9/29/10 - 3 Points of Interest on Chapter 10

1. "Improvisation at a beginning level allows children to play with sounds and with musical syntax (or putting those sounds together)" (pg. 253). I strongly believe that whether they are aware of it or not, children are always improvising one way or another. It is a child's natural process to discover the world around him/her. What does the marimba sound like? What does the snare drum sound like? What do recorders sound like? I remember when I was a child, I used to play everything I could get my hands on. Even children who appear to be less musical find it enjoyable to have opportunities to play around on instruments. One of my first real musical instruments was this really cheap synthesizer (complete with two and one-half octaves). I would spend day after day coming up with my own melodies and discovering new beats and rhythm patterns. I even composed my very first pieces by listening to the sound I was creating. It was a marvelous experience, and as music educators, we need to make sure that all children get this same experience.

2. "Improvisation can play several valuable roles in the creative process" (pg. 255). In my experience with the synthesizer, I not only learned about the notes on the keyboard, I learned valuable concepts like melody, rhythm, timbre, meter, and harmony, just to name a few. Maybe I didn't know the name of these terms at such a young age. But somewhere deep in my brain and in my soul, I was completely aware of them. Whether children are improvising formally or informally, they will discover ideas from one another that will inspire them to be creative not only in music, but also in the other arts. Their brains might also develop to think about things differently in math and science. We know how valuable improvisation is because many of the greatest composers who ever lived were all well-trained in the art of improvisation. It is truly a tool that will help to develop the creative mind.

3. "Once children have a sense of the compositional process through creating aural plans, the use of notation can be introduced" (pg. 261). Although I strongly believe that the creation of aural plans can be an effective tool in getting students started to understand musical lines, I don't think that it's imperative that we teach them aural plans before the standard system of notation. I never learned about aural plans as a child. In fact, I can remember being taught the standard notation system at an early age, and I turned out okay. Please understand, I don't want to take away from their usefulness in the classroom. I've been very impressed with a lot of aural plans that I have seen. I just don't think we should delay teaching students about standard notation in favor of something completely abstract. Some of the youngest children may turn out to be all-stars in their Suzuki classes!