A group of PGCE students from the University of Cumbria explore using simple music technology devices in small group composition and performance for mixed ensembles. Each ensemble used a mix of traditional instruments, classroom percussion and a piece of music technology. This resource explores some of the ideas used in one group’s composition and performance. This is followed by some thoughts and reflections on the place of music technology in classroom music making, and a discussion of some of the advantages and disadvantages.
Author name:
David Ashworth
Resource image:
Description:
A group of PGCE students from the University of Cumbria explore using simple music technology devices in small group composition and performance for mixed ensembles. Each ensemble used a mix of traditional instruments, classroom percussion and a piece of music technology. This resource explores some of the ideas used in one group’s composition and performance. This is followed by some thoughts and reflections on the place of music technology in classroom music making, and a discussion of some of the advantages and disadvantages.
This module, which makes use of a number of web-based and electronic resources provides an introduction to using sound recording and manipulation software in the primary school. The module attempts to combine practical guidance on how such software may be used, through the use of video materials, sound files, key activities, discussions and reference to wider reading. Furthermore, the module attempts to be critical of teaching practices concerning music and music technology.
Author name:
Ian Shirley
Author photo:
Resource image:
Description:
This module, which makes use of a number of web-based and electronic resources provides an introduction to using sound recording and manipulation software in the primary school. The module attempts to combine practical guidance on how such software may be used, through the use of video materials, sound files, key activities, discussions and reference to wider reading. Furthermore, the module attempts to be critical of teaching practices concerning music and music technology. The module also allows for an introduction for the development of musical creativity and the role of informal pedagogies. The critical element of the module is informed by identified texts and key discussion points.
Audacity is a simple (and free) audio-recording program that can be quickly downloaded to PC or laptop (audacity.sourceforge.net). It is available for both Windows and Mac, and is popular with both teachers and children.
Author name:
David Wheway
Author photo:
Resource image:
Description:
Audacity is a simple (and free) audio-recording program that can be quickly downloaded to PC or laptop (audacity.sourceforge.net). It is available for both Windows and Mac, and is popular with both teachers and children.
In this article I will focus on two applications for this fantastic program:
1. As a tool for inspiring and developing composition – including for those with limited practical music skills 2. To develop score-writing which demonstrates texture as well as structure – and therefore useful as a precursor/adjunct to graphic/other forms of score-writing.
Understanding music through composing was a workshop run for trainee music teachers and music subject mentors at Birmingham City University on 29th January 2009. The aim of this workshop was: To identify pedagogy that will help young people to think creatively through music and to understand how composers think.
Author name:
Ian Axtell
Author photo:
Resource image:
Description:
Understanding music through composing was a workshop run for trainee music teachers and music subject mentors at Birmingham City University on 29th January 2009. The aim of this workshop was: To identify pedagogy that will help young people to think creatively through music and to understand how composers think. The workshop was based on the findings from a school based composing project with the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group (BCMG). The key contributors included: Ian Axtell (Birmingham City University); Robert Bunting (formerly Adviser for Music, Birmingham LA); Nancy Evans (Educational Manager, Birmingham Contemporary Music Group); Adrian Spillett (percussionist, Birmingham Contemporary Music Group); Chris Stevens (Deputy Head, Fairfax School, former Head of Music/AST, Ninestiles School). Initials have been used to identify key contributions.
Although educational theorists argue that learning should be seen as a continuum, what learners actually encounter in the school and at transitional points in their education (and as phases which occur across a lifetime), although promoted as a key element in improving teaching and learning in both primary and secondary schools, remains a persistent problem which has as yet only recently attracted widespread interest.
Author name:
Pamela Burnard
Description:
The highlighting and impact of transitions - whereupon development or change of beliefs occurs cumulatively from experience - continues to intrigue researchers, teachers and parents alike
Dialogue is an everyday process when children are engaged in practical music-making. They discuss together and the teacher also works with groups or individuals to help them to further their understanding of the task or to show them how to solve a problem. ‘Assessment for learning’ processes involve pupils in discussion and in questioning by the teacher, with the focus on learning goals.
Author name:
Angela E. Major
Author photo:
Resource image:
Description:
Dialogue is an everyday process when children are engaged in practical music-making. They discuss together and the teacher also works with groups or individuals to help them to further their understanding of the task or to show them how to solve a problem. ‘Assessment for learning’ processes involve pupils in discussion and in questioning by the teacher, with the focus on learning goals.
This resource suggests that while all discussion is a valuable part of learning in such lessons, the quality of pupil responses are also important. Carefully steered, the teacher could develop pupil’s critical thinking skills and prevent pupils in giving stereotypical answers which they think the teacher wants to hear!
This chapter is from ‘The Origins of Music’, edited by Nils L. Wallin, Bjorn Merker and Steven Brown. It consists of papers presented at a workshop on the origins of music held in Fiesole, Italy in May 1997.
Author name:
David Cross
Description:
A review of ‘The necessity of and problems with a Universal Musicology’ by Francois-Bernard Mâche.
I keep discovering new organizations that define the community of music educators in the UK that I didn't know about when I was teaching and that might be helpful to students as they become part of that community.
The purpose of this resource is to provide a map of the organisations that form the community of music educators to which school music teachers belong.
The resource takes the form of a PowerPoint show, where clicking on the links will lead to the relevant websites.
Author name:
James Garnett
Author photo:
Resource image:
Description:
I keep discovering new organizations that define the community of music educators in the UK that I didn't know about when I was teaching and that might be helpful to students as they become part of that community.
The purpose of this resource is to provide a map of the organisations that form the community of music educators to which school music teachers belong.
The resource takes the form of a PowerPoint show, where clicking on the links will lead to the relevant websites.
Islam is a way of life. It is a religion which all Muslims are born into and which you have to actively reject if you want to belong to another faith. For a good Muslim, all aspects of life are subject to the rules laid down by the Qur’an, their holy book revealed to the Prophet Muhammad in the 7th Century, and the hadith which report the Prophet’s sayings and actions. The Hadith are a body of literature, roughly equivalent to the Christian Gospels, which were written down as much as two centuries after the Qur’an was revealed. These can be divided into those thought to be sound, it being possible to prove a direct line of transfer from the prophet to the hadith writer, and those that are considered to be unsound.