This paper was written for a presentation to ESTA (European String Teachers Association on November

Transcription

1 Sound before Symbol This paper was written for a presentation to ESTA (European String Teachers Association on November I hope to illustrate the advantages of teaching the sound before the symbol, compare the approach to the teaching of a language; look at the best tools to do this (The Kodaly method) and show how we can apply this in practice. Before I do this I would like to pose a few questions which to string players may seem irrelevant but are important to consider in the broader world of music teaching - this impacts on all of those teaching instruments to children. Why is it that the only people who can boast the ability to read music are people who have learned an instrument? are 45 % of music teachers not readers? are there music degrees where recognition of the formal western symbols of notation is not required or even studied? were my nephew and his friends taking GCSE music told by their teachers that they don t need to be able to read notation despite their wish to be able to do so? I think that the answer to these questions is that many teachers struggle to connect playing, listening and reading in a way that is helpful from the beginning and so somehow it has become acceptable for many musicians not to read music. It is also true that many professional musicians cannot read notation - it doesn t mean that they are happy with that. Notation for all The approach that a string player takes in dealing with notation will transform their pupil s enjoyment and skill levels and finding a way to go about this is why most of you are here. We know that if you focus on reading too much then pupils become rigid and dependent and also that it can have a detrimental effect on posture and tension. If we do not deal with reading and allow pupils to play entirely by ear there will be whole areas of music participation that they cannot join in with and they will never become truly independent learners. It has also become the norm that learning to read notation is almost always kept for those learning an instrument. DaCapo has a campaign for teaching music in schools that will enable children to read notation as a part of the music curriculum even if they are not learning to play an instrument. If this campaign takes off and children start to learn how to read music in schools then the string teacher s job will be very different! Language learning The method of experiencing the sound before introducing the symbol is standard educational practice for language learning. We should all grasp this enthusiastically as it transforms not only our teaching but also our pupils

2 experience and relationship with music and helps them to become independent learners. I think that there is often a fear of tackling the sound before the symbol as music teachers do not necessarily realise that it is possible to work with notation separately but also alongside the teaching of the instrument and that this benefits the playing as much as the understanding of notation. Inner Hearing Teachers are usually faced with the task of teaching notation and the technical requirements of the instrument at the same time. But we should not fall into the trap of thinking that the symbols on the page are the music itself. starting point for learning music or how to play an instrument. Reading and playing are two different skills and the way to link them is through the ear! We do not need notation in order to play an instrument; eventually we want our pupils to have all three skills (reading, listening and playing) the trick is learning how to plot this and ensure that it happens. In order to make sense of musical notation you need to have the sound inside your head and in order to have sounds inside your head, you need to make music in one way or another. Early Years Ideally this should be done in the early years with a music programme for toddlers and pre-school children that teaches musical symbols at the appropriate age and stage of learning. Children start to learn a language by hearing it spoken long before they begin to learn to speak it themselves. Once they start to talk they explore the sounds and then they begin to use language in small chunks and then in sentences. Adults constantly give examples and we share the use of speech, gently correcting by example and encouragement. Each day we return to the same basic words and children gradually become competent in expressing themselves. Once they have a feel for the language we start to look at the symbols. Again this is a shared activity, usually with the adult reading and the child looking on. Later we start writing and independent reading- one word at a time. We break down the component parts of the language, learning them separately, exploring them and meeting them in different contexts. The individual letters of the alphabet are learned and then different sound combinations are formed and whole words created. There is a mixture of reading (and deciphering) and writing (inventing, exploring and creating), stories are read, listened to and written. Model This is an excellent model for introducing music notation to children. Firstly we need to explore the sounds with the children: we sing and play, they copy us, we play similar things, and they explore more. We sing songs that they will eventually play on their instrument and we build a sound world in their heads. We use a vocabulary to sing with (relative solfa and rhythmic solfa) and we

3 use it in many contexts. Gradually, when sounds are familiar and children are secure in expressing themselves we introduce the symbols. This is a mixture of reading (and deciphering) and writing (inventing, exploring and creating) music is read, played, listened to and written. DaCapo s Kodaly This way of working is DaCapo s application of the Kodaly method. It gives us the tools to teach reading and writing - building sound and music inside our heads. Kodaly gives us specifically pitch and rhythm names and from there we develop a sophisticated understanding of music and music notation. Used consistently and continuously through to an advanced level it gives a structure of learning - it is not just a tool for beginners to be abandoned when pupils have grasped the basics of reading and applying notation to the instrument. Alongside this introduction to symbols we are teaching the instrument. We keep singing and playing and our pupils are able to watch and listen to themselves and us closely because they are not constantly looking at the page. They see how we move and copy that and they hear how we sound and copy that. They have sounds in their heads and use the relative solfa to identify what they hear with what they play - they can self correct. Without music in front of them, they are free to explore other areas of their instrument and indeed make up their own music from the sounds that they want to hear rather than from the notes that they know how to read. Traditional teaching In a traditional setting, where teachers are using printed music to teach the instrument, we find that the beginners material and probably the first music being read by a pupil, is dictated by the constraints of the instrument. There is often no evidence of introducing symbols in a logical musical order and it is not the musical aspects but the instrumental aspects that dictate what is being introduced to new readers i.e. what is easiest to be played on the instrument is the first thing that a pupil reads. This way of learning also means that the pupil who learns the clarinet and then decides to try the cello has a very specific set of skills in place and needs to start almost from scratch because of the illogical introduction to music, musical ideas and symbols. At DaCapo we use the same initial tutor books for all beginner pupils, making it easy for them to change their minds about which instrument to play in the early stages. Rock, Pop, Folk Teaching sound before symbol is commonplace in the rock, pop and folk world (as well as in some classical training environments) and produces some impressive musicians with a well developed aural sense. The downside of this as a teaching approach is that by the time written music is placed in front of

4 the child or young person the auditory sense is so far advanced that the visual sense cannot connect easily. I have seen this many times and it often leaves teenage learners quite frustrated and demoralised. In both of these instances (teaching music in parallel with the instrument or instrument first) the instrumental learning is done one piece at a time. When the music is read it is presented as a whole piece with no breaking down of elements usually without the pedagogical considerations. Repertoire is not usually selected by the teacher for the musical content but by technical ability/application. This is also evident when we compare repertoire for graded exams and cross-reference with other instruments. Applied Kodaly Kodaly, as applied by DaCapo, separates the learning of notation from instrumental technique. Playing the instrument without notation allows us to focus on a technical problem. It is also a joy to be able to read notation without an instrument and this is arguably a more useful skill in the long term. For me, the most important step in the whole process of reading notation, whether in an instrumental lesson or in the classroom, is the internalising of the sound and the connection between that internalisation and the stave. The only way that I know how to achieve this is through the use of the Kodaly method. I believe that it is the most secure and proven tool we have and enables us as teachers to ensure that the sound precedes the symbols but also the most important thing - the symbol represents the sound. It is an extremely flexible tool; it also provides the logical and progressive steps for learning and puts the teacher in control of the pupil s learning. Pupils are empowered and become independent very early on. All of my young cello pupils sing their music before they play it - they also sing in solfa to compose. A most recent composition being from a 7 year old entitled A Tiger and its Prey - a short 2- part cello piece with harmonies deliberately dissonant to match the title of the music.

5 All children learning in schools with DaCapo are able to read from notation by Year 6 if they have had the experience of the approach from the beginning of their primary education. Kodaly is not just a series of solfa syllables and rhythm names; it is a complete pedagogical approach and involves understanding how children learn as well as how to apply the relative solfa. ORDER OF LEARNING Let s look more closely at the practicalities of 1:1 teaching with regard to the subject of sound before symbol. In order to fully understand something, you need to: 1) do it 2) be able to recognise it and identify it 3) learn the symbol for it 4) meet and it in a different context Let s take a simple song: Dinner Time First we need to experience the music and sing the song The complexities of the music - rhythm, pulse and pitch are all mixed and by singing the song we are able to get to know the sound pattern

6 The words help us with the rhythms and if we sing it enough times we begin to inner hear the music. We allow for repetition without boredom by singing, singing louder, humming, singing inside our head etc. We can then break down the elements of the song rhythmically: Naming the note values with ta and titi etc. will help when we come across these patterns next time. Gradually the children become less dependent on the song s words and will have the rhythm names in place to help them in a new context. Pitch The pitches can also be named and are sung in solfa

7 Stick Notation The difference between giving the solfa names as opposed to letter names is that we are spelling intervals in a very subtle way and once we know the sound of so mi we can apply it to any minor third pattern on the instrument. We can choose without having to know every letter name for every minor third that exists! Some people will argue that numbers work in the same wayhowever solfa can also be chromatically altered which numbers can t. Another value of solfa is that when you have a group of children singing in solfa, the tuning improves as if by magic. To help us to retain the solfa we use hand signs that show the pitches - this is a first step into musical literacy and the obvious connection of relative distance between notes is easy to see. so mi re do Becomes:

8 Let s look at what we have done we introduced pupils to the sound - we did it we identified the Kodaly rhythmic syllables and relative solfa and connected the names which we used with the symbols on the stave we would then repeat the process with another song with the same elements to consolidate the learning. As an instrumentalist we would now play the tune on our instruments. Because we have sung the song the pitches will stand more chance of being in tune or corrected quickly and independently by the pupil; the rhythms will be natural and not stiff because the pupil has understood the rhythm from a musical perspective and not a mathematical one. We can then use the knowledge of the music to expand our knowledge of the instrument - we can transpose it into keys that may be unfriendly to read or in positions on the instrument (such as thumb position on the cello) without the need to read treble clef. Summing Up I hope that you can see the importance of separating the teaching of the instrument from that of notation reading and that if the sound precedes the symbol, that the pupil has more chance of playing well - not only in time and in tune but with meaningful expression too. The comparison with learning a language should be a useful one and the practice of exploring sounds and connecting symbols to what we already know is directly applicable to music teachers. Gradually and in a logical and planned order all of the various symbols are introduced and because we already have the sound and concepts in our minds the symbol truly represents the sounds. We are able to create pupils who connect sounds with symbols and also make them freer as instrumentalists - able to look up from their music! Kodaly believed that the important aspects were a well trained ear, eye hand and heart. I would say (and possibly with less eloquence) that children who have learned to connect their ears and fingers, and also their ears and eyes, make very competent musicians! Jane Cutler 11/11 The DaCapo Music Foundation Edited by Michelle Groves Illustrations from The First DaCapo SongBook and