So you thought you were a practitioner? Expect the application of theory to practice to stimulate healthy dialogue within you between your newly minted theorist and the seasoned practitioner. The theorist’s reflection on practice and the practitioner’s reflection on theory is an ongoing and essential process that will guide you in the classroom long after this workshop has finished.
Audiation is a natural process for children. Anything other than ease and progress throughout the curriculum indicates the need for greater communication between your resident theorist and practitioner, as children in a sound curriculum grow effortlessly as musicians from the start, through sound, syllables, and symbols—rhythmically, tonally, and artistically—when we “get it right.”
The theorist within may be timid compared to the more outspoken practitioner, but surely stronger than when you started this workshop, and more able to reflect on your teaching than ever before. Here are some practical situations that might arise in day to day teaching, and examples of the ensuing dialogue within that you might encounter.
My children are moving to macro and micro beats long before we get to Macro/Micro Beat Activities. Macro and micro beat movement can provide an opportunity to “play with” macro and micro beats as immersion rather than interactivity—simply reinforcing macro and micro beats in sound, laying groundwork for the more deliberate Macro/Micro Beat Activities.
My children join me with every tonality song and meter chant before they even hear them. They can’t possibly be in the tonality or meter. Don’t underestimate children’s ability to pick up the tonality or meter from the consistent tonality/meter preps you are providing with a steady diet of the various meters and tonalities. If, however, beginners are jumping in too quickly, why not introduce tonalities with a recorder and meters with a drum as a way of inviting listening more than overt participation?
My second graders are not able to sustain Triple meter in a Gem Song. What can I do? Provide greater immersion and interactivity in Duple, Triple, Unusual Paired and Unusual Unpaired meters. Also recognize that sustaining Triple meter in a Gem Song requires greater skill than just with Triple meter, as it includes the layers of melody on top of meter and words on top of that. If the children are secure in the meter, try singing the song and having the children just move the meter until they are ready to both sing and move in the meter. If that doesn’t work, go back to greater immersion and interactivity in the various meters and try the song again in a few weeks.
My children are singing Lydian tonality as major. How can I fix that? Singing any tonality as if it were major demonstrates that the children have not yet developed a secure sense of tonality and need greater immersion and interactivity in all the various tonalities.
My children won’t respond with Resting Tone Activities. The greater success they have with Rhythm Dialogue Activities, the less threatened they will be responding tonally. If they are secure in responding rhythmically, make sure you are providing sufficient experience in the various tonalities. If that, too, is in place, then try a new prop or puppet with Resting Tone Activities so the children lose themselves.
My children keep trying to sing the resting tone when I want to get them into Tonal Dialogue. If they are secure with resting tone, perhaps you can design an activity with a puppet to model Tonal Dialogue as different from Resting Tone Activities, remembering that responding with the resting tone is really the beginning of Tonal Dialogue. If the children are not secure with resting tone, then they need greater immersion and interactivity with the various tonalities, and perhaps even greater success in rhythmic response to encourage greater tonal response.
My children are secure with macro and micro beats in Unusual Paired meter, but fall apart with divisions in that meter. The children probably need greater experience with divisions in Duple and Triple meters, as greater competence in the easier meters leads to greater competence in the more difficult meters.
I’m doing ok with these activities, but what about my long-term investment in another methodology? I like some of those activities. Remember that you can include most any kind of activities in your lesson plans as long as you are providing a strong program for music learning. The more skilled you become in nurturing music learning, the more you will want to include more and more activities for music learning, and the more you will be able to upgrade old favorites for greater music learning value—or, simply to embrace them as the icing on the cake, knowing they are not the cake itself.
I have a couple of kids that are ready for far more in Rhythm Dialogue than those who are not yet secure in macro and micro beats. You can accommodate different levels individually with the choice of the difficulty of patterns for each child, and accommodate all levels with group Rhythm Dialogue, which will serve as immersion for some and interactivity for others.
When are children ready for songs with shifting meters or consecutive Rhythm Activities in different meters? Children who are not secure with individual meters will not be secure with shifting meters or consecutive Rhythm Activities in different meters. If the children are secure in 4 meters, try back to back meters and see what you learn from the children.
My children know some songs in the beginning singing range. Can I present the same songs in a higher keyality? Presenting a song in the same key each time will serve music learning, however children who become secure in tonality can handle singing the song in another keyality just as those secure in meters can handle a different tempo.
You are now equipped to serve audiation—not through formulas, but rather, in the knowhow to “see through” audiation—to make transparent this abundant wellspring of musicality in every child—to get inside it where you can interact with it, shape it, and learn from it. The musical mind of the child is a wonder to behold, and you now have the tools to uncover and witness its power and learn about it from the original source.
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