STANDARD 3: The teacher of PK-12 music has skills in reading and writing music.
The skills of basic music literacy are crucial to the success of any and all musicians, as well as music educators. Music literacy skills should be taught to students from a young age as they are necessary to be successful in any and all facets of music making. To be a successful music educator and fulfill this standard, I must be able to read music with complete understanding and without assistance and be able to use these skills in writing and creating my own music. In students’ time in the traditional music classroom, students should be given many strategies, tools, and skills to help in the continuous development of their music literacy. By the end of their time in the traditional PK-12 classroom, students should be able read notation and perform that music without the help of others.
In order to be successful in their classrooms and fulfill the requirements of Standard 3, educators should be able to read music fluently and understand how to make use of their skills in reading and writing music. My music literacy skills are things that I continued to develop and focus on, throughout my college career, and I will continue to focus on. In the choral classroom, solfege is a critical aspect to musical growth. Solfege syllables are great tools for students to use. Solfege helps students understand better the pitches they are singing and relate them to each other. Solfege can be applied to every major or minor scale, helps with singing intervals, and gives students a logical system to apply to sight singing. I have used solfege as a tool in the classroom and as a practice tool for myself, and I have had some excellent experiences and results. With elementary aged students, the Curwen hand signs and solfege syllables help students identify notes and scales without needing to know the note names. For older students, it is more helpful to write syllables into your music. In terms of music writing, I have had many opportunities through the classes I have taken at Kansas State. I have composed a few short pieces using the rules of counterpoint, SATB works, and a few instrumental arrangements. Writing music is a great way to implement music reading skills and musical concepts. As a musician and educator, I have had extensive experience and am very confident in my music literacy skills.
The way that students are introduced to musical topics, namely reading and writing music, is critical to their future success and development of music literacy skills. In their younger years, students will likely find sight singing and music literacy lessons and activities more tedious. These aspects of music education are tremendously important to giving students a good musical foundation, so I suggest incorporating these skills into various musical activities. Any of these core music skills can be taught through games and other activities that may hold the students’ attention more and will impact them in a way that traditional sight singing, and other technique-centered activities never could. Similarly, for writing music a number of activities can be used that deviate from the traditional “write notes on a piece of paper” approach. All of these different approaches help students to identify musical concepts by using visual aids, notation, or hearing it aurally. As I stated above, I choose to use solfege and Curwen hand signs to teach my students. Starting this system in elementary school will allow students to use it throughout their time in the music education classroom. Solfege lets students focus on pitch accuracy and later, rhythm, more than text. The development of music literacy takes place over the course of the students’ time in the music classroom and I believe a strong foundation in this area will prepare students for their future and allow them to be successful.
Music literacy is a crucial skill for any musician, whether they are just beginning their musical journey or if they are performing at the professional level. I will continue to work at improving my own music reading and writing skills in hopes of setting a good example for my students and to show them how very important those skills are.
In order to be successful in their classrooms and fulfill the requirements of Standard 3, educators should be able to read music fluently and understand how to make use of their skills in reading and writing music. My music literacy skills are things that I continued to develop and focus on, throughout my college career, and I will continue to focus on. In the choral classroom, solfege is a critical aspect to musical growth. Solfege syllables are great tools for students to use. Solfege helps students understand better the pitches they are singing and relate them to each other. Solfege can be applied to every major or minor scale, helps with singing intervals, and gives students a logical system to apply to sight singing. I have used solfege as a tool in the classroom and as a practice tool for myself, and I have had some excellent experiences and results. With elementary aged students, the Curwen hand signs and solfege syllables help students identify notes and scales without needing to know the note names. For older students, it is more helpful to write syllables into your music. In terms of music writing, I have had many opportunities through the classes I have taken at Kansas State. I have composed a few short pieces using the rules of counterpoint, SATB works, and a few instrumental arrangements. Writing music is a great way to implement music reading skills and musical concepts. As a musician and educator, I have had extensive experience and am very confident in my music literacy skills.
The way that students are introduced to musical topics, namely reading and writing music, is critical to their future success and development of music literacy skills. In their younger years, students will likely find sight singing and music literacy lessons and activities more tedious. These aspects of music education are tremendously important to giving students a good musical foundation, so I suggest incorporating these skills into various musical activities. Any of these core music skills can be taught through games and other activities that may hold the students’ attention more and will impact them in a way that traditional sight singing, and other technique-centered activities never could. Similarly, for writing music a number of activities can be used that deviate from the traditional “write notes on a piece of paper” approach. All of these different approaches help students to identify musical concepts by using visual aids, notation, or hearing it aurally. As I stated above, I choose to use solfege and Curwen hand signs to teach my students. Starting this system in elementary school will allow students to use it throughout their time in the music education classroom. Solfege lets students focus on pitch accuracy and later, rhythm, more than text. The development of music literacy takes place over the course of the students’ time in the music classroom and I believe a strong foundation in this area will prepare students for their future and allow them to be successful.
Music literacy is a crucial skill for any musician, whether they are just beginning their musical journey or if they are performing at the professional level. I will continue to work at improving my own music reading and writing skills in hopes of setting a good example for my students and to show them how very important those skills are.
ARTIFACT 1: Music Theory III Composition
The artifact below is an example from a classroom composition that I created for the third course in Kansas State's music theory sequence. In the course, we were asked to create an art song for our instrument or voice part of choice, accompanied by piano. At the time, I was fairly new to composition but understood the voice and the French text that I was setting. The composition allowed me the opportunity to continue to develop my compositional skill and write music for students. This experience can easily be translated into writing songs for a choir class, general music, or elementary music class. I look forward to continuing to develop and improve my compositional skill to be used as a tool in the classroom.
ARTIFACT 2: Solfege and Score Exemplar
This artifact is an example of my ability to read and analyze music. This is only one section of the many analyses I have completed in my undergraduate career, including vocal music i have sang, instrumental music I have played, and music I have conducted. This example is a piece I had to opportunity to both sing and conduct. While working with a piece, I hope to make my score as messy as possible. Meaning, I make as many markings as necessary to ensure the piece is learned and performed as well as it can be. These markings include solfege syllables, conducting cues, changes of key or meter, the melos, difficult rhythms, etc. In continuing to mark my music, I can document the improvement over time and ensure that music is made consistently to the best of my ability. The continued reading and analysis of music will not only help me to improve my own music literacy skills but will encourage my students to do the same.