The National Standards
Jane M. Kuehne
Professor of Music Education
5040 Haley Center
Auburn University, AL 36849-5212
(334) 844-6852
kuehnjm@auburn.edu
Teaching Kids To Read Music:
The Role Of The National Standards
Reprinted from The Alabama Alla Breve
Standard 1: Singing Alone And With Others A Varied
B
eginning teachers often struggle with the daily routine of
teaching. In some cases, they may apply for a job, inter-
Repertoire
view and begin teaching students in as little as a two week
span. As much as their music and music education professors try to
When children learn to sing large amounts of melodies within
prepare them, ultimately, the tasks required for successful teaching
many different harmonic structures, they are also learning to hear
fall on the teacher and it is up to each individual to take up the excit-
those melodies. Often teachers expect that music reading will come
ing challenges of teaching.
naturally and begin with staff notation. Without the foundation of
One thought that can give new teachers (or any teachers) pause
hearing and then singing those melodies, students are missing an
is the idea that they are responsible for teaching kids everything they
essential part of music reading. If they have never heard it before,
need to know in order to successfully read music. If this causes anx-
how can they be expected to read it from a page? When does singing
iety, it can be exacerbated when high school teachers tell middle
begin? It most likely begins on day one in Kindergarten. So by the
school teachers, and middle school teachers tell elementary teachers,
time a student reaches a middle school vocal or instrumental pro-
“You need to do a better job getting kids up to par on their music
gram, he or she should have a wealth of “singing knowledge” from
reading skills.” All at once, it seems that the responsibility for teach-
which to draw information necessary for singing or playing patterns
ing kids to read music has rolled down the hill to sit at the feet of a
in music. He or she has a better chance at learning to anticipate
music teacher teaching kindergarten students.
because of the aural background received over many years of singing
Where do you begin? One person might say, “Start with solfège.
and has less steps in the process of learning to read musical notation.
Kids must know solfège!” Another might disagree
and say, “No, they have to know the numbers for
each note in the scale.” A third might argue, “You
must begin with the staff. Kids must know all of the
letter names on the grand staff” Got all of that? Okay,
get to work. Seriously, any or all of these suggestions
would be fine, except that these do not say where to
begin, only what the end result should be. So, in the
words of Michael Feinstein, “Where Do You Start?”
(1987). Where else but the MENC National
Standards?
There are nine MENC National Standards
(1994) and each focuses on an important way of
knowing in music. Using these to guide lesson plan-
ning and teaching can help new (and not-so-new)
teachers focus on teaching music comprehensively,
rather than focusing on singular elements. When stu-
dents achieve in each of the nine, they gain a back-
ground of musical information that is necessary for
learning to read music. Let us look at the nine stan-
dards and think about music reading.
TEMPO 72 MAY 2009
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