Melbourne Conservatorium of Music MUSI90150 Music Learning, Teaching and Research Week 4

1. Melbourne Conservatorium of Music MUSI90150 Music Learning, Teaching and Research Week 4 Assignment 1 Details & Assessment Criteria and Methodological Influences on Music Learning and Teaching – Dalcroze, Orff and Kodály methods. (Alexander Technique.)

2. Assignment 1 Pre-instrumental music programs – a selection of websites: • http://www.kindermusik.com/about/why-kindermusik/ • http://www.do-re-mi.com.au/ • http://www.themusickindy.com/ • http://www.riam.ie/pre-instrumental/ • http://www.newschool.ie/Lessons_and_Courses_for_Children/Default.207.html

3. Recommended Web Browsing Dalcroze Eurhythmics Music Education (Australia) – http://www.dalcroze.org.au/ Dalcroze Society of America – http://www.dalcrozeusa.org/ Australian National Council of Orff Schulwerk – http://www.ancos.org.au/pages/about-us/about Kodály Music Education Institute of Australia – http://www.kodaly.org.au/ Curriculum Development Guideline - QLD DET http://ppr.det.qld.gov.au/education/management/Procedure%20Attachments/Instrumental%20Music%20Program/Curriculum%20Guide.PDF

4. Recommended Web Browsing PBS guide - Child Development Tracker. Read about general development over the years, and specifically what students can do in Music (under each age category, click on “Creative Arts”). http://www.pbs.org/parents/childdevelopmenttracker/one/index.html VCAA Approaches to Learning and Teaching – The Arts (Music) Foundation http://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/Documents/auscurric/arts/approaches/AusVELS_approaches_Music_F.pdf VCAA Approaches to Learning and Teaching – scroll down to MUSIC to view all levels http://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/Pages/foundation10/curriculum/resources/arts_approaches.aspx Victorian Early Years Learning and Development Framework. Evidence Paper. Practice Principle 7: Assessment for learning and development. https://www.eduweb.vic.gov.au/edulibrary/public/earlylearning/prac-assessment.pdf Teaching Music to Children (Ages 4-6) http://www.musicforlittlemozarts.com/classroomcourse/howtoteach/

5. Teaching Method vs Approach vs Technique vs Strategy What are your definitions?

6. Definitions Approach – describes one’s attitude toward teaching in general terms. How will you approach teaching? What experiences will students encounter? Approach may vary depending on the abilities and needs of students. No prescribed materials or teaching sequences. Method – specifically describes how the material should be taught. Specifies which texts/music to use, in what order to present the material, which techniques and strategies to use. Teachers either use the prescribed method or deviate. Technique – what will the teacher do? Use hand signs and syllables. Strategy – specific steps that students will take to achieve learning goals. What is your strategy for teaching a simple song?

7. Dalcroze ‘Eurhythmics’ Method • Need for developing a more inter-connected approach to teaching music, develop musicianship in students • Researched the effect of human movement on musical perception • Author of the method Eurhythmics (literally means "good rhythm") – a misleading term. • Method includes ear training, singing and playing in ensembles, form, harmony, counterpoint, history, improvisation Émile Jaques-Dalcroze (1865–1950), Swiss musician and music educator

8. Dalcroze ‘Eurhythmics’ Method • Develops interpretative skills—phrasing, nuances, dynamics etc. Develop ‘towardness’ • Improvisation mainly on keyboard • Some influence on Orff Schulwerk approach • Solfège (fixed do)—the idea that information, ordination and classification are best learned through solfège to develop inner hearing and reading of staff notation Émile Jaques-Dalcroze (1865–1950), Swiss musician and music educator

9. Eurhythmics • Primary focus of the method is "…to create, by the help of rhythm, a rapid and regular current of communication between brain and body, and to make feeling for rhythm a physical experience” • Time-Space-Energy-Weight-Balance • Fast tempo = small movement • Staccato = ? • Legato = ? • Loud = ? • Soft = ? • 2-part invention = ? • Harmony = ? Harmonic progression = ? • Dalcroze Class for adults click here

10. Eurhythmics • Eurhythmics has a three-part structure, consisting of Rhythmics, Solfège and Improvisation • Rhythm develops a feeling for rhythm and ability to perform in rhythm • Solfège trains the ear, eye and voice in pitch, melody and harmony • Improvisation allows students to synthesize their knowledge

11. Dalcroze Goals Enable students to • use all their facilities when learning • use their imagination and creativity • develop flexibility and motor coordination • develop concentration and listening skills

12. Dalcroze Sequence • Free movement at different stages • Students walk the beat or rhythm • Students say/sing the phrase (from the selected piece of music) while walking the beat (try with “Row Your Boat”) • Students transfer the verbal phrase to a clapping phrase (while walking)

13. Dalcroze Activities • The teacher plays marches and waltzes on the piano. Students march to the beat of march, change to spinning in circles to the music of waltz. • The teacher plays music on the piano, students walk to the beat. Stop and freeze as soon as the music stops. • March to the beat, on word “hop” take a step back

14. Dalcroze Activities - Rhythm • Teach accelerando / ritardando • Practice moves as in real life. Train gaining speed • Add music, move to music • Introduce the term • Create interpretive movements to reflect a form of a piece (A-part moves are different from B-part moves) • Avoid mechanical movements. Students will create different movements to the same music. Respond instantly to the changes in music. • Watch an activity teaching whole notes

15. Dalcroze Activities - Rhythm • Speak / sing in one rhythm, while moving to another (e.g. given rhythm for stepping + learned song – try with Row Your Boat and quarter-half, eighths-quarter patterns) • Teacher plays 1 bar before st responds, while listening to the next bar (similar to rhythmic dictation in Kodaly) • Realization – dictation. Sts listen to music till end. Later move, expressing the beat, tempo, rhythm, phrasing

16. Dalcroze Activities - Rhythm • Clap beat, step to the rhythm. Try 12/8 – clap 4 beats, step on eighth notes • Rhythmic Counterpoint – step on silent notes (eighths in quarter melody) • Clap quarters (or conduct) in 4/4, step on eighth notes. Then start stepping on syncopated rhythm, while clapping 4 quarters – e.g. ti-ta-ti ta ta, repeat the rhythm while singing the melody. • Independence of control – LH ¾, RH 4/4, feet 12/8. Accent the first beat in ¾ and 4/4

17. Dalcroze Activities - Solfege • Fixed-do – use syllables or sometimes letters. Intensive listening. Develop inner hearing. Relative perfect pitch • Sing all scales C – C. Stand beside cards I – VIII for tones. • Sing arpeggiated chords, hear harmonies as they sing • Sing harmonic progressions in parts • Recognise mistakes in notation (audiation) • Sing a melody from notation – erase bar by bar upon initial singing. Sing from memory • Variation: Sing a melody from notation while clapping the beat of the previous bar. Do the same from memory

18. Dalcroze Activities - Improv • Improvise using a pentatonic scale. • Notate a melody with empty bars. Sts improvise in those bars • Teacher plays in the middle register, st improvises on one tone in high / low register (bird / bear parts) • Teacher plays harmonies, sts improvise a two-bar pattern using C, D, E, G only. Each student continues to sing his melody till all are singing. • Imitative canon – play canon with an unfamiliar melody. Listen while playing • Stand in a circle, step the beat, each student improvises a rhythm one after another by clapping • Spatial awareness exercises

19. Orff Schulwerk • With Dorothee Gunther – for adults, with Gunild Keetman – for children • The Orff Process: • Exploration of Space through Movement • Exploration of Sound through Voice and Instruments • Exploration of Form through Improvisation (ostinatos, movement, etc) • Pedagogical Principles: • From Imitation to Creation (observe  imitate  experiment  create) • From Part to Whole • From Simple to Complex (pentatonic) • From Individual to Ensemble • Music Literacy – integral part of learning, but no specific instructions for teaching Carl Orff (1865–1982) German composer and music educator

20. Orff Instrumentarium A collection of percussion instruments for children (xylophones, metallophones, glockenspiels, recorders, drums, etc.) Tuned and non-tuned

21. Orff Schulwerk • Orff Schulwerk is a way to teach and learn music. Not a method. • Educational philosophy – “Out of music, movement; out of movement, music.” Dancers use instruments to make music as they dance, musicians dance. • Non-competitive atmosphere. One of the goals is the pleasure of making music. • Learn music by hearing and making music first, and then reading and writing (the way we learn first language). No singing in the first version of Schulwerk. • Improvising, composing, singing, chanting, playing, moving and dancing are central to the approach • Ostinati serve as the form-giving elements in all improvisations

22. Orff Process • Exploration and Experience are key to the process. Whole body experience in music – body is the most important instr, then voice. Body percussion • Explore - compare like and unlike elements • Rhythm – speech rhythms connected to rhythms being taught (e.g. I love pineapple) • Melody - Vocal imitation of sounds. First instruments are natural, self-made – create first improvs. • Form: movements, sounds, rhythms are organised into patterns, patterns into forms (dances). An outcome of improv • Teacher is the leader, sts learn through imitation first. Cycle: Observe - Imitate – Experiment - Create

23. Orff Process • Body instrument: stomp – patsch – clap – snap for pitch • Movable-do but pitched percussion instruments have proper note names on them. • Removable keys on instruments. Pentatonic. • Improvise ostinato accompaniments, melodies. Create sound effects for stories • Memorize songs with solfege (teacher sings a melodic pattern -- students play what they hear until they learn to play the entire song). • Gotye’ hit for Orff instruments http://buchananmusicprogram.blogspot.com.au/2012/09/welcome-back-buchananites.html

24. Orff Materials Originally - music composed by Orff, for adult dancers Use poems, rhymes, games, songs, and dances as examples and basic materials. Traditional or original, spoken or sung, they may be accompanied by clapping and stamping or by drums, sticks, and bells Example of teaching young children – click here

25. Orff Resources 5 volume series, Music for Children by Carl Orff and GunildKeetman • Volume 1 the two-note 'cuckoo call' for falling minor third building up to the pentatonic scale. Rhythmic patterns from name calling, counting out rhythms, simplest children's rhymes and songs. Simple forms: ternary, binary, rondo, canon, inversion, augmentation and diminution. • Volume 2 whole major scale with drone bass and tonic triad [harmonies]. • Volume 3 introduces dominant and subdominant ostinati and parallel chords. • Volume 4 introduces the minor mode with drone bass. • Volume 5 minor mode with dominant and subdominant harmonies.

26. Kodály Method • Based on Curwen’s Tonic Sol-fa method—adapted in Hungary “I am now pleased to return to the English what I learned from them, and was able to adapt to our needs in Hungary.” – Kodály from his foreword to the first English edition of Choral Method. • Influence of Curwen on Kodály: • Sol-fa handsigns • Simplified notation (Tonika-doh form combining sol-fa [pitch] and simplified rhythm [duration]) • Use folk songs and art songs • Both Sol-fa and note names learned, helpful for writing and reading music (3rd grade) Zolton Kodály (1882–1967), Hungarian musician and music educator

27. Kodály Method • Pedagogical tools include: • Sol-fa syllables and hand signs (Curwen) • Rhythm duration syllables – French Cheve’s time names • Child developmental approach, Pestalozzi influence • Importance of teaching through action, love • Concrete before abstract • Immediate environment before unknown • Simple before complex • Gradually and slowly increase complexity • Highly sequential—prescribed sequence for both rhythm and pitch Zolton Kodály (1882–1967), Hungarian musician and music educator

28. Kodály Method Teaching music literacy through sightsinging • Philosophy: ability to read, write, and think music is the ‘right of every human being’ (Choksy, 1981) • ‘The way to understand music is available to all: it is musical reading and writing. Once in possession of these skills everyone may join in great musical experiences.’ (Kodaly,1984) • Own folk songs in own language – most natural for teaching. Language rhythms reflected in folk music. Mother tongue approach. • Singing is the foundation of musicianship. Instruments are not necessary • Music literacy is the key to music freedom

29. Kodály Method • Teaching exercises • Harmony and theory – on instruments and vocally, accompaniments of I, then drone I-V, chord inversions • Sing from hand signals (in parts) and a ladder (inner hearing). • Music memory - Sing a song, erasing one phrase at a time etc. • Form – use shapes or pictures to indicate same or different phrases in the song (Hot Cross Buns) • Expressive performance – sts choose dynamics, tempo, instruments for songs • Exploring Kodaly by Dr. Pattye Casarow – read. Scope and sequence for K-8 grades, examples of lessons

30. Relevant music method websites: • Dalcroze Australia – http://www.dalcroze.org.au • Australian National Council of Orff Schulwerk – http://www.ancos.org.au • Kodaly Music Education Institute of Australia – http://www.kodaly.org.au/

31. Alexander Technique • Tasmania • Shakespearean monologist • Vocal issues • Pulls the head back and down on the spine • Depresses the larynx • Sucks in the air with a gasp

32. Alexander Technique • Stand tall – head back and down – problem • Relationship of the head to the spine critical • This organization of the head-neck-back he calls the Primary Control • not an issue of position but rather of the freedom of each element in relation to the other

33. Use Affects Functioning • The way we use our bodies affects the way we function and how the body’s structure changes over time • Head fwd and up • Faulty Sensory Perception - the gap between what we habitually do and what we think we are doing

34. End-gaining • End-gaining – shortest way to the goal (stand up) • Inhibition • Directions - let your body do the right thing • Lengthen neck • Head up and fwd • Back lengthen and widen Alexander, F. M. (2001). The use of self. Orion Books Ltd., London.