Musica !

Inquiry for music 

The benefits of music and arts integration is extremely high but what are the challenges for the generalist teacher teaching music within the classroom?  Are these challenges within Australia or is there similar international concerns?

In a research article Russell-Bowie (2009), states that within Australia people from an Anglo Australian background generally tend to have less cultural appreciation of music and the arts in general while non-Anglo Australians are more likely to value the arts.  Russell-Bowie (2009) also reports on research in South Africa saying there is a wonderful music happening but tend to be outside the school. The school focus is on western music, singing and musical literacy this has dampened music appreciation. Namibia can be said to have an arts-rich tradition that "integrates dance, costume, ritual and stories"  (Mans cited in Russell-Bowie, 2009, p. 25) but also teaching practices have left little time for music appreciation and tuition.

In these findings it is clear that the culture of the students needs to be incorporated into the school curriculum.  This is one of the aims of the Australian Curriculum (ACARA, 2011) "Students will come to understand and engage with the multiple and culturally diverse practices of music, learning about Australian and international music — locally, nationally, and globally"

Discussion and Reflection

Thank you Catherine for talking about Rosa Parks last week, that was a great example of how characters can come to life just through a description. I was so inspired by the drama tutorial but I was highly apprehensive about the music one. 

Music really brings characters to life, I wander what music Rosa Parks listened to?  My musical story begins with my parents.  Neither of my parents were musically inclined although both enjoy music.  So actually my musical story begins with my mum's mum, my grandmother who was a musical prodigy.  She played violin and piano.  Because of her love of music I have had many wonderful musical experiences.  My aunty, my mum's sister, use to teach me piano when I was young.  We shared many great musical discussions about music and later visual arts as I studied visual arts.  Although I never become an accomplished musician I do love playing with sound and listening to music.  I also love to dance and more recently I have begun singing in choirs.  In the classroom I would like to begin each day with music.  (Catherine)

I would also like to begin each day with music in the classroom and also daily P.E so I'm looking for a resource to get the students signing and dancing and moving with maybe some meditation afterwards to begin the day.

Today Gerrard inspired me to bring music into the classroom in a way which wasn't intrusive to me or the students and I left the class feeling empowered and interested. (I love how lecturers can have that effect on students!) I don't expect all of my students to want to play instruments or to want to sing, but I hope that they will engage with some of the activities we participated in today. 

When asked about music in our own primary education, many of us would remember trying to play instruments and singing in choir, some of the class found music rather pointless but as Gerard said there isn't a culture without some form of music. I was very interested in the idea of imitation and chanting to introduce young students to music rather than trying to throw them into instruments or singing. Songs that are modern or mean something to them would be better as learning tools rather than songs that don't make sense. Songs from different cultures could be studied if the class are currently studying that culture!

Toolkit - for the Classroom

I wanted to share a cross-curriculum resource.  The collection of cd's is a series called "Classical kIds: A symphony of stories for all ages".  One of my favourites is called "Beethoven Lives Upstairs".  In this story Beethoven moves in  to a rented upstairs apartment in Vienna.  The family who have just rented this apartment live downstairs and have recently  lost their husband and father.  The story is told through the eyes of a young boy in the family  who writes letters to his uncle who is studying music outside of Vienna.   The story interweaves music, narrative and facts.  Beethoven's story and life are quite sad and the boy in the story comes to appreciate Beethoven after the initial chaos.  It is amazing to think that a man who became deaf was able to create such beautiful and moving music.  Another great thing about the cd is that it clearly models through verbal description letter writing.  Another cd I like, though they are all good, is "Vivaldi's Ring of Mystery".  This cd is set in Venice in a girls orphanage.  At the orphanage Vivaldi teaches all the girls music.  This is true Vivaldi actually did teach at Venice's Pieta orphanage and the girls were named after the instruments they played for example, Katarina della Violino.  There is also many wonderful aspects to this cd that can be explored in class.  

Learning times tables to music! This is the sort of activity I think will help struggling learners! (Tanya) http://www.sheridanhouse.com.au/maths/maths.htm (Available off Amazon.com)


ACARA.  2011.  http://www.acara.edu.au/arts.html

References:
ACARA.  (2011).  Retrieved from: http://www.acara.edu.au/arts.html

Russell-Bowie, D.  (2009).  What me? Teach music to my primary class?Challenges to teaching music in primary schools in five countries. Music Education Research, 11:1, 23-36Retrieved from: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14613800802699549