Instruments within the classroom
Students have exposure to a variety of instruments including percussion, wind, string and brass instruments. Through our journey we were exposed to a selection of these and through further investigation, discovered that each culture and musical genre possess a number of instruments that represent a sound that identifies with their own individual style.
Within our composition and musical presentation we used a number of instruments that were commonly represented within each of our genres but also complimented the cultures that were allocated with them. Although not all of the instruments were traditional within the genre the overall sound of each instrument fitted within each genre. In addition over the period of lessons allocated for the subject, we were exposed to a number of musical percussion instruments and their uses.
Music making is incredibly important in musical education as it engages children and their innate musical abilities (Buchan & Rankin, 2013). In music over the past 6 weeks we were using lots of different instruments and making our own music, I found this to engage myself and allow me to see that I have more musical abilities than I first thought. After speaking to my fellow students, I found that many had the same thought, that they were more musical than they first thought. We used different instruments and we were engaged, just as we would like our students to be. However, unfortunately not all schools have access to instruments, some schools only provide instruments on a ‘user pay basis’, therefore creating a gap between those who can use instruments and those who cannot (Pascoe, Leong, MacCallum, Mackinlay, Marsh, & Smith et al., 2005). During our performance, one of the reasons we chose to include body percussion was because of this; to highlight that body percussion costs nothing yet it can strengthen students’ understanding of a steady beat, rhythms and different pitches just as an instrument would (Gromoko, 2005).
In our final performance we chose to use three instruments; two non-tuned percussion instruments and one tuned instrument. Our instruments were the Jamaican style drum, a ukulele and some rhythm eggs. All the instruments that were selected for our performance and composition were instruments that we had been given the time to experiment with and play around with in class. Playing with these instruments in class made us feel that we were musical beings, and we felt comfortable working with these instruments again to create a composition (Buchan & Rankin, 2015).
References:
Buchan, S., & Rankin, B. (2015). “It was the right beat” - Children’s need for immediately playable music.
Gromoko, J. E. (2005). The effect of music instruction on phonemic awareness in beginning readers. Journal of Research in Music Education, 53 (3), 199-209.
Pascoe, R., Leong, S., MacCallum, J., Mackinlay, E., Marsh, K., & Smith, B., et al. . (2005). National review of school music education: augmenting the diminished. Canberra: Australian Government.
*Images below sourced from google images
Within our composition and musical presentation we used a number of instruments that were commonly represented within each of our genres but also complimented the cultures that were allocated with them. Although not all of the instruments were traditional within the genre the overall sound of each instrument fitted within each genre. In addition over the period of lessons allocated for the subject, we were exposed to a number of musical percussion instruments and their uses.
Music making is incredibly important in musical education as it engages children and their innate musical abilities (Buchan & Rankin, 2013). In music over the past 6 weeks we were using lots of different instruments and making our own music, I found this to engage myself and allow me to see that I have more musical abilities than I first thought. After speaking to my fellow students, I found that many had the same thought, that they were more musical than they first thought. We used different instruments and we were engaged, just as we would like our students to be. However, unfortunately not all schools have access to instruments, some schools only provide instruments on a ‘user pay basis’, therefore creating a gap between those who can use instruments and those who cannot (Pascoe, Leong, MacCallum, Mackinlay, Marsh, & Smith et al., 2005). During our performance, one of the reasons we chose to include body percussion was because of this; to highlight that body percussion costs nothing yet it can strengthen students’ understanding of a steady beat, rhythms and different pitches just as an instrument would (Gromoko, 2005).
In our final performance we chose to use three instruments; two non-tuned percussion instruments and one tuned instrument. Our instruments were the Jamaican style drum, a ukulele and some rhythm eggs. All the instruments that were selected for our performance and composition were instruments that we had been given the time to experiment with and play around with in class. Playing with these instruments in class made us feel that we were musical beings, and we felt comfortable working with these instruments again to create a composition (Buchan & Rankin, 2015).
References:
Buchan, S., & Rankin, B. (2015). “It was the right beat” - Children’s need for immediately playable music.
Gromoko, J. E. (2005). The effect of music instruction on phonemic awareness in beginning readers. Journal of Research in Music Education, 53 (3), 199-209.
Pascoe, R., Leong, S., MacCallum, J., Mackinlay, E., Marsh, K., & Smith, B., et al. . (2005). National review of school music education: augmenting the diminished. Canberra: Australian Government.
*Images below sourced from google images