All-girl band video

After watching the video, “Music and Lyrics,” by the students of Spike Highfield School, I was definitely in for a surprise.  The video begins with a description of what the video consists of, “ Inspirational all-girl teenage band lead teachers in a songwriting workshop, to provide insight into how young, informal musicians write their own music.” At first, I was extremely surprised to see that the young girls were holding a workshop for the teachers, which is something I can honestly say I have never personally experienced or seen.   In the beginning minutes of the video, it definitely did not appear that the teachers were very interested in the band, but I think as the workshop progressed, they did appear to understand more of the purpose behind it.

 At the workshop, the teachers were allowed to hear the instrumentals without the lyrics, allowing them to create their own lyrics.  The girls in the band then discussed how they wrote the instrumentals, breaking it down into basic chords and guitar riffs.   The girls then broke down the lyrics by having the teachers sing ‘la la’ to the music.  This was definitely an interesting section of the video, as I have never seen this done.  The teachers were then broken into groups and asked to practice the lyrics they create and sing together with their group to get a feeling for the way lyrics are written in this particular genre.

At this point, two of the girls in the band take the created lyrics from each group and put it together in order to perform each group’s addition in a full piece.   While the girls on working, the teachers get together again and interview the remaining members regarding songwriting and performing.  The first question asked was if the girls had had any formal vocal or instrumental lessons and how much of what they do is related to those lessons.  One of the girls does agree that her music instructor has really influenced her and that she wouldn’t be where she is today without him.  However, she goes on to say that her instructor would stand back and observe, really only stepping in to help when she needed it.  Therefore, she was honestly directing her own learning, allowing her creativity and passion to blossom.    

The video ends with the all-girl band performing a song that consists of every teacher group’s lyrics.   I was definitely impressed with the teacher’s abilities to create the lyrics in a short amount of time.  It appeared that the teachers were proud of themselves for what they had accomplished (which I thought was a lot), and even enjoyed themselves.   I think that at the beginning of the workshop the teachers were almost hesitant to enjoy a genre of music that is usually not as familiar to the typical musical educator. However, by the end, their ability to create something that resulted in a quite passionate moment was a break through for education.   If these teachers can take what they learned from these girls back into their classrooms, think of all the possibilities their students would be introduced to.  Music should be full of joy and passion, and the ability to create something for oneself fosters that. I would definitely recommend this video to my colleagues as a way to introduce a new concept of teaching.

Informal Composing

After reading pages 154-157 of, “ Musical Futures,” I was extremely excited to see Informal Composing broken down into a very easy and informative way for people like me, and you, to understand.

This section begins with a description about what Informal Composing is, which is allowing students to begin creating their own music.  Throughout the year, the students have been learning through listening and copying other musicians in the popular music realm.  In order to truly understand Informal Composing, you have to know the key principles, which are learning music that students choose, like, and identify with, learning with friends, engaging the students in personal, self-directed learning, and integrating listening, performing, improvising, and composing into their skills.

The next section goes into discussing and explaining how the students will compose their music, beginning with the first lesson.  When preparing the students, you must first explain to them that they will be composing their own music, whether through a song or instrumental piece.  The students have the ability to write their own lyrics, or use/change existing lyrics.  It would be beneficial to guide the students on choosing riffs and ideas they previously worked on during the listening and copying exercises to ensure an effective starting point.  As always, it is important for the teacher to stand back and help as needed, and to remind the students to follow the rules of their school, such as not choosing songs that use derogatory language or hate-filled lyrics.

Following the first lesson, “Musical Futures,” recommends that students engage in their own composing/songwriting for two more lessons, with their friendship group, before the teacher provides more structured supervision, such as modeling composing for the students, or providing a lesson on the techniques of songwriting.  In the table on page 157, the author provides a step-by-step guide of each lesson, beginning with the introductions to the task, songwriting techniques, and having the students group themselves into their friendship group, and ending with performances and feedback from the class.  This table is a great resource that would be very beneficial for any musical instructor to use when following the informal composing approach.

As an educator of music myself, I must say that I was truly impressed with this particular section of the book.  The step-by-step instructions provide a layout of what exactly needs to happen for the students to be successful at composing their own music.  Allowing the students to choose their own friendship groups that probably enjoy the same types of music is an innovative way to build on each other’s musical skills, as well as their team skills.  Although I have mentioned in previous discussions that I have allowed my students to break into groups and learn pieces together, I typically do not allow them to choose their own groups, rather, I put them in their sections.  I can see after reading this book that I should have provided them more opportunities to work on music that they enjoyed, especially more popular music.  It is obvious by the articles and videos we have engaged in this summer that the students respond in a very motivational and positive way to being able to direct their own learning.  As an educator, I can admit that I have a hard time giving my control to the students.  I suppose this is mainly due to my desire to practice and perform with perfection.  However, I am planning on integrating composing/songwriting into my curriculum in the fall, especially now that I have a background to follow.

            

Musical Futures

After reading the book, “Musical Futures, 2^nd Edition Teacher Resources” by the Paul Hamlyn Foundation, I found it very informative to see the case study done at Morpeth Secondary School in Bethnal Green, which is located on page 123 of the book.

Morpeth School is a secondary school that, at the time of the study, served almost 1,200 students in the most prevalent poverty area in the London Borough of Tower Hamelts.  The students were considered highly diverse, with most of the students using English as an additional language, with the majority of students speaking Bengali/Sylheti.  Morpeth School chose to engage in the Musical Futures project in order to help students build team skills and become independent learners.

The project began with increasing the amount of time students were able to work on their music, focusing on outdoor leadership skills, filmmaking, animation, rocket building, and print design to “Rock Factory.”  The students were able to asked to discover how to learn more effectively and transfer those abilities to other areas.  In the beginning, students attended workshops that allowed them to experience a variety of instruments, including drums, guitar, keyboard, singing, and bass guitar with the use of a carousel system.  When the students finished the workshop, they selected their favorite instrument and formed bands.  The bands would then work on a select set of songs,, with set performances to illustrate their progress, and then compete with one another.  By the end of the school year, there were 80 students that had formed 16 rock bands, and developed instrumental and team skills.  Throughout this project, the students were assessed based on how they related to the music, and responded to others.

As a result of this project, the study indicated that students who followed the Musical Futures approach, instead of the regular curriculum, were more engaged, had less behavioral issues, completed work at higher standards, and continued to work at these standards more effectively.  The study also reported that the students’ attendance on project day was greater than normal, and student enrollment into the program increased as well.  As the students claimed in response to why they “Rock Factory” was different than normal programs they said, ‘There’s less written work and it’s more hands on’, ‘You learn more about yourself’, ‘It’s not boring and I want to do it’ and ‘Rock Factory is more interactive.’ 

This entire semester we have been attempting to get to the bottom of why students enjoy non-formal teaching, being able to direct their own learning.  After reading this study, I believe the answer has already been given, the students are stating that they enjoy hands on activities where they can be more involved in their own learning.  I find it hard to believe that other educators out there can’t figure out what makes their students enjoy music.  When we engage in our ability to be creative, we become whole, the music becomes part of ourselves.  As said by Daniel J. Levitin, “Whenever humans come together for any reason, music is there: weddings, funerals, graduation from college, men marching off to war, stadium sporting events, a night on the town, prayer, a romantic dinner, mothers rocking their infants to sleep ... music is a part of the fabric of everyday life.” Our students want to create something, something that stays with a person forever, and I think that the projects in “Musical Futures”, has the right idea.

          

Garage Rock Bands: A Future Model For Developing Musical Expertise?

After reading the article, “ Garage rock bands: a future model for developing musical expertise?” by Heidi Westerlund, I found it very informative to see the reasoning behind why the author believes the use of rock music can facilitate more culturally appropriate and useful educational techniques.

         The first thing that caught my eye in the article was the Introduction.  Westerlund claims that Finnish music education is more welcoming to Afro-American-based popular music than the United States.  As educators, should we not want to address every possible cultures’ music, especially when the United States has a predominant amount of African-Americans?  What injustice do we provide to this particular culture in a typical music education class within the United States? According to the article, in Finnish schools, they utilize microphones, drums, electric bass, and electric guitars, regardless of whether the actual curriculum specifies their use.  They also include nationally recognized popular musicians in their teacher training.  However, Westerlund goes on to say that despite the use of pop culture in Finnish schools and music education, there isn’t much research on how their learning and teaching is being affected.  In the remainder of the article, the author discusses the apprenticeship tradition and learning environments and conditions of change in hopes of providing enough basic information to continue one’s research in this area.

         In the next section, “The apprenticeship tradition”, the author explains how this particular tradition works.  According to this tradition, a student’s acquisition of skills takes place through modeling, demonstration, imitation and application.  The adult teacher of the apprentice is the initiator and verifier of the activity, making this tradition based on control.  In my opinion, I feel as the apprenticeship tradition is a beneficial technique, however, I think it lacks the ability to add your own individual ideas to the table.  As stated by the author, “ Even if this is a commonly accepted and presumably effective model in education, researchers into this kind of expertise, such as Bereiter and Scardamalia, claim that the traditional apprenticeship model does not necessarily lead to a creative expert culture.”  This statement to me explains why the Finnish schools are incorporating popular music into their music education classes, in hopes of fostering creativity and individuality. 

         Westerlund then moves on to discuss and analyze learning environments and change.  In this section, the author mentions Bereiter and Scardamalia (1993) again in response to the key features of environments where expertise is supported and developed stating, “therefore focus on knowledge-building communities in which peer-directed learning and group learning are characteristic features.  Teamwork becomes an important component of creating knowledge-building communities.  The expert team does not just do its work well, it gets somewhere.”  This particular quotation parallels the examples of peer-directed learning from Lucy Green’s book, “ Music, Informal Learning and the School: A New Classroom Pedagogy,” in which groups of students are allowed to pick their own music and learn it without the teacher’s input.  Not surprisingly, Green reported how the students appeared more motivated and eager to learn.  It seems obvious to me that when students work together in a supportive environment, they develop what’s referred to as a ‘collective expertise’ that is separate from the knowledge that individual students posses. 

         Although this article skimmed over the basics of music education in classrooms today, I feel as if the author proposed ideas that encourage further research into the benefits of incorporating popular music into our music education classrooms.  Personally, I feel that there is a variety of benefits associated with the use of peer-directed learning and popular music in today’s classrooms.  Adding more motivational activities to the curriculum can only make it more successful. 

Research in the Sociology of Music Education: some introductory concepts

After reading the article, “ Research in the Sociology of Music Education: some introductory concepts” by Lucy Green, I was highly enlightened by the author’s insight into the ‘social organization of musical practice and meaning.’

            The article begins with discussing the social construction of musical meaning, or how our cultural and economic groups affect our ability to comprehend inherent meanings of music.  Mrs. Green provides a chart that illustrates the connection between this inherent and delineated meaning through celebration and aggravation.  Basically, celebration occurs when inherent meanings are joined with positive inclinations towards delineations.  However, alienation occurs when aggravation by inherent meanings is joined with negativity towards delineations.    In layman’s terms, a student who is unfamiliar with a particular type of music may not be able to gain musical meaning or notice the organization, ultimately disliking that particular piece or genre.  Because of the affects of our cultural and economic groups in music, this particular area that tends to be most challenging in music education.

Although I have been an educator of music for the extent of my career, I found The Sociology of Music Education: practice, meaning and musical experience section very interesting.  When the author discusses the patterns of things such as social class, gender, and ethnicity, in relation to music it really makes you think back on some of the struggles an educator of music may face. I found the musical differences between genders to be informative.  I suppose we all know that different types of music affect males and females in unique ways, but it really opens my eyes to see it make sense! Although middle class students will typically enjoy classical more than their working class peers, classical music is more feministic, whereas popular music that includes the drums is more masculine.  In a classroom setting, this can greatly affect what types of instruments and music the students will be interested in learning.  Knowing this, it would be extremely beneficial as an educator to provide a variety of musical instruments, composers, and compositions to choose from to address their interests. Mrs. Green also stated that it would be helpful to address the students’ and teachers’ concepts of what music means, connecting the musical experiences of the students with high-interest compositions and resulting in learning how students respond and engage in different musical practices. 

            As stated by Mrs. Green, “the power of musical delineations is such that it can override even the best of intentions on the part of teachers: pupils have their own delineations, their own desires and their own agendas in relation to music, and these can be reinforced by the school, or they can remain in a cultural sphere which is separate from the school.” This statement pretty much encompasses everything this article discussed in relation to music education, and I find it heartening that research is being done that addresses the needs of our students and educators as one.  After all, however one chooses to interact with music, whether it is singing, playing music, or teaching, the music illustrates your social identity, your sense of self.