Now think about the way you learn a song from your favorite artist.
One of these ways I'm assuming you have no idea what the song is until after a couple times of learning notes, rhythm, lyrics, and such. The other way you don't even contemplate learning the song, you just want to sing along. I hear from a lot of people that it's bad practice to learn a song by ear, that it's not really learning the song, but I learn a song faster, and more accurately that way. It's also easier to memorize. In my case its a much more efficient way to learn a song than by plucking out notes on a piano and pretending I can sight read worth a penny. Would it be blasphemous to teach by ear in a classroom? Forget the sheet music and just play the song over and over, downloading it to the student's ipods or computers and let them take it home to learn it? For one song we had to learn in high school the choir teacher did just that. He had 4 different CDs for each voice part that included the orchestra and other parts and had the part that was listening be the most prominent so not only could we learn the notes by ear, but also put it in context with the whole piece. It worked really well and I'm pretty sure an audience wouldn't be able to tell how we learned the song. Also if it is faster then it also can give teachers time to teach more about what we're singing than teaching how to sing it.
1 comment:
if you want that type of classroom why don't your just throw out the music and give them sheets with words and cute pictures?
music isn't always supposed to be written...i think we've seen enough examples of that this semester, i.e. the drumming sessions, talks about authenticity, etc...however, it's a really good way to get a point across. On top of that, it also enables a choir to add another tool to the cart: sight reading! for my volunteer choirs, I don't call it sight reading...I call it follow the bouncing note. If it skips, your voice should skip. If it steps, your voice should step. By middle school, a student should have basic concepts of rhythm accomplished, i.e. whole notes, half notes, quarter notes and eighth notes; so that when you visit these items on your page, it becomes much easier each time you do it. supposedly.
While learning by rote is obviously more efficient, what are we about in the music world? efficiency or quality? I'm having this same battle in my sacred music class actually. The inner battle i'm having is who should I cater to: the volunteers who possess talent but not the time or the volunteers without the talent that have the time? It's virtually impossible to do both. My rehearsals are extremely efficient, but the quality is still there. Why, Dani?
Why do you ask? I make a cd with their parts on it to practice on their own. It's not in my job description, it's not part of the learning system. It's simply reinforcing the material that we've studied each week. If a process like this is handled carefully, there's no reason it can't be done well. On top of it, each person inherits a voice that should be heard. we shouldn't have to worry about catering to those who have talent vs. those who do. As teachers we should just step it up a notch, be more considerate and fight for the right to party after a successful concert.
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