9/1/10 - 3 Points of Interest on Chapter 4 and 3 Points of Interest on Chapter 5.

Chapter 4

1. "Another means of directing children's attention to individual pitches and their relationships is through the use of a hand sign system first developed by Sarah Glover and John Curwen in England in the middle of the nineteenth century, and is often referred to as Kodaly hand signs" (pg. 78). As I mentioned once in class, I was required to learn these hand shapes as part of my solfege training in college. To be completely honest, I didn't really benefit from it at this stage in my professional career. Maybe it was because I was too old. Maybe it was because I was having a difficult time mastering the solfege itself. But I always thought it was a nuisance and completely unnecessary. However, I may very well be a strong advocate for the use of this system for younger students and students with audio disabilities. I just don't know enough about how this system has helped others. I think it would be very interesting to conduct research with a control group that learned solfege without the Kodaly hand signs, and an experimental group that learned solfege with the Kodaly hand signs. It would be interesting to see if the Kodaly hand signs made a significant impact in the learning of both young and old students alike.

2. "Children tend to sing a song in the manner and style in which it was presented to them" (pg. 83). I completely agree with this statement and wish that others appreciated this more. Just as we learn English, German, or a native language the way our parents speak it, we will learn how to sing a song, play an instrument, or improvise the way our teachers teach us. I immediately thought of a quote that Dr. K shared with us in the last class: "Students teach more like their professors taught, and less like their professors taught them how to teach." I think this speaks volumes of truth. We learn mostly from observation and not from ideology. I have never liked the phrase, "Don't do as I do, but do as I say." I think this is a cop-out way of trying to teach students to do something that you yourself would not do. Kids, students, and others see right through this. I want to see my teacher "walk the walk," and not just "talk the talk." Teachers that "walk the walk" are the ones who truly leave a lasting impression on the student.

3. "Two- and three-part songs for children in the intermediate grades are increasingly available from publishing companies that specialize in choral music" (pg. 92). I wish that they would advocate the best companies instead of having us guess or use the trial and error method. Perhaps it's a publishing/copyright/preference issue, but it's still very frustrating. There are many books today in existence that will list the best companies based on experience and feedback. I'm lucky that I know good companies to go to that I know and trust, because there are many companies out there selling music that isn't authentic, challenging, and for lack of a better word, good. I know there will be many future educators that will read this book not having the background that I have in music publication. I know that they will be lost and not have the benefit of good advisers to lead them in good directions. Just as an instrumentalist isn't afraid of advocating their favorite line of instruments, music educators should not be afraid to list their favorite publishers.

Chapter 5

1. "The words high and low or up and down, when applied to pitch, are confusing to young children" (pg. 107). This is for good reason. Today, most cultures associate "low" pitches with those keys at the bottom of the piano, and "high" pitches with those keys at the top of the piano. This phenomenon is theorized to exist because large animals associated with big, "heavy" noises were on the ground while smaller animals with tiny, "small" voices were high in the sky. But this concept is not intuitive to children, and it is something that is learned from experience. The Greeks and Romans, for instance, thought the exact opposite about "high" and "low" pitches. "Low" pitches were associated with the gods, and thought to be far away in the distance, whereas "high" pitches were closest to the earth, and thought to be more "temperate" and "ennobling." Children learn to associate these words with certain pitches because that is what they are taught.

2. "Grow taller or shorter in response to glissandi played on a slide whistle" (pg. 110). I don't know exactly what the point of this exercise is. If we want to indoctrinate our students into the false concepts of "high" or "low" that I just talked about in my previous "point of interest," then fine. But otherwise, I think that children will naturally learn that most if not all people in western culture use terms like "high" or "low" in the same way. I don't have a problem with this; I have always thought that the bottom part of the piano was associated with low notes, and the top part of the piano was associated with high notes. After living in the United States of America for 28 years, I get it. But I didn't need an obscure exercise to teach me that concept at the age of six or seven. My musical training came at a much later time and I always thought terms like these were common sense. I understand why children don't automatically think this way. I know that their brains are not fully developed yet. I also know that we assign terms like "high" and "low" to mean certain things. It is purely a psychological phenomenon. But do kids really benefit from exercises like this? Maybe they do. I'm not a fan, but I'll remain open the research.

3. "A well-developed series of strategies involves a variety of modes: singing, moving, playing, listening, reading, and creating" (pg. 117). I think that this is true, but mostly for younger children. Since children are still growing in a multitude of ways, it is important for them to learn musical concepts in as many ways as they can. This will strengthen neural connections in the brain, and help them to transform formal operations into concrete operations. The more ways students can become involved with music, and the greater variety of things students can actively do to participate in creating music will help them grow into mature musicians. However, I believe that it becomes less and less important for teaching plans to include a variety of modes. At a certain age, too much emphasis on variety can become aggravating to students and have a reverse effect. The student might find the variety of modes to be superfluous and start to become easily bored. Such a student would then be in danger of loosing interest in music, and music related activities. Teachers need to be aware of the age group they are teaching regardless of the content matter.