The many facets of music and connections to the arts. . .

Klavierstucke – Karlheinz Stockhausen

Who created it?
Karlheinz Stockhausen

When are where was it created?
begun late in 1953 or at the end of January 1954

Why and for whom was it created?
Six of his klavierstucke pieces were originally to have been dedicated to David Tudor

What is its subject?
Atonal music is frequently written without a subject, only based on creating newer sound.

What is being expressed?
Nothing. There is no theme. It’s mathematically produced.

What techniques did its creator use to help us understand what is being expressed?
He frequently gave lectures in colleges internationally and talked about the mathematical process by which he composed his music.

What kind of form or structure does it have?
Post-tonal

What does it sound or look like?
lots of very random notes on the piano. The performer seems to be randomly banging on the keys.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klavierstücke_(Stockhausen)
http://www.smith.edu/news/collaborations-in-sound-and-space-artist-mary-bauermeister-headlines-artsfest-at-smith/

Make Weird Music

I’d like to take a minute to share a webpage moderated by a friend of mine, Anthony Garone. I’ve rarely seen someone shred the guitar like him, and I’m aware that he’s had some amazing opportunities to work with some of the greatest guitarists this world has to offer. He moderates a site called “Make Weird Music,” and he discusses how it has become increasingly difficult to make a living creating music that is more innovative and experimental, while popular music is becoming more and more similar to itself (I’ve blogged about this before). Give his stuff a listen, buy some of his songs on iTunes, and like his page if you get a minute. I don’t blame him at all for never returning my emails about joining my band, and playing my songs which are not nearly weird enough for him, I suppose. Keep it up, Anthony. I fully support you.

http://makeweirdmusic.com
https://www.facebook.com/MakeWeirdMusic?_rdr

His personal site is here (which has a lot of his original music on it) –
http://blog.garone.org

“Responding” to music through listening and analysis

Here’s a project for adolescents that involves actively listening, then engaging in the listening activity and preparing to fully participate in the music –

1) Musical Problem: Attentive Listening

What did you think of this piece of music?
Were you surprised to find out that she was using sheet music?
What kinds of emotions were you feeling when you listened?
How did the pianist create more emotion through playing the notes?
Could you hear the music getting louder and softer?

Let’s as a class determine when the music gets louder and softer. Raise your hand when you hear the music is getting louder, and put it down when you hear it get quieter again.

2) Musical Problem: Engaged Listening

Is she playing a major or minor scale?
What scale do you think she’s using?
How many notes in the chromatic scale do you think she is using?

Let’s try to make a simple song using all the notes in a chromatic scale.

3) Musical Problem: Enactive Listening

If this was a soundtrack, what do you imagine happening during this music?
Describe a short scene from a movie that might use this music as a soundtrack.
Choose one word that describes a feeling that this song makes you feel.
What is the opposite of that feeling?
Compose a song that will make others feel the opposite feeling.

Articulate 3 things you would like to know or learn more about in relation to teaching and designing hybrid music classes.

– Where can we, as new teachers become trained on newer technology (protools, ableton, etc.) so that we can implement them in our classroom?
– Where can we keep up with new ideas and concepts? What blogs do YOU follow? What journals do you suggest?
– What method of persuasion should we use to present to a principal (or other school administrative official) the importance of having a project based music class?

Cage does Cage

So if you haven’t heard of John Cage, he was an American composer, who had revolutionary philosophical concepts for how we look at music. He wrote an entire composition where the musicians just sit there and don’t play called 4’33” (named after the length of the song). Here’s an orchestra performing the piece live –

So then someone goes and does this, and it’s hilarious –

Linking the two has to be one of the funniest moments in musical comedy that I’ve ever come across. Enjoy.

Learning music through sociocultural constructive processes

It is the duty of the teacher to design a classroom environment where the students can feel comfortable in seeking for understanding from both the teachers as well as their peers. Wiggins shares that students begin to take on roles that are normally teacher responsibilities when sometimes they wouldn’t feel adequate addressing their concerns in front of the class. I believe this might make the information stick a little better.

If I was to design a project around Der Erlkönig, for example, which utilized the concepts taught in Chapter 4 of Teaching for Musical Understanding (entitled Learning music through socioculture), I would begin by letting them listen to the song entirely. There are many elements of the music that I could focus on, but I particularly enjoy the frequent change from major to parallel minor. I would ask the children to tell me when they thought that the music was changing from a nice sound to a darker, more frightened sound. I wouldn’t tell them what was going on in the story, or what the German words meant, in fact, not telling them may even contribute to their ability to focus on the texture of the music alone. We could record the time stamps and see if we could figure out where the music changes to the minor key. I would then play for them other songs that are very familiar to them that are in both major, and then minor key.

Notes and Quotes from Wiggins Chapter 4 –
Primary role of a teacher is to provide scaffolding for learners, enabling them to operate within their zones of proximal development, resulting in their achieving a higher level of understanding and competence in music, gaining musical independence.

Ask questions, open ended ones, NOT yes or no.
It is important to allow students time to think and function on their own.
The teacher uses the student’s way of describing the music.
Students will likely begin to take on responsibilities normally held by the teacher – modeling, correcting errors, praising, assessing need for help, and providing scaffolding where they deem necessary.

Seeing the musical forest before focusing on the musical leaves

In the last post I made, I discussed how classrooms should begin to use more of a hybrid technique to teaching music. The kids in the video engage with many musical concepts discussed in Perceptions, Patterns and Processes (pg. 89-91)? By working on projects that include vocals, they’re experimenting and creating music with various dynamics, melodies, rhythms, and tone colors.

If I wanted to make the connections between the musical engagement and musical concepts explicit to the people if this took place in my hybrid classroom, I would simply ask the students. How do YOU think that we are learning about these thing? OR How well do you think you’ve covered these topics so far? What topics are you not considering that might help make your music better or more interesting? How can I help you learn more about different vocal timbres, for example? How can we increase the amount of harmony you’re using in the production of your song?

• What are your perspectives on Dr. Lee’s work with us on Tuesday?

On Tuesday we had a great class with a professor from Ireland. He didn’t talk about rhythm, he didn’t mention any quarter, sixteenth notes or break down any musical concepts. He just said for us to feel the beat, and started building with one beat on top of another, while spreading out the musical responsibilities. After one hour, we were able to go into the main part of campus and actually impress several students with what we were able to accomplish in such a short amount of time. Some random students joined in.

• How might his practice and approaches he discussed relate to our class and new types of music courses?

Perhaps the traditional methods we have been following are not the best way to help students “latch on” to music education. Perhaps the best way is to find a fun way of doing it by a quicker method. After a few minutes, we were already contributing to the group and creating a musical engagement, without having studied the exact mouth positions of a selected instrument we were slowing latching ourselves to for life.

• In what ways were you engaging with the musical concepts discussed on pages 5-7 as you engaged with Samba Reggae music?

One thing that we don’t typically introduce into music making is dance. As we learned the new beat, Dr. Lee told us to move our bodies, to feel the beat. He motioned for us to move in a certain direction, and we followed, without being asked. He SHOWED us, and INVITED us to do it, and we did it, without being told to do anything.

• How might you help students make connections between similar types of engagement as what we did on Tuesday and musical concepts in your own hybrid classroom?

Try to teach a class without using words; instead by showing them, or encouraging them to join in. It would be a significantly different approach from the traditional approach of trying to develop virtuosos in the ensemble. Perhaps it would have a significantly different result.

Turning Points: Characteristics of the Young Adolescent Learner

Technology changes SO fast. If we, as teachers, aren’t as fluent as our students on the technology that they’re using, two things will happen: first, they will think that we’re behind the times, and their respect for our competence level will diminish quickly. Second, we will miss opportunities for making the learning process more enjoyable and even possibly decrease our efficiency as teachers if we are not aware of possibilities that lie in technology usage. I’ve just finished watching a video that details a student’s life (who is 13 years old), and highlights all the technologies that she is using on a daily basis (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptdF2hY0oTA). She mentions that she was bored by reading a book, but is starting to become an accomplished piano player by watching videos with piano roll on it, instead of learning to read music.

Here are some questions we will discuss in class.

• Based on the reading and video, what aspects of secondary students’ lives are important to consider when deciding what and how to teach?

Quite clearly this question is addressing the technology that each student is familiar with, which should be considered when making assignments. A lesson being taught to students in Africa would not be (and should not be) anywhere near the same as a lesson taught in the United States, especially in a community where computers are very present.

• How might these characteristics of adolescents play a specific role in teaching contemporary musicians in secondary schools or other contexts?

Many computer programs, apps, etc. can be utilized to make learning music much more interesting and fun for students. Instead of fighting back, and making children do it “the way we did it,” we should look for ways to tailor our students’ learning environment to the contemporary situation. In the video previously mentioned, Sam uses a video from  “Virtual Piano” to learn to play a song, yet mentions that she is bored by reading a book. If this is how she learns, maybe standard musical notation is not the best way to get students started on learning the piano. This is just an example, but should be considered. In the army, I was occasionally presented with video games used for training to actually train Soldiers to do squad movement techniques and cover fields of fire. This kept the Soldiers actively interested, while still teaching the techniques.

• What types of questions might you ask students in your secondary internship placements?

To the teacher – What digital means are you using to accomplish music instruction? How do you keep the students interested, while still accomplishing your teaching goals?

To the students – Have you ever came across new ways to learn the material being taught? Is there a way to make it more interesting for you? Is there any devices that the school could procure that would ease the learning process? What forms of technology do you feel that teachers are not up to date with?

Here’s some great references to using technology to teach kids –

O Salutaris Hostia

I love this song, and I think that the U of U Singers do a tremendous job of performing it. Their two soloists are near perfect. I love the tone in their voices. Anyways, here it is to enjoy,

Here’s some background information on the song –

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O_Salutaris_Hostia