Arts Portfolio: Research Into Practice

Part 1: Music Education with Dianne Edwards

Kimberly Auger
JI252

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Lived Experience and Inquiry Questions

Growing up, I recall music being a wonderful part of my life. My father would play
guitar and we would sing. My sister and I would create dances to all of our favourite songs.
Overall music held a very special place in my life. I even recall attempting to write songs. That
said music took a turn for the worst for me when I started school. It was no longer about
enjoying, playing and appreciating, but became about performing and instruction. I have never
been good at following meticulous instruction, I much prefer to dive in on my own and fiddle
around. My piano teacher would agree. As she informed my parents that music classes were a
waste since all I did was play by ear and tell her stories.
Music class in school was much the same. We were to practice reading, writing and
playing the same note over and over again. I recall my music teaching constantly complaining
about headaches and how loud and annoying the class was. Needless to say, music was not my
favourite subject. To this day, I have trouble mustering up much enthusiasm for traditional music
learning. That said I very much enjoy listening to and participating in authentic music making. I
suppose that is truly where my inquiry questions lie when it comes to musical education: how do
I make it authentic for my students? How do I teach them music without reducing it to repetitive,
monotonous practice? What does authentic musical education look like in a Junior Intermediate
classroom?
Critical Analysis: Chapter 1
I have chosen to discuss Chapter 1 because the quote, Music is humanly organized
sound Jack Blacking (1973) struck me as a perfect summary of my inquiry questions. Music is

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about humans and communication. When I position myself in such a way as to interpret music as
a form of interaction and communication, it makes more sense to me as a teacher and a student.
I find it absolutely fascinating that music and language skills are so deeply
interconnected. Especially since language has had such a huge impact on my life. I love reading,
writing and speaking and have always been interested in learning new languages. Music, in its
way is very much a language that sadly I did not connect with at a younger age. By bringing
music into my classroom as a component of language and auditory learning, I can see myself
being able to create more authentic and engaging assignments for my students.
In particular, with the discussion of musical semantics, I tend to think of scores in movies
and television shows. I can see creating an assignment where students are asked to create a new
score for a specific scene that follows the rules of another cultures musicality. This could open up
some interesting discussions not only surrounding musical culture, but culture in general and the
creation of culture. Of course this type of assignment would take a lot of scaffolding towards
understanding musical structure, elements of music, musical multiculturalism and music in film.
Perhaps it could be a culminating task
Critical Analysis: Chapter 8
It was through my past experience that I was able to really connect with the Chapter 8
reading: Moving with Music. I, as a child, loved to interpret music through movement and dance;
this is known as locomotor movement. I truly connect with activities that make music
exploratory and engaging which is why I especially appreciated the Exploratory Activities listed
at the end of the chapter. Through my teaching of young children, it was easy for me to visualize
using body movement to teach music. What I struggled with was bringing this type of physicality

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into an Intermediate classroom where students are more awkward in their bodies and hesitant to
participate in activities that may make them appear silly. The chapter discusses certain
techniques such as closing their eyes and using tools such as string to help students become more
comfortable with moving to music.
It is interesting to note that the aspects of moving to music that make me, as a teacher,
most hesitant to engage in it with older grades, are also the aspects that may help them to become
more comfortable with their bodies and surroundings. Perhaps using moving with music can help
students transition more comfortably into their changing bodies. To me that makes music more
authentic and engaging because it is no longer about repetition and memorization, but about
understanding space, body, time and energy. This type of big idea learning is essential for
engaging older students and creating an authentic learning environment. I can see many of the
activities such as passing the bean bag to the beat, moving through hoola hoops to discuss space
and using eurhythmics as ways of engaging students in cross-curricular musical activities with
daily physical activity, health, math etc.
Research and Resources
Jackie Wiggins discusses authentic music education through a constructivist lens. She
argues that authentic music education is not about breaking down music into small digestible
components or musical elements, but absorbing the music as a whole and allowing for open
interpretation. This approach both gives me hope for teaching music and also discourages me
greatly from teaching music. While the constructivist approach offers a truly rich and meaningful
experience where the student is able to create, listen and perform music, it is overwhelming for a
teacher like me, with little musical background. Wiggins acknowledges that in order to teach in

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this way, the teacher themselves must be able to not only recognize the variances in music, but
be able to help the students interpret music. This approach in my area of expertise would thrill
me, and I would immediately set about creating authentic listening and creative tasks for my
students, but in an area where I have little to no prior experience it is frustrating. I feel that my
students would not be getting the most out of their musical experience and the cycle of
disappointing elementary music education would continue.
Frank Abrahams summarizes perfectly my feelings towards music education by stating,
Its hard to find anyone who doesnt like music, but its easy to find children who do not like
music in school (98). Abrahams is inspirational because he talk about truly authenticating music
for the modern student. He discusses the importance of building musicianship meaning engaging
with music rather than about music. For me, this means giving students the opportunity to create,
to feel inspired and to interact with not only typical music class pieces, but modern music. He
describes teaching music by engaging students imaginations, intellect, creativity and
performance. That all said, the part of the article that resonated most deeply was Abrahams
discussion of music as a form of conversation. Music can be empowering, political,
transformative and can broaden a students view of the world. These concepts have helped me to
begin to answer how to authentically teach music in a junior intermediate classroom.
Teaching Towards Musical Understanding, by Montgomery will be an excellent
resource for my classroom. Not only does it provide many musical activities, a lot of the listed
activities are also able to be applied in cross-curricular contexts. I can pull a lot of the activities
and add inquiry questions to make the activities more authentic.

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The website www.artsalive.ca has some excellent resources, including a section where
you can drag notes onto a staff to create your own music. This would be a great resource to not
only bring music, but technology into the classroom. While it may not in itself be extremely
authentic for a student, it can be used to help create authenticity. For example, the students could
choose between one of the great composers and re-interpret a section of their work to better
reflect modern day. Artsalive also has an archive with recordings from the National Arts Centre
Orchestra.
Another resource that I hope to be able to draw on is commercials, television shows and
movies. These types of media are truly authentic in students lives today. The discussion of
media coincides with musical education. Students can interpret music first on its own and then
with an accompanying image to see the impact that music can have in the media. One website
that can be used is http://www.filmclub.org/ and of course youtube.com.
Reflection and Observation
Unfortunately I have not had the experience of witnessing music taught explicitly in the
classroom. The closest I have come to seeing music incorporated authentically was in a Media
Literacy class. The teacher showed students clips from different movies. He had them first listen
to the music, then watch the clip without music, then watch the clip with music. He asked the
students to discuss how the music affected their perceptions of the film. To me this was an
excellent lesson and could have just as easily become a music assignment as a media literacy
one.
In my own experience I have made more effort to incorporate music into my teaching.
For example, not only do I have students use little songs and youtube videos to help them

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remember new concepts, but I also have them create their own. While this is not explicitly
teaching music, it does allow for some cross-curricular activity. I have also been making an effort
to have my French students listen to authentically modern French music such as Mika.

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References
Abrahams, F. (2015). Another perspective. Music Educators Journal, 102(1), 97-100.
doi:10.1177/0027432115590860
ArtsAlive.ca. Music National Arts Centre http://www.artsalive.ca/en/mus/ (accessed
November 25, 2015).
Into Films. Film Clubs http://www.filmclub.org/ (accessed November 25, 2015).
Montgomery, A. (2002). Teaching Towards Musical Understanding.
Montgomery, A. (2002). Teaching Towards Musical Understanding. Chapter 1: Introduction.
Montgomery, A. (2002). Teaching Towards Musical Understanding. Chapter 8: Moving with
Music.
Wiggins, J. (2007). Authentic practice and process in music teacher education. Music Educators
Journal, 93(3), 36-42. doi:10.1177/002743210709300318