by David E. Knauss
In teaching undergraduate music education method’s classes, there are many college music majors and music teachers who cannot name the music concepts, nor explain how they sequentially evolve one into the other. That is something like a carpenter not knowing the different tools and materials with which one can build a house. Many also do not know the “ing” activities that one may use to “do” music. That is something like our carpenter not knowing how to work with any of the tools and materials.
Let’s do some vo-tech training in the realm of music education so music teachers can know their craft very well. Having the following understandings in your music teaching allows you to teach with purpose, understanding, and direction.
Two Gateway Skills. One must master two gateway skills for participating in music. Not a single music activity can be performed that does not automatically involve knowing how to perform these two skills. Indeed, one cannot even fully appreciate music apart from knowing these two skills. But when they are learned, appreciating music comes from the inside out. And in knowing these two skills, a person may be a participator in music for a lifetime at the hobby level, or may take the skills into the realms of music virtuosity. The two gateway skills are singing in tune (tonal) and performing a steady beat (rhythm). Singing in tune is comprised of matching individual pitches to singing easy melodies with maintaining an accurate tonal center. Performing a steady beat is matching the beat pulse of the music with a consistent tempo and accurate meter. One is the foundation of all tonal skills and the other is the foundation of all rhythm skills. When singing in tune and performing a steady beat are learned, lifelong spectators are transformed into lifelong participators.
Music Concepts. Seven music concepts relate to tonal, four music concepts relate to rhythm, a third category may be called miscellaneous, and a fourth category encompasses the first three categories. What does this mean?
Concepts Related to Tonal. The basic unit of all tonal concepts is Pitch. When pitches are played on different frequency levels, we designate these pitches as low, middle, and high. This is called Register. When pitches are played in an ascending or descending row, we have short melodic motifs that indicate Direction (up and down). When these motifs are comprised of steps, leaps, and repeats in a structure, we create Melody. When two or more pitches are performed simultaneously, we create tonal interaction called Harmony. When Harmony indicates a tonal center or when Melody is comprised of a scalar set of notes, we have Modality. Modes placed anywhere on 12 different places in the chromatic scale creates Keyality.
Concepts Related to Rhythm. The basic unit of all rhythm concepts is a Beat. When beats are grouped together, we create Meter. Groups of two are duple meter and groups of three are triple meter. All meters are duple, triple, or combinations thereof. When Meter is created, the first beats in each group may be categorized as Tempo or Macro beats. The beats between them are known as Meter or Micro beats because they indicate duple or triple groupings. Macro beats may be named strong “down” beats, while micro beats are less stressed and may be named “up” beats. When beats are divided in various ways, we have created Rhythm. Rhythm may be comprised of divisions, subdivisions, elongations, rests, dotted rhythms, syncopation, and so on. Various time lengths between the macro or down beats create Tempos. A short time creates fast tempo, while a long time creates slow tempo.
Miscellaneous Music Concepts. Five music concepts may be categorized as miscellaneous. They are Expression, Dynamics, Articulation, Timbre or Tone Color, and Texture. Expression includes cantabile, dolce, con fuoco, mysterioso, energico, grazioso, and grandioso. Dynamics include pianissimo, piano, mezzo piano, mezzo forte, forte, and fortissimo. Articulation includes legato, staccato, portamento, marcato, and pizzicato. Timbre or Tone Color are all the different sounds and families of sounds used globally to create music. Texture includes monody, homophony, paraphony, polyphony, and words like thick and thin.
Music Concepts Fourth Category. The music concepts in the fourth category are Style, Form, and Eras and Composers. Composers are not usually considered a music concept, but since composers are commonly categorized by Eras, the two may be connected if desired. A particular combination or proportion of music concepts that are utilized for a certain length of time within a composition creates Form. A change in any of the music concepts or combination of them creates a new section. Music concepts in often repeated combinations by composers and performers create Style. Style(s) widely accepted and practiced across longer periods of time create Eras.
Active Participation. Music is an aural art. Simply “talking about” music, which is an easy trap many music teachers fall into, never produces any music. Music skills and concepts must be turned into action for music to exist; that is, Active Participation of all sorts of “ing” words. “Making music, in fact, is the very best way of learning about music.” (Richard Baker). “Music does not exist until it is performed.” (Benjamin Britten). Active Participation activities listed following are approximately in the same order as the National Music Standards. The order also approximates the same order as Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy of the Cognitive for the lower levels of discrimination learning and the higher levels of inference learning. Active Participation in music may be described as follows:
1. Listening
2. Singing / Chanting
3. Moving
4. Playing / Performing
5. Improvising / Creating
6. Composing / Arranging
7. Reading / Notating
8. Describing / Evaluating
9. Comparing / Contrasting
Please feel free to contact me at any time, as often as you please, with any mentoring, music teaching, music curriculum, or classroom management questions.
David E. Knauss
Ph.D. in Music Education.
www.classroom-music.info
Dr. Knauss mentors student teachers and regular teachers into teaching excellence. He taught for 3 decades in inner-city public schools, winning over street kids into being like family, became one of the principle curriculum writers for an award-winning, internationally-recognized music department. He retired from public schools, completed a Ph.D. in Music Education, and presently is an adjunct music education professor at Baptist Bible College.
In teaching undergraduate music education method’s classes, there are many college music majors and music teachers who cannot name the music concepts, nor explain how they sequentially evolve one into the other. That is something like a carpenter not knowing the different tools and materials with which one can build a house. Many also do not know the “ing” activities that one may use to “do” music. That is something like our carpenter not knowing how to work with any of the tools and materials.
Let’s do some vo-tech training in the realm of music education so music teachers can know their craft very well. Having the following understandings in your music teaching allows you to teach with purpose, understanding, and direction.
Two Gateway Skills. One must master two gateway skills for participating in music. Not a single music activity can be performed that does not automatically involve knowing how to perform these two skills. Indeed, one cannot even fully appreciate music apart from knowing these two skills. But when they are learned, appreciating music comes from the inside out. And in knowing these two skills, a person may be a participator in music for a lifetime at the hobby level, or may take the skills into the realms of music virtuosity. The two gateway skills are singing in tune (tonal) and performing a steady beat (rhythm). Singing in tune is comprised of matching individual pitches to singing easy melodies with maintaining an accurate tonal center. Performing a steady beat is matching the beat pulse of the music with a consistent tempo and accurate meter. One is the foundation of all tonal skills and the other is the foundation of all rhythm skills. When singing in tune and performing a steady beat are learned, lifelong spectators are transformed into lifelong participators.
Music Concepts. Seven music concepts relate to tonal, four music concepts relate to rhythm, a third category may be called miscellaneous, and a fourth category encompasses the first three categories. What does this mean?
Concepts Related to Tonal. The basic unit of all tonal concepts is Pitch. When pitches are played on different frequency levels, we designate these pitches as low, middle, and high. This is called Register. When pitches are played in an ascending or descending row, we have short melodic motifs that indicate Direction (up and down). When these motifs are comprised of steps, leaps, and repeats in a structure, we create Melody. When two or more pitches are performed simultaneously, we create tonal interaction called Harmony. When Harmony indicates a tonal center or when Melody is comprised of a scalar set of notes, we have Modality. Modes placed anywhere on 12 different places in the chromatic scale creates Keyality.
Concepts Related to Rhythm. The basic unit of all rhythm concepts is a Beat. When beats are grouped together, we create Meter. Groups of two are duple meter and groups of three are triple meter. All meters are duple, triple, or combinations thereof. When Meter is created, the first beats in each group may be categorized as Tempo or Macro beats. The beats between them are known as Meter or Micro beats because they indicate duple or triple groupings. Macro beats may be named strong “down” beats, while micro beats are less stressed and may be named “up” beats. When beats are divided in various ways, we have created Rhythm. Rhythm may be comprised of divisions, subdivisions, elongations, rests, dotted rhythms, syncopation, and so on. Various time lengths between the macro or down beats create Tempos. A short time creates fast tempo, while a long time creates slow tempo.
Miscellaneous Music Concepts. Five music concepts may be categorized as miscellaneous. They are Expression, Dynamics, Articulation, Timbre or Tone Color, and Texture. Expression includes cantabile, dolce, con fuoco, mysterioso, energico, grazioso, and grandioso. Dynamics include pianissimo, piano, mezzo piano, mezzo forte, forte, and fortissimo. Articulation includes legato, staccato, portamento, marcato, and pizzicato. Timbre or Tone Color are all the different sounds and families of sounds used globally to create music. Texture includes monody, homophony, paraphony, polyphony, and words like thick and thin.
Music Concepts Fourth Category. The music concepts in the fourth category are Style, Form, and Eras and Composers. Composers are not usually considered a music concept, but since composers are commonly categorized by Eras, the two may be connected if desired. A particular combination or proportion of music concepts that are utilized for a certain length of time within a composition creates Form. A change in any of the music concepts or combination of them creates a new section. Music concepts in often repeated combinations by composers and performers create Style. Style(s) widely accepted and practiced across longer periods of time create Eras.
Active Participation. Music is an aural art. Simply “talking about” music, which is an easy trap many music teachers fall into, never produces any music. Music skills and concepts must be turned into action for music to exist; that is, Active Participation of all sorts of “ing” words. “Making music, in fact, is the very best way of learning about music.” (Richard Baker). “Music does not exist until it is performed.” (Benjamin Britten). Active Participation activities listed following are approximately in the same order as the National Music Standards. The order also approximates the same order as Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy of the Cognitive for the lower levels of discrimination learning and the higher levels of inference learning. Active Participation in music may be described as follows:
1. Listening
2. Singing / Chanting
3. Moving
4. Playing / Performing
5. Improvising / Creating
6. Composing / Arranging
7. Reading / Notating
8. Describing / Evaluating
9. Comparing / Contrasting
Please feel free to contact me at any time, as often as you please, with any mentoring, music teaching, music curriculum, or classroom management questions.
David E. Knauss
Ph.D. in Music Education.
www.classroom-music.info
Dr. Knauss mentors student teachers and regular teachers into teaching excellence. He taught for 3 decades in inner-city public schools, winning over street kids into being like family, became one of the principle curriculum writers for an award-winning, internationally-recognized music department. He retired from public schools, completed a Ph.D. in Music Education, and presently is an adjunct music education professor at Baptist Bible College.
