Mark Hopkins Lecture - January 18, 2017 What I found interesting while listening to Mark Hopkins' lecture today is that he viewed music as something that although it may be used as a form of communication, it cannot be interpreted as a language and that music actually behaves like a language. Hopkins stated that Charles Limb found that music triggers areas of the brain that involve language processes. I found this interesting because it opened a new perspective of how I view music as a whole. It is very intriguing that although instruments themselves don't have a spoken language, they are able to convey emotion and trigger areas of the brain that are involved with language processes. Different sounds of different instruments can persuade the audience to feel the emotion behind the piece that is being played. Hopkins also stated that learning involves a process, a person and a product. The progress in which the person overtakes is never linear. I agree with this statement as there are several different types of learning and each person learns in their own way. There is no "one way" of teaching and that it was I find most fascinating. Mark Hopkins talked about the musical method books used in schools today and how they are able to simplify the way of learning music and unifying the class together because they will be learning the exact same processes. The method books set a standard of what should be expected by everyone at that level and there is a sequence to what should be taught and learned. Although these method books can be helpful, they also have their disadvantages. They do not allow students to explore their expression through music and the method book is actually a very linear way of teaching. Someone has decided the content/sequence for YOUR class, with very little experimentation with expression and other approaches of teaching. I believe that a balance of both using the method books and having a set of landmarks as to where the class generally should be is a better way of approaching music education. Marking the progress and seeing improvement within the student in the classroom is very important. Hopkins also went over how important improvisation is. In a classroom, it is important for students to explore music through what they believe is music and improvisation is a key factor for that. It allows students to create something new that they can call their own while also involving what they have previously learned inside the classroom. Hopkins also brought up 3 strands: 1) creating, making and presenting, 2) understanding and connecting, 3) perceiving, reflecting and responding. I believe that this is a great way of explaining the methods of how a student processes and learns new things. It is good to have students to create their own things and present their own ideas which further explains their knowledge and understanding of the topic. Having them reflect and respond to what they have created is also really important and it allows students to further develop their ideas. In conclusion, I agree with Mark Hopkins and how music education works.
Lesley Dawe Q&A - January 23, 2017 During Lesley Dawe's question and answer session during, what I found the most interesting is the way she teaches elementary school music in a more popular culture based way. Dawe mentioned that during her school teachings, she has communicated with her colleagues many times to coordinate music programs that best fit the children that they were teaching. I believe this method to be extremely valuable and useful not only just for music class, but for all classes. It is very easy to teach straight out of a textbook, as Mark Hopkins has previously mentioned, yet I believe that it is much more successful if you create an environment in which the students are engaged both from the textbook and creatively. Lesley Dawe stated that in her elementary curricular music courses, she strays from the textbook method and almost completely focuses on a creative, pop culture. She does this because she realizes that a lot of the students who take music in their elementary career do not continue it during their high school career so her goal is to make music class something that the kids find engaging. Dawe does this by incorporating music that is played on the radio and connects it to what is being learned during their class time which takes away from a more "classical" approach. Dawe mentioned that she wants her students to be able to take away basic music skills, such as playing a guitar and recognizing chords so that in the future, they can pick up an instrument they learned in her class and can play it. I can understand how this is of appeal and how many students that take music in elementary do not continue it in their high school lives, but I believe that this method of teaching more or less strays from the classical approach a little too much. It is amazing how she is able to create a course that allows the students to be creative and engaged in such a way, but if the ones who do continue to take music classes further in their lives, how is it fair that they will not receive many of the background musical knowledge such as the elements as say another class would? Dawe did mention that IF the opportunity came up, she would point out what specific pedagogical term or notion the student came across, however, she never really taught her students about what they are or what they mean. Simon asked the question of how Dawe incorporates a more classical approach in her teaching style and she didn't know, so I would like to see later in the future if she does end up incorporating a classical approach in her classroom, how she did it and how did it work with the children and their learning!
Self Reflection My experiences in music education class have so far been very positive. We have had many discussions about the philosophies of teaching in many different contexts and those discussions have questioned the way that I think about music and teaching. I find these classes to be very engaging and a safe environment where you can share your opinions comfortably or you are just encouraged to listen and think on your own. I have confronted the fact that the majority of these classes have been allowing me to be a part of many discussions and questioning different types of notions and the philosophies behind teaching in general. I have realized that music is something that is very hard to teach and that there are many different ways of teaching it. I have been more open to looking at creative ways of teaching music and to being more adaptable in terms of the ways that students learn because everyone learns differently.
Dr. Ruth Wright Lecture/Workshop
I really enjoyed Dr. Ruth Wright's lecture/workshop. This was a lot of fun to be a part of and to listen to. Many of the main ideas she spoke about included how the music education society mainly revolved around an elitist point of view. She made me look back at my past educators and it made me realize that a lot of them were very much a "my way or the highway" type of teacher. Being a part of such a creative subject, teaching in this style is extremely limiting to both the teacher and the student. It doesn't allow the student to be as creative as they would like to be and it doesn't allow the teacher to explore new options of teaching styles. Dr. Ruth Wright talked about how they have created programs that allow the students to be more creative in ways that aren't seen in the traditional type of teaching, and as an example of some of the activities the students take part in, she had us go into groups, pick a song, choose an instrument that we aren't particularly familiar with and to cover that song in front of the class! I have never done this in a music class before and I can say it was one of the best experiences to work with other people, sharing our opinions and ideas and to create music! I hope to include activities like this in my teachings in the future!
Dr. Kevin Watson's Lecture/Workshop I found myself to be quite engaged during Dr. Kevin Watson's demonstrations of improvisation. The style at which he taught us was very easy to pick up and it was well thought out. I liked how he focuses on maintaining a melody before actually asking us to improvise and he gave us a countless amount of examples in order for us to get comfortable with improvisation in general. His lesson reminded me of one of our previous readings, Power of limits and the pleasure of games: An easy and fun piano duo improvisation, because just as this game revolved around creating a melody around the c major scale (the limit), Dr. Kevin Watson only allowed us to use a set number of notes (the limit) before we begun actually improvising different melodies. By setting limits and setting a foundation for improvisation, this helps the person who is creating a new melody something to reference and to keep in guidance with. It's also less overwhelming for the person who is improvising to have something to go back to if they are having some troubles, and giving them limitations helps as well! I really enjoyed how he went around and asked us to do our own improvisations one by one because it was fun hearing other people's improvisations as well as being able to try and come up with something on my own!