Music Monday - How often do I need a music lesson?

This year has marked a significant reduction in singing lessons at the tertiary institution I work for. Driven by budget constraints, the students are now provided with fortnightly lessons, where previously they were weekly. Furthermore, there are a number of non-teaching weeks in each semester (rehearsal, production and performance weeks) when classes are cancelled, so, in fact, the fortnight’s gap between lessons often becomes several weeks. In 2021 there are a total of 12 lessons per year in the 1st and 2nd years of the bachelor degree and 10 lessons in the 3rd year.

At the same time, in my other workplace, a specialist performing arts high school, there continue to be weekly lessons (40 per year). The irony has not been lost on me when sending home an email to the parents of a student who has missed a lesson – “only 8 more lessons this term – don’t miss any more!”

This strange 2021 dichotomy between my two teaching environments has set me thinking about how many lessons we actually need at the various stages of our training.

As a young child with a live-in piano teaching grandmother, I was used to the pupils turning up at their regular weekly lesson time. I guess the weekly lesson meant that each family’s household calendar was straightforward. Certainly in the beginning stages of learning any instrument (including the voice), regular lessons ensure that mistakes are not too practised in before correction by the teacher.

In my role as a high school voice teacher, I wear several hats – simultaneously I am teaching vocal technique, music literacy, interpretation skills, to name a few. The students need the weekly contact to maintain their growth and development.

In the tertiary environment, our 1st year students come from a variety of musical backgrounds. Because they are music theatre students, their individual skill levels vary. Some are strong dancers and inexperienced singers. Occasionally I have had a student with a prior degree in voice. The so-called triple threat encompasses singing, acting and dancing and no one starts the degree with equal skills in all three – I mean, why would they bother to do the course? It is very frustrating to be limited in how much instruction we can offer the beginners, who really need correction and guidance in the studio on a weekly basis.

If a reduction in practical training is to be a thing of the future, how can we fill the gaps?

Students could, of course, seek private teachers outside of the institution. The obvious benefit is the increased number of lessons. The potential downside is differing teacher approaches, which could be confusing in the early stages of training.

Technology offers some solutions. Although I am not a huge fan of the zoom music lesson – mainly because of the time lag involved – I do find that students benefit other uses of technology, such as submitting practice/ performance videos for teacher viewing and feedback. Is technology the way of the future here?

However, one thing that becomes clearer to me with every passing year is this – unless there is an investment in significant practice routines by the student, the number and frequency of lessons is irrelevant. A student who doesn’t practice will make as little progress with weekly, fortnightly, or even monthly lessons. But a student with good practice habits is going to progress faster with more regular instruction. Your thoughts?

Music Monday - Performance Confidence

I spent Saturday accompanying year 11 and 12 singers for their semester one performance exams – individual recitals of around 10-15 minutes in duration. (We are fortunate in Western Australia to be easing restrictions now that we have no community transmission of Covid-19, so these exams took place live in the room, with everyone appropriately distanced.)

As usual there was a range of performance confidence – from the super confident singers who love every audience (including exam panels) through to the singers with borderline performance anxiety. Each exam had its own dynamic in that respect alone.

Most of the singers I accompanied that day are also my own voice students, and so part of Sunday was spent finalising their semester one in-class results. During the period that we were all self-isolating at home (the end of the 1st term and first few weeks of this term) these students submitted performances to me in the form of self-takes via email. I then emailed comments and feedback. During that time in lockdown, I often mused on how much more confident one of my students was on camera, as opposed to in the room with an audience. On Sunday as I again watched one of her emailed videos from earlier in the semester, I reflected on her live performance the day before and how, using the same marking rubric, her exam performance could never achieve the same result as one to the camera.

Now of course, live performance is the lifeblood of music – and aren’t we bursting to get back to it?  However, is there a step, we as teachers could take, to build performance confidence via the camera for those students with some degree of performance anxiety? And importantly – what would the steps towards confident live performance entail? Could it be the sharing of confident self-takes with their peers to ‘prove themselves’ before performing live in the class?

Do you have thoughts on this? Please share!

Music Monday - ANZAC Day

Anzac Day

Anzac Day 2020 was like no other before it in the many years since 1915.

In Australia, with gatherings banned due to covid-19, the usual services and parades were cancelled  - except for one at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra attended by only the few dignitaries who conducted it, telecast to the nation.

Instead, at the tops of suburban driveways across the country, Australians gathered just before dawn, holding lighted candles, and sometimes waving to acknowledge their neighbours without approaching or speaking to them.

 In quiet reflection Australians remembered their Anzacs  - and all who have suffered and perished in war – and as the skies softly lightened with the dawn, the morning chorus of magpies and crows was augmented by players of music – student brass players, music teachers, amateur and professional musicians and singers – each contributing to an extraordinarily moving tribute.

On my own driveway I could hear from the next street the hesitant sounds of a student trumpeter playing “Lest We Forget”. Further away there was the faint sound of the Last Post with its tricky high notes for beginner players. 

In the couple of days since Saturday the papers have carried letters from Australians suggesting that the dawn driveway tradition be kept and commenting on how moving it was to have their own silent contemplation accompanied by the sound of live music. My music teacher friends as well as non-muso neighbours have all said much the same.

Music is SO important in our many life rituals. When we work on the tedium of music theory, or teaching the singing and playing of scales, it is worth remembering how important our job is. We are contributing in our way to the rich tapestry of our country’s unique culture.

Music Monday - What I am learning from my 3 year- old grandson

Our son, daughter-in-law and grandson have moved to Perth and are living with us for a month or so until they find a house. Suddenly we have gone from a quiet household of two sixty-something adults to a busy, cluttered, slightly crazy environment with a 3 year-old who springs into each day curious, questioning and eager to play, play, play. I find myself wondering and marvelling that we ever got anything done back in our day as parents of pre-schoolers at the same time working full-time as teachers. Of course, across Australia and the world, this generation of working parents are doing the same.

I find myself observing William’s play and reflecting yet again on the research into musical beat and its connection to reading readiness. I also find myself rethinking the whole idea of using only gross motor skills when making music with this age group – something which was emphasized to us in music education classes. Yes, children under 5 years are still learning to catch a ball, balance on one leg, jump etc. But in another sense they have greater fine motor skills than previous generations, developed through what seems like a universal use of screens these days.

William loves to sing and make up songs. Of course, he is somewhat influenced by parents who are also musical. But his inclination, whether singing his own invented songs or those learned from family and various television programs, is to move to the beat. Today we played with various beat movement combinations – clapping, patschen and so on. He could maintain a steady beat with a recurring 2-action beat but found more than 2 physical actions a challenge to maintain steadily. So a recurring pattern of slapping knees then clapping was easy to maintain while singing the Sesame Street alphabet song. Slapping knees then clapping 2 beats was also a success while singing his current favourite – the refrain from The First “Nowell”. But a 4-beat action pattern of slapping knees, clapping, slapping a partner’s hands then clapping again, while doable, was less successful as a steady beat while singing.

Where am I going with this? Well, music as an art form aside, should we not as a society be maximising the benefits to child development from engaging with beat and rhythm as early as possible? Perhaps childcare centres – especially as their staff are required to do some level of early childhood education training - could be the entry point for children in this work. That would surely have a levelling effect for children before they enter formal schooling.

Music Tip Monday #9 -

One of the reasons music is an appealing art form is that people can engage in it at any age.

It is never too late to start making music.

When planning music learning for a primary (elementary) class, the teacher often faces the challenge of teaching the basic music concepts in an engaging way. For example, what happens if an upper primary class has had limited or no prior exposure to music learning?

The fundamental concepts must be taught for the learning to be meaningful and sequential, but the pre-adolescent child can be impatient with learning the basics of, say, beat and rhythm.

Many teachers successfully apply this rule: Keep the concept simple but the activity age-appropriate.

Here are some examples:

You need to teach the concept of maintaining a steady 4 beat pattern.

In the pre-primary classroom the children stamp to the 4 beats – left right left right – repeat the sequence.

In the middle primary classroom the children form pairs and face each other to mirror a 4 beat sequence – slap own thighs, clap hands, ‘high five’ the partner with both hands, clap hands again – repeat the sequence.

In the upper primary classroom the children try a more complex cross-patterning sequence – extend left arm and tap left shoulder with right hand, tap left wrist with right hand, use left hand to reach across to grab right shoulder, extend right arm – repeat the sequence.

What activities have you found successful in teaching fundamental music concepts?