Week # 3

This past week I felt that the classes were really based on our own creativity and how we can incorporate that into our own classrooms. Some of the different musical concepts that we learned about were melody, scale, C major, and last but not least Treble Clef. We learned that melody is the combination of various pitches. These pitches can be high, low, or the same. We talked about the C major scale and how it goes from one C to the next and incorporates all the notes in between. C major scale would be CDEFGABC. We learned not only what Treble Clef meant but also how to draw it. Treble Clef represents the notes of the right hand. We also learned some musical skills. For example during the previous week we learned how to add sound to different rythemes. This week we added on to that and learned how to create various movement that still keep the same beat. I believe that the skill we learned was how to differentiate between the students and keep it interesting for them. For example on Friday we learned that one thing the kids could do is to use alternate hands to keep the beat with a partner. For me the best thing we learned was on Friday with the recorder. We took a song and learned how to create our own melody just by being given the notes we could use and the rythem we had to follow.
I believe that this week because we were learning so many different concepts and creating new things a lot of the way it was presented to us was simply that. We discussed and were set off on our own to put it together. One thing that I think was very helpful was being able to see examples of other students work. For instance we learned this week how to add pictures based on the beat of the note to help the kids follow along. It was confusing to some students how to go about this so Dr. Wang gave us an example of past work and showed us that there were many different ways to represent the rythem. I feel though that in a way it was a bit like lecture this week but necessary because not everyone in the class is familiar with music and they simple needed to learn the definitions so that they could go about incorporating that into their work. I think that when we were creating our own melody on the recorder using the notes GAB, a lot of us turned to other people in the circle to both give and get advice from them. We also in a way learned by imitation this week when we were taught the name song. Dr. Wang would sing it for us and then we would sing it back but using our own name.
I feel that it was important to us to learn these concepts and skills because like I have previously said music is really building blocks that add on to the previous concept/ skill. We were allowed to experiment with our own individuality to create the different pieces this past week and I think that was very helpful because it makes us understand how important being your own person is and now we will be able to impart that knowledge into our own students. However, I do feel that some students felt bad when they were judged on their creativity. I think that a lot of what we were trying to do was simply understand what was being taught. Where the Rain song was a lot easier to be creative with our own name rhyme could really have been whatever we chose to draw. I think that also needs to be understood in this class.
I think that all of these concepts are important for children to learn. The main point that we were learning this week was creativity and at this age kids have such a great imagination that it should be and can be brought out in the work that they create. Children can draw their own story for their rhymes and it is really great to see them express themselves. I am not sure however, if creating their own song would be a little bit more challenging for them. At the same time if that was the case then no matter what song they create they should be praised for having the courage to do so. It is important for kids to be taught this kind of creativity because it is something that will be able to help them grow as people for the rest of their school aged years.