Karen Dickinson General Music Vice-preident
Music Makes Me Feel...
There is a familiar bit of text by an unknown author called “Why Teach Music?” You might have this as a poster in your music room. After describing how music is science, math, foreign language, history and physical education, it states, “Music is all these things, but most of all music is art. It allows a human being to take all these dry technically boring (but difficult) techniques and use them to create emotion. That is one thing that science cannot duplicate: humanism, feeling, emotion, call it what you will. That is why we teach music!” (anonymous, 2012).
Emotion has been acknowledged as crucial in the educational and medical fields. There are emotional intelligences and emotional disorders, yet it is hard to find an emotional component in modern curricula. We often focus on the skill and content of music, perhaps because it is the easiest to teach and assess, but the emotional response to music is an important objective as well. John Feierabend’s (2013) curriculum validates the emotional component as one of three ways children become musical:
1. Tuneful – to have tunes in their heads and learn to
summer 2017 |
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coordinate their voices to sing those tunes.
2. Beatful – to feel the pulse of music and how that pulse is grouped in either 2s or 3s.
3. Artful – to be moved by music in the many ways music can elicit a feelingful response.
All adults should be tuneful, beatful and artful so they can participate in the music that is interwoven throughout our lives. Adults who are tuneful can sing lullabies to their babies, sing “Happy Birthday” to their children and friends, sing in worship services, and join others in singing ceremonial songs like alma maters or heritage favorites. Adults who are beatful can rock on the beat while singing that lullaby, can dance at their wedding or their friend’s wedding, and can clap their hands in time with others at a sporting event. Adults who are artful are moved by music and seek out venues to share artful experiences with others in concert halls, in community bands and choirs or listening to National Public Radio. Artful adults enjoy being moved by music. (First Steps in Music for Preschool and Beyond, para. 1)
To start focusing on the artful part of music education, I gave my students a writing prompt.
I wanted to know their first thoughts on how music made them feel. The prompt was “Music makes me feel…because…” The only guidelines I provided were that I was referring to their music, not music class, and that a simplistic response such as “Music makes me feel good because I like it” would not be satisfactory. The responses were varied and interesting.
• Music makes me feel good about myself. -Cecelia, grade 4
• Music makes me feel like I’m strong. -Alison, grade 4
• Music is the eraser to my pencil. -Jaina, grade 5
• Music makes me feel like I entered a new world. -Alvin, grade 5
• Music makes me feel like I have no worries. -Maddy, grade 5
• I feel like a firework ready to explode in musical notes. -Emma, grade 5
• When I am alone, music makes me feel safe. -Haley, grade 4
• When I listen to my music playlist while I’m doing homework, it makes things a lot more fun. I cross and write numbers on my paper to the beat and it just makes me feel really good on a bad day. -Hannah, grade 5
See DICKINSON, pg. 20 19
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