Module 2

“Improvisation is musical creativity expressed in real time”

William Bauer in Music Learning Today, pg. 58

This week’s readings reminded me that even though not all students are performing musicians through participation in band, orchestra, or choir, there are still many students who wish to be musical. Bauer (2014) encourages music educators to consider “developing new types of classes and utilizing instructional approaches that are more appealing to this population than traditional ways of learning” (p. 46). I already experienced this briefly last week when I began implementing Incredibox into my fifth grade general music class. Students in the class who had participated in beginning band last year in fourth grade but had dropped it this year were extremely engaged in this project. Many of them showed a lot of promise as young band musicians and I was sincerely upset when they decided band “wasn’t for them” in the beginning of this year. However, even though I wish they would have continued participating in band, I was glad last week to see their interest in music and being musical (although in a different way) was still important to them and exciting for them to explore. I was amazed at their creativity and after reading Bauer’s (2014) thoughts on creativity in the music classroom this week, I will continue implementing similar lessons.

 As last year’s school year came to a close, I was beginning to plan for this year and among my top priorities was reconstructing a general music curriculum for the sixth grade. After spending time brainstorming what to do, I decided to offer trimester classes with specific topics and to not call it “general music” anymore. In order to reach these students who did not participate in an ensemble, I thought it might be appealing to them to have African drumming, bucket drumming, and interactions with music technology in addition to music history. The combination of these classes allowed for listening, performing, and creating in a variety of ways. In the music technology class, we created music using makey-makeys, spent some time with noteflight, and various “apps” on the mathsciencemusic.org website. After looking at what is to come in this class, I anticipate having several more music technology ideas and resources to implement in the future. In bucket drumming, which is taking place this trimester, we’ve gotten some help from several videos on youtube to get us started, and then the students have created masterpieces of their own.

Here’s a list of some of the resources the students enjoyed most:

Play the piano or drums using a makey-makey

Explore different grooves with groove pizza (pictured below)

Bucket drumming – beginning cadence

Play along bucket drumming

Providing students with these opportunities aligns with Bauer’s (2014) thoughts as he explains, “if the purpose of schools is to provide a well-rounded education for students that will enable them to function in the many different roles they may encounter in life, the ability to think creatively should be a high priority” (p. 48). Music, and especially music technology, is a fitting vehicle for getting students to think creatively. It is important to remember though that “creative work is not linear; there are often false starts and dead ends. Trial and error is common place” (Bauer, p. 50). Students experience trial and error through using music technology programs to finally produce the unique creative product which they imagined.

In a performing ensemble, students experience an incredible amount of trial and error through improvisation. Bauer (2014) explains in detail Kratus’s seven-level sequential model for the development of improvisational abilities, and even though I incorporate improvisation regularly in general music classes and jazz ensemble, I have never seen the process so neatly dissected and detailed. The levels progress in the following order: exploration, process-oriented improvisation, product-oriented improvisation, fluid improvisation, structural improvisation, stylistic improvisation, and personal improvisation (pp. 52-53). In the early stages there are many constraints. This is important for students who are learning to improvise because if there is no clear expectation, there are so many possibilities that the exercise is not based on musical thoughts and creativity, but just playing “random” sounds. Indeed in the exploration stage (level 1), this may be a fine starting point, but constraints are necessary to make sure the improvisational experiences are focused. In general music classes, I may provide students with only 2 or 3 boomwhackers or an orff xylophone with a similar amount of bars for composing. In jazz ensemble, we start by learning a blues scale and then improvising with only the first few pitches. This allows the students to create their own music but sets appropriate boundaries. Bauer (2014) suggests a strategy to have students do group improvisation, wherein everyone improvises simultaneously (p. 54). I have used this strategy for several years because it removes the scare factor for students. When the students are ready to improvise on their own, we can then move to that stage.

My students have experienced MIDI (musical instrument digital interface) through use with finale and noteflight. MIDI is a great tool for students, although it cannot accurately help a composer discern best voicing and orchestration practices. For example, on any one of these programs, even when inserting dynamics, a clarinet could perform louder than a trumpet. Now while this may be accurate in certain circumstances (mostly due to range and size of the ensemble), the composer needs to know how to score each instrument to make sure the music can be heard. One concern I do have with all of these programs is that students may learn to live in the sound of the program instead of a real ensemble. This is why it is important to build audiation skills from the beginning of music instruction and throughout time in an instrumental ensemble. These programs provide great opportunities to teach transposition. Additionally, the programs won’t allow the composer to have more beats in a measure than what fits in the time signature, so this is a great “double-checker” for young composers who when using paper and pencil could easily miscount the notes in a measure. 

Resources:

Bauer, W. I. (2014). Music learning today: digital pedagogy for creating, performing, and responding to music. New York: Oxford University Press.