Hi folks, Christopher here. When I took Kodály Level I, all those years ago, what
initially drew me in was the approach to pedagogy. After a student teaching experience in which
I felt like I was lurching from activity to activity, each one fairly well
designed (OK, so maybe not
always so
well designed – I was a novice teacher after all…), here was a way to know that
my students were actually gaining skills and knowledge in a way that
worked. Music literacy! In-tune singing skills! Part work!
Inner hearing! With a sequential
approach that efficiently progressed through skill development in a logical
way, I knew that my students would learn.
And this measurable growth would allow non-music teachers and parents to
realize that music class wasn’t just a frill, that it was an important content
area that was not solely singing-along-with-a-recording.
My first year of teaching was very pedagogy-focused, with
lesson plans that addressed the various standards that the students should
meet. But in my second year of teaching,
I had my second a-ha moment, and that came courtesy of Jill Trinka. She came out to Seattle to give a workshop,
an experience that made me realize:
It’s
the music, stupid!
The workshop
reminded me that the whole pedagogy comes from the music, and that the best
curriculum in an elementary music program is comprised primarily of folk songs
and children’s singing games that have stood the test of time. Like Kodály, I believe that in folk music,
the rough edges get worn off, leaving music that remains as its pure, essential
core. After hearing Jill’s mesmerizing
singing and playing, I realized that providing students with emotionally rich
singing experiences was essential to what I must impart to children.
Which is all a round-about way of getting to some
repertoire that I have done this year that my children love. Sometimes, I do repertoire simply because the
music is beautiful and age-appropriate, and I think that the students will
develop a hard-to-describe sense of the simple joy that can come from
performing a piece beautifully. It can
be a particularly effective way to end a class – after they’ve done all the
literacy work and played the singing games and engaged in the other objectives
of the curriculum, to finish up a class with a beautiful song allows them to go
out of my classroom humming a piece of music that I want to enter the core of
their beings.
I teach elementary school music half-time, this year with
grades 1, 3, and 5. Here is a song from
each grade that my students have loved during the last month.
GRADE 1
Source: Seeger,
R. C. (1948). American folk songs for children in home, school and nursery school; A
book for children, parents and teachers.
Garden City, NY: Doubleday.
Also found in: Trinka, J. (1996). Little
black bull. Dripping Springs, TX:
Folk Music Works.
I usually have the children standing in a circle for this
game, with one child holding a large gold star.
When the counting begins in measure four, the students pass the star
around the circle, with each number representing a child. On “number one,” the first student passes the
to the child on the right; on “number two,” that child passes the star to the
next player; and so forth. The student
who receives the star on “number three” holds onto the star, moving it up and
down to show the contour of measures 6-7-8.
After the last word is sung, the child holding the star chooses a new
number between one and ten, and play resumes, with measures 4-6 repeated often
enough to reach the number chosen by the child.
This slow, gorgeous song is a wonderful calming activity
for younger students, particularly after an active game. The range is an octave, which is fairly large
for first graders. Most of the songs
that I ask the first graders to sing fall in the range of a fifth or a sixth,
but having opportunities to reach their voices higher and lower is important
for extending that range. The contour is
fairly easy to follow for the students, with the octave leap down followed by
the step-wise ascending pattern.
A beautiful
recording comes from Jill Trinka's
Little Black Bull, one of my all-time favorite resources.
GRADE 3
Source: Locke, E.
(1981). Sail Away: 155 American Folk Songs to Sing, Read, and Play. New York: Boosey & Hawkes. p. 30.
Per Locke, found in: Murray, T. (1952). Folk
Songs of Jamaica. London: Oxford
University Press.
2. Oh
the moon shines bright down, Hill and Gully
Ain’t no place to hide ‘m
down, Hill and Gully
An’ a zombie come a-ridin’ down,
Hill and Gully.
3. Oh, my knees, they shake down, Hill and
Gully
An’ my heart strings start
a-quakin’ down, Hill and Gully
Ain’ nobody gonna get me
down, Hill and Gully.
4. That’s the last, I sit
down, Hill and Gully
Pray the Lord don’ let me
down, Hill and Gully
Ain’ nobody gonna get me
down, Hill and Gully
I love the text in this song, in part because you don’t
know exactly what happens. Does the
zombie get the rider at the end? It’s
hard to tell. Asking the students to
infer from the text gets them thinking critically. Some kids will say that the words “that’s the
last, I sit down” means that it’s the last thing that happens to the rider
before the zombie eats him/her up (or whatever zombies do), while others think
that the last line of the song “ain’ nobody gonna get me down” means that the
rider lives, that he or she will stand up and show that zombie who’s boss.
This is a song that ultimately serves double duty (or
triple duty!) in the classroom. The
verse-chorus/call-response form lends itself to solo singing very easily, and
since the children like the song, almost every child wants to sing a verse
alone. The fact that some of the lines
are a little tricky (see the second line of verse
three) can be a good challenge for higher-performing kids. After singing the
song in third grade, I bring it back in fourth grade for music literacy
purposes: the tone set of s,l, drm sl
makes it a good song for low so, which I get to in fourth grade, and the
rhythmic content means I use it to teach syn-co-pa.
You can find many field recordings of this folk song from
Jamaica. Most of them are uptempo, with
instruments, and I prefer to introduce the song in a more spooky, slower
fashion. Eventually, though, making the
connection to a field recording is an important way for the kids to feel that
this is actually a song from Jamaica, not just a song with some weird English
words. Here are a couple of recordings I like:
Lord Composer and
Valerie Walker.
Grade 5
Source: Sharp, C. (1909). Novello’s
School Songs. London: Novello &
Co., Ltd.
Also found
in: Trinka, J. (1989). John, the Rabbit. Dripping Springs, TX: Folk Music Works.
2.
The first doe he shot at he missed
The second one he trimmed, he kissed
The third one went where nobody whist
Among the leaves so green-o.
Chorus
3. The fourth doe she did cross the plain.
The keeper fetched her back again.
Where she is now she may remain
Among the leaves so green-o.
Chorus
4.
The fifth doe she did cross the brook
The keeper fetched her back with his
crook;
Where she is now you must go and look
Among the leaves so green-o.
Chorus
5. The sixth doe she ran over the plain
But he with his hounds did turn her again,
And it’s there he did hunt in a merry,
merry vein
Among the leaves so green-o.
Like Hill and Gully
Rider, this song also has a text that grabs kids. What’s a Keeper? What happens to each of the deer? Who is “Jackie?” There’s ample opportunity for students to
have different perspectives on how they interpret the fate of each deer. I find that this process can take a long time
– the kids really want to give their
opinion – so limiting the topic of each day to one verse and cutting off
discussion after a certain point ensures that the majority of the lesson
segment is spent on making music.
There’s a lot of historical context that can come out here, as well,
such as of hunting and class, and the role of a Keeper on an English estate. In addition, some fifth graders have read
Roald Dahl’s book, Danny, Champion of the
World, a book that has a keeper as one of its main characters.
When I first started using this song, I sung it a cappella,
and the students enjoyed the song. Once
I learned to play the mountain dulcimer, I was able to accompany the students,
using an arrangement based on Jill Trinka’s recording on John, the Rabbit. Her
singing style on the recording is winsome, a sound that I find works well for
this song, more than the rollicking approach that can be heard on other
recordings, such as the one on Pete Seeger’s Birds, Beasts, Bugs, and Fishes, Little and Big: Animal Folk Songs.
I basically never use this song for literacy purposes; while I could
use it for fa or any number of rhythmic elements, I find this is one that is
best to just be a pure song. Sometimes,
I might extract short elements as part of a transition between lesson segments
(the ticka-ti pattern in the beginning of the chorus, for example), but for the
most part, I just want it to be an opportunity for the students to sing
beautifully. It’s a great song for solo
singing, as well -- because it’s hard! The
ascending line of the verses and the quick back-and-forth between the two characters
during the chorus can be challenging for some children, allowing for some good
assessment. The most important thing,
though, is that they love the song.
A couple of recordings I like: from
Jill Trinka's John the Rabbit (you really can't go wrong with Jill, ever!), and the inimitable
Pete Seeger.
I encourage you: Sing quality music! Find what resonates with you, what music you
think has stood the test of time (or will stand the test of time), what music makes you cry, and make
sure that you have some of music in every lesson. If you think a song is stupid, it probably is. Cut it loose. I looove teaching music literacy, but I
believe that it is these beautiful singing experiences are what will stick with
the children after everything else is gone.
Sing on!
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