#primarymusic

I undertook a big project this year - I made audio recordings of 17 Christmas Songs, six of those I recorded in both English and Spanish. Not just any Christmas songs but the songs from the Children’s Songbook. I’ve been serving in primary music callings for more than four years now and so I’ve got primary songs on the brain, in my soul and what have you. I noticed that some of the songs were very familiar and a few of them I didn’t even know very well so I thought it would be a great project to learn all of them and record them. I didn’t want to just make piano versions of them though (don’t get me wrong, I love the piano! but it’s all so familiar) I decided to put my spin on them with acoustic arrangements, using classical guitar in my own JGT style.

I worked on it starting at the end of October and I finished them Thanksgiving weekend. They are all posted on my youtube channel, one playlist of 16 songs in English and another playlist of 7 songs in Spanish (Estrella de luz is found only in Spanish). Not only do they have acoustic guitar accompaniments but there are some spots of tasteful percussion, bells, and a few other fitting instruments along with my voice doing overdubbed harmonies in many places. It turned out very well, I really like the vibe and I think that even in all the many Christmas recordings there are in the world there is a place for these. They have a sort of down to earth vibe, maybe almost a neo-folk hipster sound with latin accents and one western leaning cowboy campfire sounding song (Once Within A Lowly Stable). 

So it’s definitely not a polished pop sound but that’s not really ever what I go for, if you’ve heard some of the other projects I’ve done you’ll know I have a more loose and eclectic sound but still they are very respectful and Christ centered of course and I’d love for you to listen to them - start here and if you like them please go to my you tube page and subscribe/like/bookmark or whatever you want to do so you can play them whenever you’re in the mood. Subscribing will also help you find my future videos which I will most definitely be posting of lots of original and well known sacred music.

Thank you and Merry Christmas - He Lives!

This week our learning was centred around the driving question, How can I teach my students about pitch, and why does it matter? 

This week I learnt about the Kodaly Method, which was very new to me. It took me a couple of watches of the video and a few scrolls through the web to understand what this particular musical method is. Here’s what I have understood, and why I think it’s important as a teacher teaching music. 

Zoltan Kodály, a Hungarian composer and philosopher, who lived in the last century, wanted everyone across the globe to read music as easy as they would read words. Kodaly believed that music, if understood, was a very important part of life, and was extremely valuable in the education aspect. The method is very strict on making sure every student has a voice, and practices that voice to build confidence. It means that students are invested in their learning and are in charge of their progression. A Kodaly Method based lesson is inclusive of all children, musically talented or not.

Here are the hand signals that Kodaly uses: 

Image found here. 

To watch the video about the Kodaly Method, click here. Or click here to read more about the Kodaly Method.  

I think I definitely still have a lot to learn about the Kodaly Method, but I believe that it would be a very valuable learning tool in my music classroom one day and I would love to give it a go. My favourite thing about this method is that every child feels included, and their musical abilities are valued and recognised. It’s so easy for students to become discouraged, but I think because this way of teaching challenges students to find their voice and be accountable for their learning, the concern goes away and students can actually just be themselves and grow into capable, responsible and musical humans! 

I loved watching the video of the classroom teacher using the Kodaly Method - it was great to see and to visualise myself doing the same thing. It gives me confidence in teaching music somewhere down the track!

The challenges this week were fun. I got to write a melody and play it on my piano, which hasn’t had much attention lately. In all my piano playing over the years I don’t think I have ever actually written my own music! Which may be surprising, but I guess I’m just so used to reading someone else’s music. 

That made me think about, with my piano-playing and music-reading knowledge, I could easily make up whatever melodies I would like, for my class. If what I has looks too hard or too easy, I can tweak it on my own. Every music teacher I have had, has said that I’m was hopeless at practicing every day but my note reading is amazing. Which saved me a lot of embarrassment from not practising, because I could some how pull it off week to week. That’s not really something I am proud of, but I do hope I can inspire my future students to practice, practice, practice! Because practice makes perfect... or progress! 

Image found here. 

The ukulele playing this week was also good, however my ukulele sounds out of tune when I play the D and F chord. The ukulele video, along with my 8-bar melody can be found above this post. 

This week’s learning has given me another chance to ponder and rethink a couple of things that were on my mind about teaching music, and especially tricky (what I thought) things like pitch. When I actually see teaches singing and clapping and laughing with their students while they teach these kinds of musical elements, it makes me appreciate how as teacher’s we have the knowledge to bring a difficult concept to life and to take it from super simple, to complex but fun! One aspect for me to grow in is confidence. Confidence in my own musical ability, my voice (I have a quiet one), and my body parts that move and make music. Teacher’s are role models for their students, so everything that I say and do when I am a teacher needs to be reflective of my beliefs and my learning intentions for each child. 

Teaching pitch is a very unique opportunity, as it is a time for teacher’s to build up confidence and resilience in their students and to give them a voice!