Who Needs Music Readiness?
Everyone!
By
Lyn Pohlmann
The
California Music Teacher
The
flashcards move swiftly in the teacher’s hands as the students shout, “line,
line, space, line,” holding their index fingers under their noses to show a
line or their hands on either side of their head to represent a space.
“Who would like to play the piece we learned last week?”
All hands eagerly shoot up and everyone cries, “I do!”
Then a line is formed at the piano and each student “copycats” the
teacher by immediately playing the same note pattern and then walking to the
blackboard and drawing a picture of the pattern he or she played.
No one complains about coming to this lesson.
Thomas
Jefferson once said that “Music is invaluable where a person has an ear.
It furnishes a delightful recreation for the hours of respite from cares
of the day, and it lasts us through life. How
does a person “get an ear?” What
is needed to develop that ear?
John
Feierabend stated in a recent article entitled “Music in Early Childhood”, Design
for Arts in Education 91, no. 6 (July/August 1990):
15-20, “regardless of our ultimate involvement with music, the success
of our musical experiences may depend on the musical nurturing we received
during our pre-school years.” Much
of the current research suggest it is important to begin early, and recent
studies at UCI show how children’s learning in all areas improves with music
study.
Howard
Gardner of Harvard University has developed a theory of the seven intelligences
in human beings. In his “Project
Zero” research, he is testing a curriculum that studies musical intelligence
as one of seven areas to be developed. Although
the project is not complete, he is discovering the importance of ongoing music
curriculum for optimum growth of musical intelligence.
Edwin Gordon at Temple University has been exploring the ability of a
young person to “audiate” (his term) or retain musical and rhythmic
patterns. Although Gordon believes
each person has a maximum ability to develop his audiation skill, it appears
that without proper stimulation at the appropriate time in the life cycle, the
musical potential will never be reached. Just
like the chicken who needs to learn to peck at a certain time in its maturation
cycle of certain listening skills at the correct time or these abilities will be
lost forever.
When
Should Lessons Begin?
Children
between the ages of three and seven are ready for structured musical study, but
on their own terms. The use of a
keyboard for beginning study has many advantages even though the child may go on
to a different instrument after a music readiness experience.
At the keyboard, children can easily see what is meant by high and low,
can manipulate the keys to make sounds that are loud and soft, can play fast or
slow, and can depend on accurate pitch reproduction.
With prices dropping on touch-sensitive electronic keyboards, families
may purchase an inexpensive instrument for music readiness even if no acoustic
piano is available in the home. Singing
can also be included in the curriculum, but the instruction does not depend upon
the child’s ability to reproduce accurate pitch.
In
the past, small muscle development in the young child has made us wary of
starting music lessons at too early an age.
Physically healthy children are active, like to run and jump, and have
good large muscle development, but small muscle development is lagging.
These facts suggest sitting the child down with music at a keyboard or
other instrument for even short periods of time may be less than successful.
However,
let’s consider social and intellectual ability too. This stage of growth is also the period of greatest learning.
Although the attention span is short, enthusiasm to learn and ability to
understand is great. Furthermore,
imagination is never greater. Socially,
the child likes to work in small groups and tries hard to please the teacher.
Relaxed competition with the teacher and peers is enjoyed.
The child is naturally attracted to music.
Masura
Ibuka in his book, Kindergarten is Too
Late, said that the small child would rather learn than eat and his greatest
source of pleasure is understanding. Piaget,
the well-known child psychologist, taught us the great importance of conceptual
learning for transfer and reapplication to new situations.
Consider the simplicity that can be used at the very earliest level and
spiraled up to create secure musicianship.
Experiences such as the ones described in the first paragraph of this
article give valuable self-esteem to each student.
Is
there also an advantage to the teacher? The
ability of the students will improve when they have had lots of experience
hearing high and low, recognizing musical and rhythmic patterns, and feeling a
basic beat. At age ten, then, for
example, these students who received early music study will be more secure in
their musicianship and therefore less likely to drop out.
I have had many opportunities to enjoy the secure musicianship of
students who have participated in one or two years of music readiness before
beginning formal piano lessons in my studio.
They have the ability to retain long musical patterns by ear and create
their own compositions in many styles.
Parents
interested enough to give lessons to their young children take education
seriously and will want to give their children a long-term music education.
Because music is not available in many schools, it is more important than
ever that the private studio teacher educate the children of the community. Otherwise, music will gradually lose importance and private
music teachers will find it increasingly difficult to find and keep good
students.
Lessons
for young children have a relaxed atmosphere that helps students associate
pleasure with the study of music. They
learn because they want to rather than because they have to. Children
this age learn surprisingly well in small groups. They can be active or passive, and they do not need the
extreme concentration required at private lessons.
On
the practical side, lessons for young children can be scheduled in daytime hours
not available to school age children. Once
a curriculum is developed by the teacher, it can be used with only slight
variation. In addition, the teacher
can earn a higher hourly rate when charging for a small group.
Activities
to Include at Each Lesson
Here
are some specific areas that each lesson should include.
Understanding comes best after the child has experienced a concept.
Ear training exercises will help the child distinguish between high and
low using the extreme ends of the keyboard.
As these exercises become more sophisticated, the child is able to hear
patterns which become gradually higher or lower.
Many
young children believe that high means loud and low means soft, perhaps caused
by a parent saying, “turn that T.V. lower!”
This confusion and others can be removed from the child’s mind.
Patterns
can be repeated, sequenced and inverted. Copycat
playing and clapping can develop awareness of musical structure.
Knowing the names of the keys helps students learn the music alphabet,
and the geography of the horizontal keyboard more easily transfers visually to
the vertical grand staff.
A
wonderful resource book, written by Machiko Yurko and published by Alfred
Publishing Company, is called No H in Snake. It has
endless ideas for many kids of activities including drills of ABC order.
The child can see high and low, can experience moving up and down by
steps , then skips, then greater intervals.
Rhythm
drills can include not only feeling a basic pulse and moving faster and slower
to the beat, but rhythmic patterns can be shown first as blank notation and
finally as traditional notes with time value.
The short lines become quarter notes and longer lines become half and
whole notes. Rhythmic patterns can
be extended into patterns with rhythm and shape, and easily transferred to the
grand staff.
Pattern
reading can be introduced. A simple
pattern such as the one found in “Three Blind Mice” can be learned in blank
notation and then gradually transferred to the staff. This simple pattern can also be transposed and inverted for
endless creative experiences.
Lots
of drill with right and left hand recognition and finger number recognition is
possible. The importance of good
hand position can be stressed by helping the child first brace his pointed
finger with his thumb and gradually work into three- and later five-finger
patterns, with curved strong fingers. In
addition, long term drill with the right hand numbers going up 12345 and the
left hand numbers going up 54321 will help those who wish to progress to further
keyboard study understand this confusing problem.
Perhaps
the most important part of this age group’s strength is the development of
natural improvisation skills every child has.
Improvisation exercises can be structured in the two- or four-measure
question and answer, or as in the creation of short motives to represent
characters in a story similar to “Peter and the Wolf.”
It can also be free-form where the student “tells a story” by the
choices he makes on the keyboard using a mixture of high or low, loud or soft,
and fast or slow sounds. Other
students can interpret the story being played, developing their listening and
creative thinking skills at the same time the performers are using their
imaginations.
“Never
Turn Your Back on a Four Year Old!”
This
advice from well-known music educator Robert Pace has helped me and many other
teachers remember to carefully plan our weekly lessons.
The success of any program will depend on the choice of materials and the
preparation of the teacher. Lessons
plans are essential.
It
is very helpful to read extensively about physical and mental characteristics of
younger children. Good current
information on music education for young children is available from the Music
Educators National Conference, 1806 Robert Fulton Drive, Reston, VA
22091. Articles appear in
national magazines such as Clavier, American Music
Teacher, M.T.N.A., Music Educators
Journal (M.E.N.C.), and Keyboard
Companion. Teacher training
classes are available in Orff-Schulwerk and Dalcroze Eurythymics to help with
ideas about teaching movement. Comprehensive
Musicianship classes that develop strategy in structuring information in small
group settings use excellent materials developed by Robert and Helen Pace and
are available in many cities around the world.
The Paces’ books, Music for
Moppets, Moppets’ Rhythms and Rhymes
and Kinder-Keyboard have helpful
teacher’s manuals. Music stores
offer workshops in new materials; colleges provide classes in piano pedagogy.
It is important to be open to new ideas and to keep current on what is
available.
Developmentally
Appropriate Material
“Developmentally
appropriate” is the current buzz word used for curriculum that is prepared for
a specific age child. The following
should be considered when you are choosing materials for your students.
Is the material prepared for the age group you plan to teach or are you
trying to take level one material and simplify them?
What is the visual impact of the book?
Illustrations for young children are far more easily understood than long
verbal explanations. Black and
white illustrations allow children to color the picture themselves, allowing
them to develop their small muscle coordination while personalizing the book.
A
book that sits horizontally rather than vertically on the keyboard is much
easier for a young child to manipulate and reach. The notation should be simple, and the teacher must
understand what the writer intended.
Many
early childhood materials have a teacher’s manual to accompany the child’s
book. Read it carefully.
The materials should show movement up and down as on the grand staff and
proceed in a sequential manner.
Conceptual
learning should be stressed. The
materials should be process-oriented, not product-oriented.
Just because a child can play a piece does not necessarily mean he
understands what he is playing. If
the process is good, the product will also be good.
The materials used should correlate with the level one materials.
If a multi-key approach is used for instrument study, it should be the
basis of the readiness study. Melodies
should be familiar and appealing but beware of the cute-little-song approach
that has no real substance in developing the understanding of basic concepts.
Scheduling
Lessons
Lesson
scheduling is important. If it can
be arranged, shorter lessons (30 minutes) twice a week are more effective than
one longer lesson (45 to 60 minutes) for this age child. Parent help at home is necessary, but the parent should
function as a co-learner, not the teacher.
Parents
can be expected to attend regularly scheduled open classes about every six weeks
and should work with the teacher in a separate session where no children are
present. Even if parents have had
the opportunity to study music themselves, the methods used today will be quite
different from their experience. For
parents with no background, the joy of learning music for the first time can be
experienced along with the child.
Conclusion
If
you as a teacher feel this type of program would be helpful to your students but
you are not comfortable teaching this age group, find a teacher in your area who
enjoys working with young children. Team
up with that teacher and arrange to have the students transfer to you at the end
of their early music classes. This
is a win/win situation. The
students come to you well prepared because the basics have been well taught.
The teacher of younger students will be able to fill the classes each
year and not have to worry about the exponential factor of having too many
students after a few years to permit new level one classes to be formed.