Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Keeping concerts curricular

"Our concerts are a showcase of our curriculum" is written inside every program of my student concerts.
When I work with my students on a performance, I want it to be curricular. To me, this means that we are not sacrificing learning time for the concert. So often today we are testing kids. They can take a test but they are not learning. Just learning the performance music and then leaving it there is essentially the same thing.

When I teach my students music for a concert, it is first and foremost, appropriate to their developmental stage. There is note reading, instrument playing, movement component as well as a connection to culture/history. If the kids are just learning how to find notes on the staff, at least one of their pieces should be learned with the new method.

Second grade is on my mind right now because their performance is in two weeks. They are playing instruments on parts that they learned by reading the notation in standard form. They are also playing boomwhackers with a part they learned with a picture representation of the walking bass line.
All songs were read with a lyric sheet and on standard notation. Learning by rote might get them to know a song. Learning it and seeing it will help them create connections to future music.

Good singing can never be sacrificed. There is no such thing as not enough time for a warm up. With my 7 year-olds, it is just a few sighs and invisible slide whistles.
 
I am also lucky enough to work with art teachers who incorporate the concert theme into their curriculum. This year too, the second grade LA committee centered their thematic unit with the concert theme.

I keep a running record of some of my concert material here if you need any ideas.

No comments:

Post a Comment