Newsletters

Music and the Brain Newsletter No. 15 – June 2005

CONGRATULATIONS!
 

This has been a wonderful year for MATB with the expansion of our schools, new rhythm CDs, and a successful professional development workshop. Most importantly we want to thank all of our teachers for the hard work and creativity you bring to teaching this program. We've got great ideas from new and more seasoned MATB teachers to share in this newsletter and we are very proud of the work you do to make the program shine. The wonderful examples you set assist us tremendously in garnering more support for the growth of this program.

 

LESSON VIDEO TAPING


As we began last year, we are happy to continue to videotape MATB teachers in action for your own education. It is very difficult to really assess how you can get the most out of your students and the program without an ability to observe what is happening during your lessons from an outside perspective. Please let us know if you haven't been and would like to be videotaped as soon as possible so we can schedule it before the end of the school year. REMINDER: These tapes will be for your eyes only and would never be used for any purpose without your knowledge and consent

 

MOVEMENT


As we observe more classes, it is overwhelmingly apparent that beginning music classes with movement is very beneficial to the students. Having children mimic your movements is a wonderful way to focus attention and is a great segue to singing exercises and rhythm work. Establishing a routine in this manner at the beginning of lessons can really help particularly for classes that struggle with behavior and concentration.

 

READ BOOKS ABOUT COMPOSERS IN CLASS!


Students get the most out of lessons that introduce famous composers when you read a story and talk about the lives of composers. Without this, children may miss out on the significance of these beautiful pieces.

 

DECORATE YOUR ROOM


Environment is very important for learning. You may want to take inventory of your music classroom and check that you have evidence of the important musical concepts you teach on your walls. We always encourage students to read the room for clues to questions about note values and other musical information. If your children are struggling with certain music concepts make sure you put up posters that are a constant reminder of what you want them to know. Check out www.musicmotion.com for music posters and ideas.

 

DIFFERENT APPROACHES TO THE KEYBOARDS- PART II


PRACTICING SONGS IN SECTIONS: _Several MATB teachers have students practice a few measures of a piece first for a few minutes with headphones and then have performances of that section of the song before moving on. As your students encounter more challenging fingering at the keyboards, this is an excellent way to make sure they are focusing on tougher elements of the song by breaking it into sections at a time. Practicing song sections can be done with headphones or out loud as an ensemble.

ABANDONING FINGER NUMBERS  Edel Boland of PS 71Q has challenged her students by writing a 4 measure song in one clef on the board that the children have never seen without any finger number clues. The piece is filled with steps, skips, and jumps. The students are given about 5 minutes to practice the short song and encouraged to do their best with the exercise. She has volunteers perform it for the class. This exercise can really reveal what areas the students need to work on. Many students played the correct pitches and incorrect rhythms or vice versa, or played with the wrong hand.

PIANO RECITALS _Many MATB teachers work towards a piano recital for their students and parents. It provides a reason to review songs the children have learned and let them pick the song they like the most. The children feel wonderful to be able to perform for their parents and also feel the accomplishment of reviewing all the material they have learned throughout the year. The parents are most impressed and often don't even know that their children are able to play so well. Recitals can often lead to parents making the investment in purchasing keyboards for their children to practice at home. If you plan this well in advance you should be able to have the children practice their performance piece for a few minutes at the end of each class and not have to sacrifice too much lesson time on rehearsal.

PERFORMANCES DURING RUG LESSON _Francesca DiGiovanni of PS 58Q regularly has a few students come up and try playing the new piece of the day at her keyboard before the class has gotten to practice. This builds confidence and courage for the children to come up and try to play through a piece out loud by reading and not relying on any memorization that naturally comes from repetition.
 

 

STORIES FROM THE FIELD


GAMES, GAMES, GAMES

Melanie Madsen of PS 66B played a game with her students where the children stand in a circle and she tosses a multicolored beach ball to a child and whatever color their right thumb lands on is the color of the rhythm card they will have to clap.

TEACHING VARIATION
MATB Intern Ben Fox was teaching Twinkle, Twinkle and started humming other tunes that were similar such as the ABC song, and Bah Bah Black sheep. The students were then taught the word "variation".


TEACHING SONG FORM

Constatiya Sidiris of PS 122Q always discusses dong form in her classes and has the students figure out if the song in the lesson is in ABA form or otherwise.


USING RHYTHM CARDS

> Camilo Moronta of PS 36M has his class clap rhythm cards in different time signatures and then asks them to explain what is different about what they clapped.

> Claire McIntire of PS 71Q finds the corresponding rhythm cards for each measure of Akiwowo and first has the children find the matching rhythm card and clap it before moving on to the next measure of the song. This breaks down Akiwowo, which is the longest piece at that point of Book 1, in a way that makes it less intimidating.

> Paul Madden of PS claps a rhythm for his class and has them clap it back and say the rhythm. He then draws a box on the board and picks a child to come up and fill the box with the proper notation of the rhythm he just clapped.

> Kjirste Hilig of PS 3B has taught her classes physical movements for each rhythm and she has them follow rhythm cards with their body motion. She picks up the pace of the card flipping to the point where the students are almost doing aerobics to the rhythms

MARY HAD A LITTLE LAMB CANNON


Edel Boland of PS 71Q broke her class up in 4 groups and had one group "baaah" like sheep on whole notes, while another group made noises for the fleece in half notes, another group said "where did you go" on quarter notes, while the last group spoke the lyrics of the song. This exercise encourages the students to play their parts independently of the other groups to a steady beat in different rhythms.


THE INTERVAL GAME

Jeff Haley of PS and MATB intern Don Martin both played guitar for a class and began to play songs with 2nd, 5th, 6th, 4th intervals and played name that tune/interval to recognizable songs like the "NBC theme", "Here Comes The Bride", and others.

 

STUDENT COMPOSITIONS


Jeff Haley of PS had his students write their own music in the Treble clef for 8 bars and then he played chords to accompany what they wrote. This was thrill for the kids. 

 

FAVORITE KIDDIE QUOTES


> At PS 127Q, when learning Largo, a child said the song made him feel "like (he) was flying in the sky".

> At PS 246M a child explained that Martin Luther King "wanted to have all the children together".

> At PS 92Q one of Clair Pfeiffer's kindergarten students affectionately exclaimed "Ms. Pfeiffer, I appreciate you for teaching me music!"