The stage for tonal dialogue with little children has been set by rhythm dialogue and by resting tone activities. Little children know “how to play the game.” Tonal dialogue, however, is more intimate for little children than rhythm dialogue, so they may be more hesitant to respond with tonal dialogue than they were with rhythm dialogue or resting tone.
Tonal dialogue invites children to engage with tonal much as they do with language—interacting with an adult who understands and models the language, encourages imitation, and prompts independent making of meaning. Tonal dialogue begins with the response of the resting tone, progresses to short tonal segments that include the characteristic tones of the tonality anchored by the resting tone and dominant tone, and ultimately moves to melodic improvisation.
Tonal dialogue activities are presented with a short tonal narrative that immerses students in the tonality, followed by short melodic segments with silence after each for student response. Melodic segments include simple rhythms that reinforce tonic and dominant anchors. The tempo is broken for the melodic segments, and a very deliberate breath starts each melodic segment and period of silence. Breath summons tonal knowing as well as generating the energy for vocal production. It provides for the student to mobilize and compress tonal audiation, leading to greater tonal understanding and more precise, in-tune delivery.
Tonal dialogue activities give little children a chance to “play” aurally with tonal segments and with breath in relation to those tonal segments, whether or not they vocalize a response. If the children are not ready to sing a response, the activities themselves still serve tonal development, as they offer short tonal narratives and then break the tonality into bite-sized pieces. These tonal segments make the resting tone and dominant tone anchors and the characteristic tones of the tonality more tangible for the young child.
Your audible breath provides a virtual breath for young children with which to mobilize tonal knowing. It is as if you are helping the child take a breath, just as a parent might wave bye-bye for a babe in arms. Leaving time for children to deliver a tonal segment also gives time for them to replay in audiation the tonal segment just heard. Never assume that the silent child is doing nothing.
Coaxing children to engage in tonal dialogue is counterproductive. Simply extending the opportunity within the context of an ongoing tonal narrative invites response, with the tonality rather than the will in charge. A response from one child serves as a model for the more reluctant. Giving each child a turn, with or without a response, demonstrates non-threatening musical interaction with each, while sustaining the tonality as the dominant force of the activity. Repeated experience with the various tonalities and with tonal dialogue activities will ultimately draw the most reluctant children into engaging in tonal dialogue.
As with rhythm dialogue, the teacher may need to simply leave room for the child’s response until the child begins to fill the space with tonal dialogue. If a child’s response derails the tonality, the teacher can offer a melodic segment that re-defines the tonality. Some children will repeat the teacher’s delivery; some will contribute their own tonal segments. Some will respond with the resting tone. Little children often offer a response that is obviously within the tonality, yet without discreet pitches. All are fine responses and part of the process of learning to dialogue tonally. Sometimes, the teacher might offer a tonal segment that clarifies what the teacher thinks the child is trying to deliver. Sometimes the teacher offers a tonal segment slightly beyond the child’s ability, expanding the student’s tonal vocabulary. The teacher sustains the tonality in an ongoing narrative, with all responses, or lack thereof, accepted within the experience.
Language interrupts tonal dialogue, derails the tonality, and defeats the purpose of the activity. Modeling, interacting, and conversing tonally teaches tonal far more than words. Non-verbal communication, such as offering the hand as a microphone to invite individual response, can be effective. The experience of dialoguing vocally one-on-one with a more developed musician can serve a lifetime of music making, giving voice to ever-growing tonal skill.
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