How I Used... Spotify

"You see, war is not the answer/For only love can conquer hate..."

- Marvin Gaye

I could write a whole post on the discussion we had today in music class (snapshot: Soul music of the 1970's was a response to turbulent times. How are those times similar to what may be going on in the world today? Cue potentially turbulent discussion that the students navigated maturely and respectfully.)

To end our discussion, we listened to "What's Going On?" by Marvin Gaye - his response to what was going on in the world in the late '60s and early '70s.

I'm a huge fan of Spotify (and one of these days I'll spring for a Premium account). A new feature they've added is the Lyrics tool (lower right hand of the screen when you've downloaded the desktop version):

Click on this link, and your main screen will switch to album/artist artwork and the lyrics to the song playing. You can decide if you'd like one line at a time, but I opt for the scrolling option so students can read just before or just after if they'd prefer.

Reading Marvin Gaye's words from "What's Going On?" Was a timely and such an appropriate way to end today's discussion, and I was glad to use this tool for my students as they reflected on when music and culture intersect.

Student Recordings and Reflections

If you've ever taken a performing ensemble to a large group contest, you are probably familiar with the practice of judges talking into a small recorder while the performance is taking place. The first time I adjudicated this type of contest, it took some getting-used-to. I mean, you're not supposed to talk during a performance! But then, I realized how valuable it would be for two reasons:

1) Directors and student musicians get a sense for what goes in in an audience member's head during a performance - what do they pick up on? What are they listening for? What do we need to emphasize differently?

2) Instead of referring back to a point in the music or relying on memory, you get feedback as soon as it happens in the performance and you have better contextual understanding of their comment in your performance.

Why not make students an active part of this same type of practice in their own rehearsing and assessment?

Here's what that could look like:

Jane is working through her Clarinet methods book and ready to mark off a new scale on her progress report. Small group lessons are so jam-packed, though, that its hard for her director to hear everyone at the same time. So, she gets out her iPad and films herself playing the scale using iMovie. When she goes back and looks at it, she realizes that she keeps stumbling over a certain section because her fingerings are wrong. She knew it before, but now that she can see it, it makes more sense and she goes back, practices a few more times, and re-records herself playing the scale. That evening, she e-mails it to her director, and when she gets to school the next morning, she finds an e-mail from her director in her inbox congratulating her on accomplishing another step on her progress report!

David is a high school choir director and is looking for ways to efficently assess his high school boys group without doing it during rehearsal time (because goodness knows you've got to keep them engaged 100% of the time otherwise they'll be doing the spider up the doorframes!) He wants to know both their vocal progress and also how they self-evaluate. He assigns his ensemble to play the YouTube video of David playing the accompaniment for mm. 21-29 of Laura Farnell's "She Walks in Beauty" and at the same time, take a QuickTime movie of themselves singing along. Then, they are to go back, play the student recorded video, and at the same time, take a QuickTime audio recording of their comments and observations during the 8 measure passage. It seems like a lot of jumping between apps, but once they walk through it in rehearsal, the boys have no problem. In fact, they have some fun over the weekend recording the bass part and then singing the tenor part over it!

Valerie is a grade school music teacher who wants to let her fourth grade students continue progressing on their recorders even though she will be at a conference for two days. She asks them to practice in class, and then has the sub allow two to go into the hall at a time - one to perform an assigned song and one to record the performing student using Quick Voice Recorder. Then they switch performer and recorder, and once they are both done, they e-mail the file to their teacher to review.

TeachRock Resource

Sorting through the websites, lesson plans, curricula (for free or for purchase) is daunting and overwhelming. So let me help my fellow music teachers out a bit!

In 7th grade music, we take the quarter to study popular music in America, starting with Jazz, working our way through Rock, and ending talking about Hip Hop and sampling.  Its a really logical progression, but finding a quality curriculum is difficult and writing one is time-consuming.

Enter TeachRock!

I discovered this website in the final weeks of summer vacation and it really gave me a boost of excitement going into the new school year. The development, growth, and fragmentation of Rock music is presented chronologically with loads of primary sources (interviews, rock concert footage, music reviews from the 1950's, etc...). Each lesson includes:

• Objectives
• Motivational (Warm-Up) Activity
• Procedure
• Summary Activity
• Homework/Assessment
• Writing Prompts
• Extension Activities

There is way too much information to use in just one class period (at least with my 7th grade students), but that's the beauty of it. Because there is such a wealth of information and lesson ideas, its easy to create a lesson that encourages students to really examine the different styles of rock, their roots, and the effect of musicians and albums on the wider world of pop music.

PROS

• Quality primary sources
• Multiple levels of thinking (critical thinking, recall, reflection)
• Clearly stated objectives
• Adaptable to many levels, interests, time constraints

CONS

• The music footage is mostly partial, not full performances (but this is easily remedied by finding the same footage or similar footage on YouTube)
• It is not all school appropriate (but it is Rock music, after all...) so you will need to take the time to look at each resource and video.

Want an example of the materials?

Here you go!

Over the last three days, my 7th graders have been looking at Punk Rock as a reaction against what was going on in the music world and the world around them (cultural context). To see how I adapted the materials for my students, take a look at the original materials on teachrock.org, and now take a look at what I distributed to my students:

Punk Rock Document Set
Punk Rock Listening Guide
Punk Rock Discussion Questions
Group Paragraph

They're still working on their group paragraphs, so I'll have to update that at a later date.

But how great is it that my students are talking about the economic crisis in England during the 1970's and The Clash's emergence as a force of Punk Rock... and its all from their own critical thinking and analysis!

Keep it Clean

I love playing music in my classroom while students work, and they love to talk about the music they hear. I've worked to create a classroom Pandora station that plays quality music from a wide variety of genres, but there's that nagging fear in the back of my mind that something inappropriate will sneak through. I did a little digging and found a way to filter explicit music to keep it out of my classroom station. Of course, this doesn't mean it will all be appropriate for 11-13 year old students, but its a really good way to start!

Here's a link from Pandora to explain how to do this: http://goo.gl/9KmdK

What music do you feature or play in your classroom?