Natalie Perez Secondary Methods 3255639 Reformation of the Music Classroom: Understanding Culture, Making Practice enjoyable yet

Productive, and Student Critical Thinking Within the music classroom, I have noticed that as educators we have not surrounded our students with enough musical and social opportunities. As educators, we must be mindful of who our students are as individuals and understand the cultures they come from. The three articles in the dialogue projects that I will be discussing for a presentation at a conference are, The Rewards of Teaching Music in an Urban Setting discussed by Cedrick and Daphenie, Their own best teachers: How We Help and Hinder the Learners Independence by Raven and Chris, and Reframing Student Practice to Facilitate Lifelong Joyful Musicianship by Matthew Sheary and Juan Carlos. These three articles caught my attention from the very beginning because I have a personal connection to the subjects at hand. As a student in the public school setting in Miami, I was presented with disadvantages and a lack of resources from the school. When it came down to how we were helped as music students we were constantly being told what to do instead of allowing an opportunity to fix the problem on our own. The other subject presented to us that proved challenging, was enjoying practicing and seeing the amount of students that dropped out of the music program because they found no joy in playing and preparing music.

Teachers in urban areas are given a negative connotation due to the lack of resources they are provided and for the cultural background of their students. The belief that being short on funds affects the experience you as an educator give to your students is false. When teaching at an urban school setting, if there are minimal funds for the music program, educators must construct an approach to a successful experience for their students. To start off, I would like to begin with the notion of understanding who your students are. Like a speaker figuring out their audience, we must understand the cultural background of our students so that we may relate to them as individuals so that teaching comes with more understanding on the students and educators perspective. Formulating a proper method to make the most out of the little resources is what determines the experience of your students. I have constructed an approach to having little resources but still providing students with a musical engagement. Taking the Orff approach in a setting with a few resources will still enable students to learn the theory of music, involving them musically through movement, singing, improvisation and so on. Music educators may start off simple through just singing along, learning rounds; changing rhythms, using body percussion, and having the class explore the different movements they can attach to lyrics. When the students begin to advance in their understanding of music they can move on to actual instruments. If the school does not provide instruments, using recorders would be fairly inexpensive and can be fundraised with ease. Using the recorder gets students to read music and relate the fingerings to the actual notes. Though the recorder may seem simple, it shares the same fingerings as many other woodwinds instruments and involves the air support of the wind instrument. In the urban school system if the music educator would

like to extend their program into after school ensembles they may do so as well without an extreme use of resources. In the urban school setting preparing a repertoire for a choir is very inexpensive being that you can share and contact local schools for music. Also, creating a trash can percussion ensemble is fairly inexpensive being that the instruments are all day to day objects we can easily get a hold of. Trash can ensembles such as the Miami Trash Machine, have been very successful both in incorporating the creativity of the student and the theory of music. Going on to my next topic of classroom reformation is the idea of having students learn on their own. The music education background that I have as a student is being told when I was making a mistake and how to fix it on the spot. As music educators, it is sometimes important to allow our students to explore the idea of fixing their own mistakes. That way they know how to avoid the problem when it occurs again. Giving our students the ability to critically think and problem solve, may be a great concept for music but also for the everyday setting both socially and in other subject areas. As an educator, the one approach I would have to facilitate in student learning and figuring out how to solve their musical difficulties is having students work together. I am currently a junior, taking many courses and having difficulties in Music Theory Four. The way in which I have been able to understand the concepts presented in class is because I have another peer help me and guide me through the lesson. As a student, it is easier for me to understand the language of another student. This method I feel should be used in the classroom so that students have peer interaction and are able to fully grasp the concepts. What many schools in Japan do is that they will pair the first chair player with the incoming freshman so that they can get

individual help as well. Thomas Jefferson once stated, I have not failed. Ive just found 10,000 ways that wont work, and that is the mentality we should have with our students. The factor that I am a strong believer drives students away from enjoying the art of music in the classical approach to practicing. Many of us were trained to just work on scales and the difficult passages we find in our repertoire. Practicing should attain all the methods that an actual professional musician is approach with. The method that I will use for an enjoyable yet productive practice session is picking a scale and using the scale in various patterns found in music. This will develop sight reading as well as patterns within the different keys. Second, using the scale that was learned, students can begin to improvise within that same key. With the familiarization of the scale, students would be able to improvise to a certain degree which will definitely facilitate the experience for those beginning the improvisation concept. Third, I would find a popular tune that would appeal to the student within that same key. Not only would students be entertained with a piece that relates to them, they will also be developing their ears and figuring out the notes on their instruments. Also, having students play duets or chamber music will open their ears to understanding how to listen to an ensemble and how the individual parts fit within each other. Lastly, any trouble spots that the student may have in the specified repertoire should be determined by the student. As an educator, you are there to guide them in the approach they take in figuring out how to solve this issue. If it is tempo, help them with a metronome and how to use it productively. If it may be fingering issues, present different ways in which the note can be played. Practicing should not just be working on what is difficult; it should also include working on musicianship. This approach to practicing will help develop better and diverse musicians. If your music

program has the funds possibly having personal coaches for every instrument would be a major way of providing great resources.