Singing Masterclass

Singing is a passion of mine, and a great stress reliever for me personally. I would like to bring that into the classroom with me when I am teaching. However, I have discovered that actually teaching singing is not as easy as many teachers and choir leaders make out.

The multi-tasking required to teach a song is enormous - how do men do it! ;)

As part of my minor studies I took a singing masterclass where I had to teach the rest of the group a simple song. I learnt the song - honestly! I thought I knew it. After all it was only a couple of lines... I didn't know it.

To effectively teach a song it is essential that the teacher knows the song inside out, all the words, melody AND rhythm. Not that hard I hear you say? But if you are to teach it well you need to be looking at your class - not the words or music. Now it's getting harder. Then you need to think of directions you are going to give your music group... and so it goes on.

Yes, I know this will get easier with time but at the moment it is a shock to the system to realise just how complicated an 'easy' task is.

All the reading I have done to support my studies has stressed that music lessons should be delivered using music as the prime language (Ofsted, 2012; Mills, 2009; Shirley, 2014; Kodaly British Academy, 2016), however when you are nervous it is natural to talk your way through things to process them - which leads to teacher confidence; but that is covered on a different blog.

So What?

For the future, I will never underestimate how much planning is needed to teach a music lesson, or to lead a choir. If children are to enjoy music as they should, the educator needs to be prepared and organised. If the teacher does not know their material the children will not receive the full benefit of the lesson / session.

THE BRITISH KODÁLY ACADEMY: The Kodály approach. Available from: http://www.britishkodalyacademy.org/kodaly_approach.htm [Accessed 8 May 2016].MILLS, J., 2009. Music in the primary school. 3rd ed. New York: Music Department, Oxford University Press.

OFSTED, 2012. Music in schools: Wider still, and wider. Available from: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/music-in-schools [Accessed 7 May 2016].

SHIRLEY, I., 2015. Music . In: M. WEBSTER and S. MISRA , eds. Teaching the primary foundation subjects. United Kingdom: Open University Press.

#Music #Minor #TS4