The process of music learning defines lesson planning. Rhythm and tonal activities of increasing difficulty address music learning, while Art Songs and Gem Songs serve developing artistry at every level of development. The songs apply rhythm and tonal knowing, while providing the opportunity for sheer musicality. Designing lesson plans to include sets of Rhythm Activity, Tonal Activity, and Song, rotating meters in Rhythm Activities, Tonalities in Tonal Activities, with a song following the Tonal Activity in the same tonality, provides for the children to experience a variety of meters, a variety of tonalities, and a variety of songs, with children bringing increasing levels of rhythm and tonal knowing to songs throughout early childhood.
This framework also provides for a lot of variety in songs within each lesson, with each song sparking the class in a different way. For example, within one class, an Art Song in Dorian Tonality and Triple Meter might simply engage children in flowing movement through successive verses. A Gem Song in Mixolydian Tonality and Duple Meter might playfully engage children in a whimsical song with quicker tempo and style. An Art Song in Aeolian Tonality might engage children in a very different expression with shifting meters, while the next Gem Song takes them into a playparty in unusual meter.
Similarly, through successive classes, children can experience a great variety of repertoire, all of which facilitates music learning while inspiring and developing artistry. If the children are old enough and developed enough for unison singing, another dimension opens to add even greater variety within a class and through successive classes. [Lesson Planning is addressed in full in the online workshop, Foundations, Curriculum Materials, and Practice.]
There is always room for the occasional Play Song, which might be added between sets of Rhythm Activity, Tonal Activity, Song, or, as predictable anchors or features within the class—opening or closing song, perhaps a folk song or playparty feature, holiday song, or children’s favorite.
The more you uncover the wonder of children’s artistry, the more willing you will become to replace an overabundance of Play Songs with Art Songs and Gem Songs. There will always be a place for Play Songs, but as children’s artistry finds such joy in the playfulness of musically sophisticated Gem Songs and the artistry of Art Songs, Play Songs take their proper place as the icing on the cake.
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