Standard 2: Performing On Instruments, Standard 4: Composing And Arranging have to begin reading music. When stu-
Alone And With Others Music Within Specified Guidelines dents think about how music is construct-
ed, and then construct their own music,
Similar to number one, students may One must remember that “composing they gain personal understanding of neces-
have a difficult time entering a secondary-level music” does not necessarily mean a child is sary musical concepts, like melodic and har-
music program and leaming to read if they notating music (writing it out or putting it monic structure and form. All of these con-
have not played instruments. This does not into notation software). When a child is tribute to the music reading process.
mean that all of the elementary teachers putting his or her own musical ideas in an
must now also teach beginning band. No, order that makes sense, he or she is com-
this means teachers should have all children posing. It stands to reason if musical ideas
play many different melodies with different are present, they may also be part of the
harmonic structures using both pitched and necessary aural background a student must
continued on next page
unpitched instruments. As with the first
standard, hearing and interpreting melodies
and harmonies is a foundation. If a sound
or sequence of sounds is unfamiliar, then
students will have difficulty reproducing it
on an instrument (or voice). Since part of
successful music performance is anticipat-
ing, having the aural training is necessary to
anticipate subsequent pitches, for example
in a scale or arpeggiated passage. Without
the wealth of knowledge playing many dif-
ferent melodies and harmonies on instru-
ments brings, students begin in a secondary
music program ill prepared and teachers at
that level must fill in the missing gaps of
information needed to begin to read nota-
tion.
Standard 3: Improvising Melodies,
Variations, And Accompaniments
If students can learn to hear music in a
way that allows them to freely improvise
melodies and variations using many differ-
ent accompaniments or harmonic struc-
tures, this is definitely a key to beginning to
read music. Inner hearing and at least some
understanding of a musical structure, even
if it is first graders improvising on a penta-
tonic scale, can lead to music reading. If
students can improvise with their voices or
on instruments, melodies that “sound
good” with the I, IV, and V chords, then
they have a better chance at quickly under-
standing what similar melodies look like on
a staff. In addition, these skills become part
of the child’s background in music and con-
tribute to his or her ability to anticipate
what should come next.
MAY 2009 73 TEMPO
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100