Principles of Music Education Cowan

Abby

The Gordon Approach Gordons theory, known as Music Learning Theory, has a strong emphasis on audiation skills and cultivating them to their full aptitude as musicians. Each person is born with a different level of music aptitude and each person experiences a different level of music achievement. The success of ones music aptitude and achievement depend on how well one audiates. Gordon feels that ones music aptitude is developed from birth to age 9 through having experienced different levels of music education. Ones aptitude is stable and hardly fluctuates after age 9. Gordon emphasizes the importance of music education during this time in which children are likely to develop their aptitude. Gordon likens a newborn hearing speech the first time to a newborn hearing music for the first time. Understanding language and music require the comprehension of new vocabulary, which will grow in size for the rest of the persons life. Gordon breaks down the childhood stage from birth to age 6 and groups the development stages into the acculturation stage, imitation stage, and the assimilation stage. From here, he outlines the different types of auditation and how they are organized according to age. Later in the article, Gordon provides a list of activities that may be conducive to a classroom full of elementary age children, such as singing, dancing, writing music, and playing games. These skills will help to cultivate independent musicianship in these children. The Dalcroze Approach Emile Jaques-Dalcroze believed that musicians should focus their students on expression and feeling while emphasizing eurhythmics, solfege, improvisation, gesture and movement and employing more than just the auditory sense. Dalcroze wanted to bridge any gaps between ones sensory experiences and intellectual ones by exercising the body to get a better feeling of rhythm, phrasing, intensity, working out bodily tension and allowing the body to internalize the melody and harmony. The components that Dalcroze used were ear training both rhythmically and melodically, improvisation on a variety of instruments and reinforcing eurhythmics. Dalcroze stresses that these components should be taught in tandem and should be given equal attention. Teachers still

use these philosophies today when they tell their students to not only pay attention to their auditory sense, but also suggest that they employ their visual and kinesthetic senses. Music universities and conservatories also use his philosophy on eurhythmics to this day. The Kodaly Approach Kodalys approach is similar to that of Gordons approach because of its emphasis on developing the full musical potential of all human beings. Kodaly believed that ones music education should not be left to chance and that an education should begin 9 months before the childs birth. No music materials that are less than the best were good enough for Kodaly. He insisted on using the most up to date technology. His main approach to music education was developing the singing voice. He used his knowledge of folk music to cultivate musical literacy, expand Hungarys musical culture and to progress the voice of each student. Tools that Kodaly used were moveable do, the solfege hand signs and rhythm syllables. Kodaly used a strict pedagogical approach when teaching students to understand music. Students would follow a number of phases that included the sight singing and audiatory phase, the phase in which students dictate what they hear, the phase where students need to identify different musical concepts by using their instrument, practicing all the skills that they have acquires and then using all of this knowledge to compose a piece of their own. The Orff Approach Orff believed that music should be taught through the primal instinct of childrens play rather than through rigorous class work. His emphasis falls on using music and movement in tandem and thought that the latter would help to improve the former. The Orff-Schulwerk approach begins with a lesson in how to use speech to understand rhythm. Using different word patterns starts to lend itself into a more complex understand of rhythm and a more natural ability to feel it. From there, group play involved simple songs that helped with singing ability, and understanding harmony. Using unpitched percussion instruments is a fun way for children to get an idea about how many different sounds they have the ability to make. From there, according to Orff, children should use special pitched instruments such as xylophone, metallophone, and glockenspiel. With these instruments, scales, melody, and a grasp on improvisation can be achieved. Schulwerk suggests in his pedagogical approach that exploration, imitation,

improvisation and creation are four important tools on the way to achieving successful music and movement development. The exploration component gives students the chance to try new things on their own and use their curiosity to discover what they are able to do with their newfound musicianship. Imitation is a great way to teach songs, and pieces on phrase at a time to a group of students. After having used imitation, students can learn to improvise over a song they have learned. Finally, all of these steps combine to help students compose small pieces of music that may involve stories, poems and other tools to enhance the performance. This approach condones aural learning and music reading but does not suggest any methods about how to do it successfully.