GUEST REFLECTIONS
Guest Reflection: Dr. Mark Hopkins
January 18, 2017.
I really enjoyed listening to what Dr. Hopkins had to say about the ways of coaching music to students. You have to be open with everyone's idea and approach to teaching and learning. I really liked how he said music is not a language, but that it behaves like a language. Humans acquire language by communicating with one another, and that language is educated over attitude. When we were infants, did we not learn how to speak first, then spell what we were saying afterwards? Why would a student wanting to learn a piece of music by ear be wrong? I think that if the student finds it easier to grasp a hard song by ear, then they should be allowed to do so. I completely agree with Dr. Hopkins about the poor usage of a method book, where we both felt upset about the fact that someone else has decided the content for your class. It has lots of flaws to teaching a student how to learn a piece of music. There is virtually no creative activities, and there is lots of emphasis on what the music looks like, not what it sounds like, which can bring a beginner player's dreams down. I remember when I was around eight years old, my private piano teacher had told my mother to buy a method book for me, so that I could learn the basic finger patterns of the songs I was to play. I hated it. Every time I had to practice from that book, it was not very musical and I felt like a robot. Dr. Mark Hopkins said "to enjoy a melody we need to be able to hear it more than once." He demonstrates this by introducing key concepts that we as future music educators need to follow. A few of them being: improvisation teaching like a call and response, performing compositions, and making creative decisions in a collaborative environment with every student in the classroom. As a current music student and future music educator, I appreciate the way Dr. Hopkins is incorporating this in his classroom today, and hope that this is a start of something big in the music world. I enjoyed Dr. Mark Hopkin's presentation very much. It was both inspirational and knowledgeable. It will be interesting to see how music education advances in the future.
Adam
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Guest Reflection: Leslie Dawe (SKYPE)
January 23, 2017.
I appreciated the conversation our class had with Leslie Dawe through Skype, because she presented many intelligent ideas about being an outgoing music teacher. Her teaching program is very "student oriented" whether that be conducting a youth choir, or teaching a grade 6, 7, and 8 music class. She loves to ask what her students think of a certain piece, and why they think that why. She lets her students pick what songs they want to perform during orchestra, or sing in her extra curricular youth choir. I really like the way she lets her students have the freedom of choice, and speech. This contribution brings lots of confidence in her students, and I believe that her classroom has no "invisible" learners. Leslie Dawe says teaching is a learning process and that she is still right in the middle of it. You learn new things everyday whether that be from your students, or colleagues. I really liked the way Leslie incorporates "the elements" throughout her ensembles and classes. She uses "the elements" of music during the planning of repertoire or certain songs/pieces. This means that in the classroom she tries to build on the students fondness for music. She makes sure to cover the basic harmonic chords like chord one going to chord five, right back down to one. She says that it is important for her students to learn the basic chord types now, on an instrument of their choosing whether that be drums or guitar, so that in the future they have some knowledge of what they are playing.
To conclude, I have learned a lot from this Skype call with Leslie, and I now know how important it is to keep your students motivated, focused, and friendly social human beings throughout the classroom setting whether that be in high school, university, or primary school. Leslie has opened my mind to new creative ways of teaching, and I can not wait to experience what she is currently undergoing, in my near future as an music educator.
Adam
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Guest Reflection: Dr. Randall Allsup
February 11, 2017.
This workshop with Dr. Randall was truly amazing. In the beginning he played an "Ostinato" tune, and then asked us to write down what we heard. It was a perfect teaching strategy, because everyone's brains started working immediately, and he had caught our attention. One of the most important things as a music educator is to capture your audience's attention right from the start, and get them involved in what you want them to be involved in through that time period. As each of us were describing what we heard in this song, I started to realize that "the elements" were coming in handy for this sort of activity. We were talking about pitch, dynamics, and wide variety of instruments that were heard with a specific rhythm. I found this very fascinating, and really enjoyed Randall's approach to this exercise.
After listening and talking about the song "Ostinato Pianissimo" by Henry Cowell, Dr. Randall decided to put us in groups, and make us perform a little "Ostinato" tune with any object, that can be of musical use. I had lots of fun playing around with the different instruments, and being in groups helped me feel comfortable, which brought confidence when it was time to perform our little skit in front of our peers. A teacher does not always have to show how to do a particular thing, but should allow their students to try it themselves. In this case, Dr. Allsup put us in groups, but did not tell us what instrument to choose, or what musical texture we have to make. It was all up to us. Like Randall said "A teacher is with the students", meaning that the relationship between student and teacher is the same for both individuals. I enjoyed the part when Dr. Allsup told us to close our eyes and relax our minds to what he was about to say. His analogy of the nature in Mongolia was quite relaxing and this made me feel more interested on what he had to say about his travel over in China. Using this technique, by making your students relaxed, really absorbs them in the ongoing conversation. Randall clearly showed many teaching strategies throughout this workshop, and I appreciated all of them.
The main message I received after participating in Dr. Allsup's workshop on Saturday was that as music educators we worry about making the product, and forget about the enjoyment of the silly things that help us become creative human beings.
Adam
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Guest Reflection: Dr. Ruth Wright
March 19, 2017.
The concept that Dr. Wright was exploring with us were musical features that could bring musicians from outside of school involved in music making. She described how students are the teachers of what they want to do with their musical lives. The best way to let a music student learn to enjoy music is to allow them explore new instruments, and let them have the freedom in whatever they want to play. She said that students are permitted to have control over the order of their training, and I completely agree with her. As a future music educator I think that it is very important to allow your students pick what type of instrument they choose to perform. If they are comfortable with the instrument of their choice, then the performance will be very affective, and both student and teacher will be satisfied in the classroom.
The activity that we did in class consisted of us breaking into groups of five or six and construct a cover of any song that we wanted to do using instruments we have never performed with before. We had around thirty to forty minutes to build background music for our song, and then perform it in front of our classmates. The main idea of this activity by Dr. Wright was that it establishes on students musical interests outside of the classroom environment.
In my opinion I found this classroom activity very effective. I enjoyed every bit of it, because I was playing an instrument that I have never played before, and when it was put together with the rest of my group member's instruments the product sounded very close to the cover of the pop song that we chose. This activity is perfect for building social interactions between individuals in the classroom and boost confidence in music playing. I personally think the main reason why everyone enjoyed this activity was because we were performing covers of songs we enjoy listening to on the radio, in the car, or even during work out sessions. In my opinion performing melodies that you endure can really put your mind at ease musically and intellectually.
Overall, this was by far my favorite activity to partake in, and once I become a music educator this activity will clearly be used quite often, because I know that as a music student of this generation pop, rock, and rap are all very important musical genres that need to be covered not just outside, but inside the classroom as well.
Adam
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Guest Reflection: Kelly
March 19, 2017.
During Kelly's presentation the main concept that I got out from her was how to deal with particular students who just take the music credit because they have to fill up a spot in their timeline. I have had many friends who took music in their first two years of high school, and then dropped out in their last two years because they did not need to take music in the future. The problem with that is students think music class is all about classical songs and boring theory work. In my opinion this is all false, and we need to break this stereotype right at the start. We as music educators need to engage these students into our class, and make it enjoyable for them so that they stay the full four years and have fun while taking the course. Music class is not just playing boring scales and classical pieces, but exploring other genres of music like pop and rock to enhance personal musicianship.
The activity that we did in class was to analyze a storybook in small groups of three to four individuals starting with the cover, then the photos and pictures, then finally the text. We had to discuss our observations out loud with our group members, and then organize a song that covers the main themes in the book. Once it was time to perform we had to explain the story we had to class, then share the observations that were made, and then at the end we performed the song with the information that we got out from the storybook. After all the performances the reason behind this activity was that music can tell and have many inspiring stories. "Behind every favorite song there is an untold story", and I think this activity was for us as future music educators to understand the importance of music through a different view.
The part that I found most satisfying throughout this activity was at the end when we all performed our storybook skits. I loved how every group based their sounds and movement by the shapes of the pictures in their storybooks. It brought out a lot of creative elements, which I think is very important in a classroom setting. This sort of activity is definitely different from playing classical repertoire and annoying scales, and I think that it is very useful. Allowing your students to build music based off of stories is another great way of teaching and interacting certain individuals who think music is boring. This activity will make them change their mind about music in a good way, and will improve the teacher, student bond throughout the learning environment.
Adam
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Guest Reflection: Dr. Kevin Watson
March 26, 2017.
Dr. Watson's class was awesome. In my opinion when you let your students have the freedom to improvise on whatever instrument they have at hand, it can really bring out the musical touch and feeling that the learner has with their instrument. The first thing Dr. Watson made us do, was listen to three different jazz tunes. We had to write down what we heard and then share what we wrote down to the class. I found this very interesting due to the fact that every person had something different to say about one jazz tune, whether that be talking about the trumpet solo or the bass keeping a steady rhythm in the background while the other instruments keep playing. I respected the way Dr. Watson accepted every answer by each of us learners. Every idea or feeling that we shared to him and our peers was appreciated. This kind of connection between students and teacher can bring lots of joy and future success in the classroom.
After listening to the jazz tunes, Dr. Watson then played an improvised jazz song for us, and we had to make our own improvisation solo around the notes that he gave us. Learning how to listen and play something without having a sheet of music in front of you can really improve your ear training. Having excellent ear training can lead to exceptional theory knowledge for a musician, therefore learning improvisations and melodies at the same time is very important so that the sound is not random. I had a lot of fun playing the jazz notes on my viola that I brought out for the class. It was something different, and I loved every bit of it. The procedures that Dr. Watson used were perfect for a beginning jazz improvisation class. Imitating small phrases on instruments or voice where the teacher plays a motive and the others respond by playing the same motive back while a play-along CD is playing in the background. This method helps the students hear if the note they are improvising matches the tune on the CD, and is part of the B flat scale. When I was improvising my mini jazz solo, I made sure that it would match the background CD music. Having that help led me to explore different rhythms now that I had the right pitches, to make my improvisation sound even cooler.
Dr. Watson covered all the necessary objectives in our classroom, because I now know how to perform a B flat blues scale, and a standard blues melody from memory. As well as knowing how to play short improvised solos on a blues chord progression.
As a future music educator I wanted to know how the assessment process worked with this type of activity in the classroom. Dr. Kevin Watson explained it perfectly to me. The first thing he told our class was that with this sort of activity you have to assess your student's progress informally on the objectives given. "Are you being successful?" was what Dr. Watson expressed as the main question for an assessment. I found this very interesting, because I always thought assessments were only tests and quizzes, but I now know that there is a variety of ways to assess your students. Another way that Dr. Watson explains his assessments is through discussion with his students, where he will be able to determine whether or not his students understand and use the appropriate terminology to discuss blues performance.
At the end of the day, I had a lot of fun with the lesson that Dr. Kevin Watson had prepared for my classmates and I. The use of improvisation is the key to success in the musical world, and as a future music educator, I will make sure that my students have the freedom and resources to do such an activity.
Adam
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