August 19, 2008-Question 6:
Now that you have been using notation software for a couple of days, which MENC standard (besides #4) would notation software help enhance one of your current lessons in your music classroom?
Answer the following question on the course blog site by Wednesday at 11:00 am.
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Hi, I had a hard time understanding the question, but my answer below is how I perceived the question.
1. Singing, alone and with others, a varied repertoire of music.
2. Performing on instruments, alone and with others, a varied repertoire of music.
3. Improvising melodies, variations, and accompaniments.
4. Composing and arranging music within specified guidelines.
5. Reading and notating music.
6. Listening to, analyzing, and describing music.
7. Evaluating music and music performances.
8. Understanding relationships between music, the other arts, and disciplines outside the arts.
9. Understanding music in relation to history and culture.
Notation software would help enhance No. 1 and 2. Using the special teacher resources on Sibelius gives you many different types of music to perform. You can choose music from different time periods and different world cultures to use in the classroom.
Software can also enhance standard No.3 because you can write a melody and then make up different variations, and different voice parts to use in the classroom again.
You can download and open different midi files into Sibelius or Finale, so by doing so No.5 and 6 can also be enhanced, which can be a huge plus for classroom usage. Once you have actual music to study, then you can really get into music theory on many different levels with your students.
In my class, I could download different songs to use for new world music to introduce to my younger students.
Comment by Andrew Lyman — August 19, 2008 @ 6:07 pm
Great Job Andrew!
You interpreted the question correctly. I know of teachers who realize that notation software enhances a lesson that covers standard #4. And, that is true and wonderful. However, I feel that it will help some of the other standards too. You did an excellent job explaining how.
I look forward to reading the other responses.
Amy
Comment by awillis2 — August 19, 2008 @ 6:12 pm
Thanks for posting the standards Andrew.
I am writing specifically regarding notation software based on what I found in Sibelius. My third graders begin reading music and get confused. I can see using it for #5 as they need more practice for reading and notating. Doing it on the computer could be helpful to some students.
The sound bank and instrument pictures cover a wide range of cultures and nations as per #9.
Comment by Mickey — August 19, 2008 @ 8:07 pm
The use of activities to enhance note-reading skills and notation accuracy are obvious possibilities for engagement of Standard 5. Students can listen to 3-4 identical passages, each with different expression markings (chosen by a student or the teacher),allowing a class to analyze what they hear and match it to the correct notation which illuminates standard 6. Students can perform a rehearsed melodic, or rhythmic line to a song on a MIDI instrument while another plays along or accompanies on a standard classroom percussion instrument. The notation from the first student’s performance comes out as notation but the class members can critique or evaluate (Standard 7)the performance. These are just a few of the ways that other standards can be addressed.
Comment by Debra Bono — August 19, 2008 @ 8:55 pm
I could see myself using standards 2. Performing on instruments, alone and with others, a varied repertoire of music and 9. Understanding music in relation to history and culture. What I could see myself doing would be taking some of the songs that they may have already learned in class from different cultures and arrange them for the students to perform. The students could possible find out, or discuss how the culture uses the individual songs, and what purpose they serve in the individual culutres.
Comment by Samuel Constant — August 19, 2008 @ 10:33 pm
1. Singing, alone and with others, a varied repertoire of music.
2. Performing on instruments, alone and with others, a varied repertoire of music.
3. Improvising melodies, variations, and accompaniments.
4. Composing and arranging music within specified guidelines.
5. Reading and notating music.
6. Listening to, analyzing, and describing music.
In my classroom, standard 5 would help me to enhance my note reading lessons. I can have the instructional lesson about note reading but students can really experience notation through using the softwares themselves. For students that have hard time with handwriting, this would help them even more.
Comment by HaNa Chang — August 20, 2008 @ 9:33 am
Ooops…I had the first six standards up there so that i can look at them and think about it without scrolling up and down.
Comment by HaNa Chang — August 20, 2008 @ 9:34 am
Besides standard number 4, I see notation software as most helpful with #5 as students could use the program themselves for notating. I think notation software would be helpful with #6 as well. Students could listen to a song being played off of Finale and Sibelius and easily skip to different sections for analysis. Students would also be able to type in chord symbols and such after analyzing or they could try to match articulation and dynamic markings to a recording.
Comment by Dave Stasiak — August 20, 2008 @ 9:35 am