While at the OAKE Eastern Division Conference, I not only gave an hour long presentation, but also was able to attend several sessions and demonstrations. In particular, I was excited to attend the session on Music Learning Theory (MLT) that was lead by Berta Hickox from the Halifax School District.
As I mentioned in an earlier post, I recently purchased Edwin Gordan's Music Play book with some budget money, only to find the same book at a book sale for $1.50 a few months later! I have been interested in incorporating some of Gordon's ideas into my own teaching after getting a taste of MLT at several Saturday workshops that were hosted by Maryland United Specialists In Kodaly at Loyola College, where Andrew Blumhardt did several presentations using MLT.
In short, Edwin Gordon is a researcher, author and teacher, who's primary focus has been examining how children acquire music skills and concepts. He coined the term "audiation", meaning hearing music that is not actually playing. In other words, performing music in your head, much like reading to yourself. He also did extensive work on the creation of several music aptitude tests that are widely used in the music education community.
Music Learning Theory compares the acquisition of musical knowledge and skill very closely to how we acquire language. First, as infants we were exposed to language by simply listening to people talk around us. Next, we explored language by babbling and as toddlers we started imitating what was being said. As still older children, we were able to form our own thoughts and say what we were thinking. Finally, we learned how to read and then even write our thoughts down so others could read them.
Considering this, most students are coming to me in their "infancy" of musical learning. Many students have not had any musical exposure except to pop songs on the radio. I have to expose my students to the musical language before they can learn to sing it, read it and write it. I have been working on incorporating more listening activities, as well as exposure to various musical modes outside of the standard major and minor tonalities that most familiar music is written in. Experiences in odd or unusual meters is also important for the students' musical development.
While I'll probably never do a full blown MLT program, for various reasons, there are some aspects of MLT that I have been working on integrating. In particular, this idea of exposure and acquiring knowledge because it is part of the everyday language of the classroom, is something that I am trying to put at the forefront of my teaching.
For example, when my students read a song's rhythm on the board, I may leave out things like bar lines, which the class will quickly fill in based on the time signature. After doing this type of activity enough, my students are now aware that the time signature plays a role in telling how many beats are in a measure. Even though I don't expect my students to understand the role a time signature plays in music until 3rd grade, the exposure in 1st and 2nd grade will make connecting that concept to the students' experiences very easy when it is formally introduced. Making sure my lessons are balanced with exposure to rhythmic, melodic, harmonic and form work ensures that the students will have plenty of time to acquire the musical language that they are learning and more easily retain what has already been learned.
If you are interested in learning more about Edwin Gordon and Music Learning Theory, please check out the Gordon Institute for Music Learning website.
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