Musicing

This evening I showed my 8-year-old son how to play Down Down Baby. (Down down baby, down by the roller coaster. Sweet sweet baby I don’t wanna let you go. Shimmy shimmy cocao pop, shimmy shimmy round. Shimmy shimmy cocao pop, shimmy shimmy break down. Two big kids sittin on a fence tryin to make a dollar out of 85 cents. She missed she missed she missed like this.) I used the version I found in one of the New England Dancing Masters books. I had never tried it with just two people, but it works quite well. We held out or left hands for the other to keep the beat on with right hands. I just had him follow my lead with the actions and all. After we had done the whole thing a couple of times he asked if we could do it some more. Cool . . .

Yesterday in Elementary Music Methods class we learned the Virginia Reel and the Patty-Cake Polka. Then we discussed the educational outcomes for elementary students of participating in these dances. Here’s what the prospective elementary classroom teachers came up with:

Social: working together, learning about each other, interaction, communication, learning about personal space and appropriate touching, following instructions

Emotional: confidence, resolving frustration, excitement, focusing energy, learning to not be afraid, comfortable

Cognitive: hand-eye coordination, spatial reasoning, sequences, learning about significant folk dances

Physical: locomotor movement, spatial awareness, exercise, moving with a partner, coordination

Musical: folk songs, rhythm, dance moves, beat, patterns, phrases, musical instruments

I thought it was a pretty good list demonstrating the complexity of dances and singing games. I encouraged the students to plan curriculum by choosing socially/culturally meaningful and complex actions and then looking at the curriculum to see what skills or understandings were being addressed. I also encouraged the students to look beyond the curriculum standards and consider the complete environment they are providing as primary care-givers during the school year.  

We had a general music workshop with Susan Kenney here at Northwest Missouri State University last Saturday. She is a wonderful clinician and a delightful person. She taught some singing games, demonstrated some listening maps, and presented information about the brain. I agree with her that “whole song” or “whole-part” is the best approach to teaching a new song/game. Kids want to hear the whole thing and, to quote Susan Kenney, a song/game “is a mini-world of confusion on which the mind can feast.” Children need to experience the joy of singing/playing first hand–the “real deal”–not some watered-down or fractured musical “activity” focused on what the teacher does to teach rather than on what the learner does to learn. Anyway, up-up with singing games and childrens’ joyful and complex musicing and up-up with Susan Kenney. Thanks for an enjoyable and informative day.

I love to see the smiles on my students’ faces as they participate in singing games and rhythm activities the first day of the semester. The elementary education majors especially come to class worried that it will be a regular stuffy class where you’re supposed to prefer some kinds of musics and musicings over others and where its necessary to put people on the spot–to make them sing in alone in front of others–and to establish and/or uphold a hierarchy of musicers relative to some abstract, set-in-stone, set of musical standards. I like to put their minds at ease on the first day and have some fun. We played a Name Rondo by Kay Leto, a wonderful music teacher in Las Vegas, and Down in the Valley (two by two). We also did some echoing to show the possibilities beyond the ta-ta-ti-ti-ta (do-do-do de-do; 1 2 3& 4) pattern that elementary teachers around here do to signal silence from their students. And, they smiled and laughed. They said it was because these activities broke the tension, were fun and different, it wasn’t like their other classes, it was challenging yet attainable, it involved group interaction, etc. We had some fun, plain and simple . . . and that’s okay.

I love the New England Dancing Masters books of singing games, Down in the Valley and Jump Jim Joe; they have wonderful accompaniments, the songs are down to earth, complex, and they swing. So, kids really love these games! I used Mary Helen Richard’s Let’s Do It Again! from ETM for 12 years as a primary resource and it’s a great book as well although the recordings are not quite as fun or useful.

Evan Tobias included a link to the following petition on his blog. I also heard a lot about this at MMEA. As with many other things with musicing and education, I have mixed feelings. I love the idea of a music education for all children, but I have some major problems with this document (no disrespect to Evan who simply provided the link, of course). I’ll mention just three:

First, the only connection made in this petition between music education and life after/outside of school is to the workforce–music helps develop creativity, a vital attribute of an efficient worker. What about all of the joys people experience through musicing that are not work-related? Aren’t lifelong enjoyment and social interaction through musicing just as or more important? Also, music curricula in the United States don’t seem to foster creativity but, rather, conformity and discipline–skills needed in the workforce of the past. As John Kratus pointed out last week, Latin used to be justified in the curriculum for so-called extra-Latin(ish?) benefits for a productive life and, today, Latin is not longer taught in most public schools. In other words, justifying music education based on the development of efficient workers doesn’t place MENC or music educators in a stronger position at all.

Second, as I pointed out in a panel discussion at MMEA with MENC President, Barbara Geer, and retired high school band director, Jim Oliver (I was very honored, BTW, to be on this panel with such wonderful career teachers), we still haven’t achieved the ideal of music for all and we’ve been talking about it for over 100 years (not me, personally, or either of the other two panelists, but the profession). One could argue that we have been successful at providing quality music programs for all middle-class, suburban students, but our music programs still privilege the privileged–rich over poor, suburban over rural and urban, elites over just plain everyday folk. In what other K-12 curriculum, for example, is success predicated on students’ opportunities for private instruction outside of school? I could go on . . .

Third, music is already considered a core subject in No Child Left Behind. This is a publicity stunt from an organization that at least 30 years ago chose advocacy over adaptation to changing musical values and practices. People generally don’t want what we are providing anymore. Let’s get over it and think about what our students might value musically throughout life and give them that.

So, no, I won’t be signing . . .

Here’s the petition . . .

Be it resolved that we, the undersigned, agree that all Americans should work to enhance and support music
education in our nation’s schools. To that end, we call on the U.S. Department of Education and all American
leaders to:
• Mandate that music and the other arts be part of every child’s core curriculum;
• Ensure music and the other arts are included as a part of a balanced education addressing the whole
child, to prepare them for the creative thinking necessary for success in the work force of the future;
• Ensure qualified music teachers and sequential curricula be recognized as the basis for providing
all students with substantive education in music and the other arts;
• Ensure programs in music and the other arts provide rigorous instruction, monitor progress and
performance through meaningful assessment, and take place within a structure of accountability to
school officials, parents, and the community.
Be it therefore resolved that the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, also known
as No Child Left Behind, not only identify music as a core subject, but also recognize music education as a
mandatory component of every public education curriculum in the United States of America.

John Kratus was a guest at our Missouri Music Educators Association annual conference. He gave outstanding presentations on Music Education at the Tipping Point (like his MEJ article) and on teaching song-writing classes. I agree (and have written about it before in this blog) that music education in the U.S. needs to adapt to the musical interests and practices of everyday people outside of schools. MENC and public music education, however, are changing so  s  l  o  w  l  y . But, still, some change is apparent, for example, in the proliferation of guitar instruction in public schools.

The second topic, song-writing, is a great idea on many levels. I’ll just mention one: In his presentation, Dr. Kratus discussed the use of rhyme and alliteration in a song by Eminem. I can envision this type of lyric analysis (although not Eminem)–by itself or as a prompt for song-writing–being an effective form of music and language arts integration in middle school.

Anyway, it was another great MMEA conference with some outstanding presenters. In addition to John Kratus, we also had Phyllis Wiekert and John Feierabend. And, I distinctly heard John Feierabend use the word “musicing”. . .  Pretty cool!

It’s been an eventful summer with family trips to the desert, the beach, the mountains, and back to the beautiful (and I really mean it) rolling hills of Northwest Missouri. Towards the beginning of the summer I took a flight out to Boston for the twentieth Mayday Colloquium (my third). We had some great presentations and discussions. Thanks, Patrick Jones, for hosting us at Boston University. I did a presentation entitled, “What do the simple folk do? Sustainable music education for poor white rural students.” It seemed to be well-received. I shared a bit about my own family’s background and about how we all (all nine kids) played in school concert bands and are still involved in music, but not in concert bands or jazz bands. In fact, our musicing relates more to what we did at home growing up than it does to our public school experiences. I’m the only one of my brothers and sisters who still plays a “band instrument.” My question in the presentation (in a nutshell) regarding school band, “What was the point?” Not that concert band is a bad thing or not worth spending time and resources on. But, should it really be the focus of public school music (along with choir depending on the school) for so many kids who ultimately end up never playing again after they graduate? I guess I’m being kind of critical. But, then again, this IS a post about the Mayday Colloquium.

Happy MayDay! I was just thinking of the MayDay Group today. For anyone reading this, it’s a group of/for critical theorists in music education. I learned about the group from my mentor, the late Steve Paul, during my doctoral studies at the University of Arizona. I have since chatted with a number of the group members and founders on the MayDay website and have attended two MayDay conferences (Vancouver and Princeton). I have met some wonderful people through this group and have learned a lot. I encourage anyone reading this to check out the website link to the group. In my mind, we really are involved in a “labor of love”–pointing out how formal music education might become more responsive to the needs of people. I had a conversation with a prominent researcher in music education a while back who said that the MayDay Group really doesn’t contribute anything–that it’s all just a bunch of talk. From my perspective and in my experience as a music teacher, all the so-called research in the world about what works best in teaching and learning music doesn’t amount to a “hill of beans” if what works best has no real connection to human needs. That’s where critical theory comes in; it points out practices of discrimination and exploitation. It’s a labor of love on behalf of and in fellowship with the oppressed. Seriously, check out the MayDay website; I think you will find it valuable.

We need an elementary and middle school music method that reflects the rich and complex American musical heritage without making it subordinate to elite European classical traditions. I am envisioning a method with American Roots Musicing and American Popular Musicing at the heart of instruction. Students might choose to explore elite European classical music, but hopefully with the understanding that there were also European folk traditions that contributed more deeply to the American musical mix. Students might also be encouraged to explore diverse musicings from around the world–those that may have contributed to American music and those that might not have yet. Music, in this method, would not be understood as a collection of musical works to be studied and revered, but a vibrant and evolving social practice. In order to reflect the give-and-take and everyday-ness of American music, the method would be loose collection of practices and musicings rather than a strictly ordered and unquestioningly adhered to sequence.

I’m really quite serious about this and have begun outlining an American Music Method and envisioning what it might look like in practice. Please send your thoughts if you are interested.