Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Why is it important for students to gain concepts about music?
The basic definition of a concept is creating a general definition of an image through abstract percepts. Concepts are formed when people learn similarities and differences between objects and ideas and are able to place them in categories. The textbook gives 3 reasons why it is vital for students to understand concepts as they relate to music; the first reason being that ‘concepts facilitate thinking.’ Someone who has no concept of rhythm or melody will not understand or appreciate rhythm or melody. The second reason is because ‘concepts can be applied to many different types of music.’ The concepts of melody or rhythm can be used when studying music from all Western genres from Classical, to Baroque, to Contemporary as well as music from other parts of the world. The third reason the book points out is because ‘concepts – the “big ideas” – about a subject are more likely to be remembered than specific facts.’ It is easier for music students to remember broad ideas about a piece of music or a composer than, say, key signatures of certain pieces or exact dates.

What does the word valid mean in terms of curriculum content? What does the word relevant mean in terms of curriculum content?
Validity means the curriculum content must be a legitimate part of music education. Throughout a student’s musical career, wherever that may begin, everything should be valid and have a point and should be related to music. As students move through their career, the new information they learn should build on what they already know.
Relevancy has to do with connecting what is being taught to the students. One way to do this might be to teach about how music is used in movies, and then play a popular movie soundtrack for band, since most teenagers can relate to movies easily. Students will more likely remain involved in a music program if it has some sort of affect on them outside of the music classroom.

Project
1. Are the content standards the same for each of the three levels?
Yes. The nine content standards are the same in all three levels
2. If they are the same, how do the achievement standards differ among the three levels?
The achievement standards get increasingly more difficult for the older age groups. The music they learn will grow in length and complexity as students age. For instance, the first standard says that students will be able to sing alone and with a group. In the first level, all the students sing the same part, in the second level there are two or 3 parts, and in the fourth level there are 4 parts.
3 & 4. Think of several ways in which Standard 3 (improvisation) and Standard 8 (understanding relationships) could be achieved in secondary school orchestra, band, or choral ensemble.
For Standard 3, it would be important to teach students how a standard chord progression works, since it occurs in nearly all jazz charts. Students should also be able to memorize a few blues scales and use them when improvising a melody. In choral ensembles, students should learn how to ‘scat’ sing, since that is the basic form of choral improvisation.
Since music has a little bit of every other core school subject area involved, addressing Standard 8 doesn’t seem to be too difficult. In my high school band room there was a poster on the bulletin board that had the heading “Why Teach Music?” The poster went on to answer the question by stating that music is science, math, language, history, and above all, music is art. In teaching students music, I would try to incorporate the history behind the music, so they could understand what was going on in the world while the music was written. Also, through learning the different musical terms, students are grasping the tendencies of different languages.