Music Lesson Investigation

I have never been musically inclined; nor have I ever really had a thirst for music. Do I appreciate it? Absolutely, but my go to answer when someone asks me, “What kind of music do you enjoy?” usually sounds something like, “Whatever sounds good.” I dreamed about playing on a soccer field the entire year my parents made me take piano lessons. I once purchased a No Doubt CD – only because that was the fad at the time. And every time I sat on my cousin’s drum set – I prayed that some untapped potential would finally be realized...but my feet and my hands didn’t want to cooperate. So when it comes to teaching music inside a junior classroom, I don’t have a whole lot of experience to draw from. That being said I have had the privilege of observing my cousin teach music to his grade six class in the DSBN. He approaches music with an ideology that it can be investigated much the same way that science and geography can. In his classroom, music is experienced through activities that engage students (e.g. an air-bands group assignment) and promote active learning. In this way he is able to inject musical theory and the elements of music into his lessons more subtly. This approach is a (Tony) stark contrast to Dr. Rodger Beatty’s methods demonstrated in the video on the Brock iTunes page. In this two-part video, Dr. Beatty offers junior-level music teaching strategies to Brock University pre-service students. The following looks at some of the teaching strategies Dr. Beatty utilized.

Dr. Beatty was clear with his intentions and strategies in the classroom. I suspect he wouldn’t be so explicit when talking to his junior students, even though he certainly didn’t shy away from it here. He asked the students to listen to his teaching process as he taught them a song through the rote approach. In fact, he specifically pulled out the Arts curriculum document to show the expectations he would be examining. Adding to his explicitness, he provided an agenda on the overhead projector. Now that being said, I think providing students with an (fluid) agenda and emphasizing the curriculum documents have great value in teaching. I believe that in many cases, students should know what they are going to be learning. Once Dr. Beatty began, his students saw a lot of enthusiasm, humour, and talent in his abilities. His ability to command the room was effective – as his presence alone would no doubt keep students interested in the lesson (initially anyway). Throughout the lesson he used the Irish Song “Michael Finnegan” to teach the elements of music. Dr. Beatty’s rote approach to learning the song consisted of: 1. singing the song in its entirety, 2. discussing the lyrics of the song, 3. chunking the phrases, and 4. adjusting students’ behaviour during the process. This tried and tested method has been around for years, but I found Dr. Beatty’s vision of the exercise to be innovative at the very least. I suspect that his ability and knowledge gives him an aura of authority compared to some of the less musically inclined teachers I have seen.

Another teaching strategy that Dr. Beatty used effectively, was “asking questions”. While this may seem like an obvious approach in teaching, there isn’t a guarantee that the strategy will be successful. That being said, he offered questions that were relevant, thought-provoking, and ones that successfully linked prior knowledge to new findings. In fact, I found his methods for eliciting prior knowledge to be both humorous and successful. One example saw him provide a driving example (a police officer asking for a driver’s...) to bring forth the concept of “Poetic License”. Dr. Beatty also used questions to draw links to other subject areas. He acknowledges that students think holistically rather than compartmentaling different subject strands (i.e. think exclusively about science, math, or art). Similarly, he used the questioning period to provide praise to students, which I thought was an added benefit to the strategy.

While Dr. Beatty’s use of technology was minimal, it was still present. And I think it’s clear that technology should have a huge presence when teaching music in the junior classroom. Beatty used a program called Finale Notebook to change the look of sheet music, making it easier to read for students. He then magnified it onto the front board using a projector, giving students a more conducive learning exercise. I believe that current technology (and developing technology) will continue to give students even more opportunities to learn, feel, and experience music. Because I have a strong inability to play music, my lessons will be built heavily through technology. I eagerly anticipate embracing YouTube videos to identify rhythm and melody in certain pieces of music. I look forward to experimenting with video games like Rock Band if it sparks students’ interests in creating music. Learning opportunities for an inept “musician” (like me) continue to grow at a rapid pace with the advent of new technology.

A few other strategies that Dr. Beatty implemented include: Kinesthetic activity (clapping and stomping to the beat of music), demonstrations (his piano-playing was spot-on), and the use of visual aids (music scales), and note-taking...a lot of note-taking. On this note...it’s important for me to reflect on some of the negative aspects of the video. I alluded to the fact that his presence alone will keep kids interested – but their attention spans have expiration dates. To be perfectly honest, I would have a hard time remaining focused if I had to endure this example of Dr. Beatty’s teaching style for a long-period of time. Seriously though, I will be pleasantly surprised if I don’t have nightmares about Michael Finnegan!! Another thing I found disturbing was Dr. Beatty’s reluctance to acknowledge students with learning disabilities when discussing those that might not be able to read music in grade five. ESL learners or New Canadians are not the only students that have difficulty reading English. I believe Dr. Beatty left out an important teaching opportunity for his pre-service students. Teaching music to students with exceptionalities is probably a whole different course, but even scratching the surface would have been beneficial in this module. That being said, I want to leave off on this topic, and hear what others have to say. I would love to know if I am being overly critical as well.

Thank you