as the musical stimulus, have students march, pat or conduct with musicality and accuracy” (Conway, Marshall & Hartz, 2014, p. 64). Another activity, focused on weight, asks students to “demonstrate accents [in their music parts] with gross motor
movements....then transfer this understanding to the smaller motor skills of bowing and articulating” (p. 63). You might want students to be aware of the relationship among time, space, and energy in rhythm (a concept of Dalcroze Eurhyth- mics). To do so, play a melody on the piano and ask students to clap a steady beat to the music. Vary the tempo from very fast to very slow and ask students to be aware of the ways space and energy changes with the changing tempo. Students will soon realize that a slower tempo (time) requires the use of much more space and less energy than does a quick tempo. There are myriad books, articles, and materials available if you want more practical ideas for infusing movement into your music instruction.
Melodic And Singing Competency
Movement instruction in the music classroom is often applied to rhythmic concepts but research suggests that it can improve me- lodic competencies of different sorts as well. One study (Crumpler, 1982) reported that first grade students who were provided with music lessons that were Dalcroze-based (included movement games and activities) were more successful than those who received similar lessons from popular music textbooks (with no movement) at mak- ing pitch register and contour discriminations. Similar findings were reported in a study with third- and fifth- grade students (Berger, 1999).
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are also better able to identify songs more accurately with coordi- nated movements than with other cues such as rhythmic chanting (Dunne-Sousa, 1988). These findings may partially be explained by a “neurophysiological link between gross and fine motor control in body movement and in muscles engaged in the vocal apparatus” (pp. 65-66). There is evidence from the research to support the use of movements of many sorts (from hand signs to full body movements) as a means to improving awareness and understanding of pitch re- lated concepts and skills. Moving the body while singing can impact the quality of that singing. In one study, Liao and Davidson (2007) found that children’s bodily movements reflected the quality of their voice when singing, with size of movements reflecting dynamics and continuity reflecting articulation. Other studies have reported that children’s (Campbell, 2010; Moorhead & Pond, 1978) and adoles- cent’s (Ebie, 2004) movements support their voices and reflect their expressive intentions.
Ideas For The Classroom
Here are some ideas for incorporating movement to improve melodic understanding and performance. If you want to focus on melodic phrase for instance, have students listen for the phrases in a performance of a piece that they are learning. As they listen they should draw the phrase in the air with one finger. Once they figure out how long the phrase is, they should be challenged to manage their space, time, and energy so that they do not end before the phrase ends. For a locomotor variation on that theme, have students walk the phrase in space from point “a” to point “b.” Each student can predetermine the distance by placing a red plastic cup on point “a” and a blue plastic cup on point “b.” As they listen, sing, or even
SOME PRACTICAL MOVEMENT RESOURCES FOR THE MUSIC CLASSROOM TITLE
AUTHOR Early Childhood Exploration The Book of Movement Jane Kahan John Feierabend Childhood Childhood Childhood & Adolescence Childhood & Adolescence Childhood through Adulthood Childhood through Adulthood From Wibbleton to Wobbleton
Movement Plus Rhymes, Songs, and Singing Games
Rhythm and Movement Feel It! The Rhythm Inside Music Across the Senses James Harding Phyllis Weikart Elsa Findlay Robert Abramson
Julie Schnebly-Black Stephen Moore
Jody Kerchner GIA Pentatonic Press Wadsworth Alfred Music Alfred Music Alfred Music Oxford University Press PUBLISHER
The use of movement has been found to be effective for im-
proving singing skills and song recognition. The use of Curwen hand signs, that is the movement of the hands in space and time to relate to certain sung pitches, has been found to lead to more accurate and quicker interval identification in students (Steeves, 1985). Students
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play the melodic phrase they should walk from point to point. Given the abstraction and mystery of producing sounds in the
voice (Abril, 2007) and the support from the research described above, you might consider incorporating movements to represent pitches in singing instruction. Curwen hand signs, as often used in
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