusion

Overall, I felt my lesson was highly successful.  The children, K-5, were almost all able to keep a steady beat on their laps, recognize "ta" as a quarter note and understand the value, as well as recognizing "ti-ti" as an 1/8 note.  The majority of the students were able to effectively rhythm read with very little trouble while staying on the steady beat.

Song of the Week

Each week, students spend the last few minutes of class listening to a classical piece of music.  They are asked to close their eyes and listen for specific musical elements, and what kind of mood or feeling it evokes within them.

This week, our song was "Canon in D", composed by Johann Pachelbel  (I jokingly have told the students they can remember his name by thinking it rhymes with "Taco Bell").

I asked the students to tell me whether this piece was fast, slow, or somewhere in between.  I also asked them to use an adjective to describe the piece.  The two most popular answers I have gotten so far is "slow" and "sleepy."

Standards Being Met

Kindergarten

MU.K.C.1.2, MU.K.C.1.3

Identify sounds and instruments visually and aurally.

First Grade

MU.1.C.1.1, MU.1.C.1.2, MU.1.C.3.1  

Respond to musical ideas to show how it makes one feel and share responses with others.

Second Grade

MU.2.C.1.2, MU.2.C.3.1

Form opinions about music and discuss it with others.

Third Grade

MU.3.C.1.2

Respond to and compare individual interpretations of a musical work.

Fourth Grade

MU.4.C.1.1, MU.4.C.3.1

Develop effective listening strategies to describe the characteristics of a musical work.

Fifth Grade

MU.5.C.1.1, MU.5.O1.1

Listen to and describe various elements when analyzing a musical work using correct vocabulary.