Wendy Valerio is Assistant Professor of Music at the University of South Carolina where she teachers courses in music education and is the director of the Children's Music Development Center. She is co-author of Jump Right In: The Early Childhood Music Curriculum: Music Play and Music Play: Bah-Bah, Bebop, Beethoven, a video production that highlights music development through audiation from birth through Grade 5, produced by South Carolina Educational Television (SCETV). Both are available from GIA Publications, 1-800-GIA-1358.
School of Music
University of South Carolina
Columbia, SC 29208
803.777.5382
wvalerio@mozart.sc.edu
The following article first appeared in the Spring 1998 issue of the GIML Audea under the title: "Using Music to Teach Music." It is reprinted with the permission of the Gordon Institute for Music Learning's official journal, theAudea.
"You may find the following techniques helpful for jump-starting your lesson routine and for establishing music communication based in audiation between you and your students."
Do you ever find yourself spending much of your time in a lesson teaching about music or about technique, but not teaching music? Do you ever wonder if you and your students are merely going through the comfortable routine of drill and practice? Do you ever find yourself wondering just exactly what it is that your students are thinking when they are in your music classroom? Are they thinking music? That is, are they audiating? Are they thinking about music? That is, are they using language to think thoughts about music? Yes, both types of thought are necessary for music education, but which type is basic to music education?
You may find the following techniques helpful for jump-starting your private, or group, lesson routine and for establishing music communication based in audiation between you and your students. The achievement levels indicated are merely suggestions. Do not be afraid to create your own variations of these techniques to suit the grade levels that you teach.
Primary Student - Entry Song Activity
Meet each student at the door of the room before each lesson. Instruct each to think the music they hear you sing as they enter the room and proceed to the piano bench. Students should walk toward the bench as they hear you sing and "freeze" in their tracks if you stop singing. Sing a song on a neutral syllable as the student proceed to the bench. Stop singing and allow the student to freeze their movement before continuing as you begin singing the song again. Repeat this sequence several times to help your students become aware of sound and silence and to keep your students focused on music as a means of communication. Use this technique consistently for each lesson. Use these opportunities to familiarize your students with the tunes you intend to teach before you have the students actually sing or learn to play the tunes. If students think and sing music prior to trying to play it, their performances become their own.
Elementary School - Entry Song and Resting Tone
After the student is familiar with the previous activity, meet each at the door as usual. Sing a preparatory sequence in the key and tonality of the song you will sing for the "Entry Song" activity. Then, use your speaking voice to tell the student, "Listen to this pitch." Take a breath and sing the resting tone of the preparatory sequence and the song. Using your speaking voice to say, "Take a breath and sing that pitch," give the student a breath gesture and sing that pitch (the resting tone) with the students. Instruct the student that as she participates in the "Entry Song" activity she will move toward the piano bench when she hears you sing, and she will freeze her movement when she hears silence. She should freeze so that they can see you. After she freezes, she will watch for your breath gesture and then sing the resting tone of the song with you. If a student audiates and then sings the resting tone of a song, she has a basis for understanding the tonality of the song.
Elementary School and Middle School - I Can Audiate!
Once your student has entered the studio, instruct her to think her favorite song without its words. Tell her that you will do the same. Give yourselves a minute to think. Ask her to tell you what she was thinking. Let her sing for you. Some singers will be very accurate, and others will be less accurate. Positively reinforce any genuine response by singing a tonal pattern or chanting a rhythm pattern you heard performed by the student. For example, if someone sings Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, you may respond by saying, "Thank you!" I heard you perform the rhythm pattern, or "Thank you!" I heard you perform the tonal pattern. Explain to your students that the term for thinking music is audiation (Gordon, 1998). Audiation is the practice of thinking and comprehending music with your mind. When musicians audiate, they think music rather than numbers or words.
Elementary School and Middle School - Audiate This and Audiate That
After your student is familiar with the I Can Audiate activity, ask her to listen for and focus on one tonal pattern or one rhythm pattern as she listens to you perform a tune. Ask your student to perform the patterns she chose. Sing or chant the pattern performed by your student. Repeat this process with as tonal patterns or rhythm patterns as possible. Use your singing voices or your chanting voices to discuss, compare, and contrast the patterns performed by the students. Were the patterns the same or were they different? Why? Were the patterns tonal or rhythm? Why? Where did the patterns occur in the song? Why? Encourage your student to sing or chant the similarities or differences they audiate rather than merely use their speaking voices to express their opinions. Then, have you student perform the tonal patterns or rhythm patterns on the keyboard. When students begin thinking in tonal patterns and rhythm patterns, audiation makes mere drill and practice unnecessary. You will be amazed with the audiation games your students will begin to create!
References
Gordon, E.E. (1998). Learning sequences in music: skill and content. GIA Publications: Chicago.
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