Guest Feature Continued from page 34


experiences positively effect beat competency in students (Blesdell, 1991; Croom, 1998).


Movement is also valuable in


ensemble classroom. In a study (Rohwer, 1998), sixth-grade students who received ten weeks of movement instruction in the instrumental music classroom performed significantly better at a synchronization test than were students who received traditional rhythm instruction, without the use of movement (Rohwer, 1998). Boyle’s (1970) classic study found that high school students who were trained to tap their foot to the steady beat were more successful at rhythmic sight-reading than those who did not receive such training. Jordan (1986) reported improvements in high school students’ rhythmic performance skills after applying music lessons that included Laban movement effort factors (flow, weight, time, and space). What seems clear from these and other studies is that infusing some sort of movement experiences in the music classroom can make a positive difference in beat and rhythmic competence.


Ideas for the Classroom There are many ways to


incorporate movement into any music classroom. A recent article in the Music Educators Journal provides a wealth of ideas for the use of movement effort factors to improve rhythmic competence in the large ensemble settings. For example, one activity they suggest focuses on time: You can “use a programmable metronome to create tempo changes of the desired length and intensity. Using this 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


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articulating” (p. 63). You might want students to be aware


of the relationship among time, space, and energy in rhythm (a concept of Dalcroze Eurhythmics). To do so, play a melody on the piano and ask student 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 change 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 is a myriad of 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 melodic 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 making pitch, register, and contour discriminations. Similar findings were reported in a study with third- and fifth- grade students (Berger, 1999).


The use of movement has been found ****Side Bar****


to be effective for improving 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 are also better able to identify songs more accurately with coordinated 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 related concepts and skills.


Some Practical Movement Resources for the Music Classroom Title


Author Early Childhood Childhood Childhood


Childhood & Adolescence


Childhood & Adolescence


Childhood through Adulthood


Childhood through Adulthood


The Book of Movement Exploration


From Wibbleton to Wobbleton


Movement Plus Rhymes, Songs, and Singing Games


Rhythm and Movement


Feel It! The Rhythm Inside


Music Across the Senses


John Feierabend Jane Kahan


James Harding Phyllis Weikart Elsa Findlay Robert Abramson


Julia Schnebly-Black Stephen Moore Jody Kerchner


Publisher GIA


Pentatonic Press Wadsworth Alfred Music Alfred Music Alfred Music


Oxford University Press


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