Erinne Phillips

Music Education: A Professional Practice

2/25/2020

Prof. Amy Lewis

Throughout this cover song assignment, I truly learned how much goes into a cover song.

Not only do you have to find a song that you enjoy, but you also have to find the right key for the

song, find a strum pattern that matches the style of the piece, and truly master the chord

progression. It’s then important to get the recording of the cover right for people to like.

The most challenging part of this project for me was the strum pattern for the song. I have

been lightly playing ukulele for a while, but I have always had issues mastering strumming patterns,

so that was a challenge for me. It was also a challenge for me to be confident enough in my voice to

make a recording of this cover that I was proud of.

This kind of project allows for a connection to an open form of communication through

many different ways. This project gives the students freedom in choosing their cover song piece, the

genre in which they want to pick or sing the piece in, the way they wish to record it, and the

tempo/key of which they want to perform the piece. This embraces Allsup’s concept of using “wit,

playfulness, and humor” into music education, as well as embraces the concept of informal learning

in education.

A project like this would be beneficial in my future classroom because of how it relates to

informal learning. It gives students an opportunity to explore a new instrument in a way that appeals

to them by allowing them to choose their cover piece as it speaks to them.