HEZELKIAH J.

KITANE BEED 3

Gen. Ed. 12 Teaching Music in the Elementary Grades

1. What are the values of music in our life?

One of the greatest things about music is that listening to it gives us a whole new world
of experience, enhances our mind, and encourages us to express our feelings and emotions.
Some people consider music as a way escape from the pain of life. It allows reducing stress and
gives relief. Music is a powerful therapy that will raise someone’s mood, get them excited, or
make them calm and relaxed. Furthermore, it develops the mind and boosts yourself
confidence; it always has the power to express what we feel inside. Music plays a more
important role in our life than just being a source of entertainment. When we play some
instrument, they usually play the music that reflects our thoughts or our emotions. This way
your brain conveys the thoughts with the music without speaking a word. When we try to
understand the music, then as per a research it makes our mind creative. Even the schools
realize the importance of music, thus they are enhancing the teaching methods by making it
interesting with the help of music.

2. What important sensitivities are developed by music in us?

Music affects the physical, social, intellectual, spiritual, and moral facets of man’s
personality. It plays several important roles that will lead man to live the full, happy, effective,
and harmonious existence he needs in his complex and fast contemporary life.

3. What are the uses of music to man?

Music has been a form of self-expression, recreation, socializing force, power for world
peace and music as therapy. It would be hard to find more expressive form of self-expression
than what can be offered through music. We find music as recreation; we seek relaxation in
attending concerts or programs related to music which gives us the chances of improving our
socializing force. As we indulge in any musical activity, music can be a therapy especially for
those who are fighting anxiety or depression it may through singing, listening, or playing an
instrument we releases and forgotten our pain, fear, and frustrations. We tend to get satisfying
experiences and comfort through which music erases our cares and worries.

4. What personal, professional, and musical qualifications should music teachers

possess?

The music teacher should have desirable qualities for leadership such as: a pleasant and
gracious disposition in and outside the classroom, especially with the children; emotional
maturity which will allow her to meet the behavior problems that may arise in the classroom;
enthusiasm and sincerity in sharing her knowledge in music with the children; an innate or an
acquired sympathy and love and understanding for children and the willingness to help them in
their learning activities; self-discipline for exemplary purposes; initiative to do what is necessary
to promote the musical growth of the children; wit and humor to brighten the classroom
atmosphere; and, not the least in importance, a well-integrated and well-adjusted personality
While on the other hand, the music teacher should have an adequate musicianship,
which she can share with the learners. Since singing is the core of the music education program,
she should be able to sing the songs to be taught in a smooth and flexible, mellow, and light and
easy resonant tone. Her ability to sing will be the standard of the class, since the children have
the tendency to imitate the singing voice of their teacher. The music teacher who should have
the ability to read music notation so that she can have an extensive and rich repertoire of
instructional materials. A teacher who cannot read music well has the tendency to learn the
materials by rote from others and without a guarantee to correctness of the melody or the
rhythm of the materials.
Talking about musical qualifications a teacher should have the ability to play the piano is
necessary for a music teacher to enable him to make even simple chord accompaniment, which
certainly enliven the children’s singing. However, if the teacher cannot play the piano, he should
be able to play at least some other instruments, like a guitar, fairly well. Also important for a
music teacher is his ability to notate. Many times we hear unpublished folk tunes and children’s
compositions which we are unable to record due to our inability to notate. Teachers who notate
are more able to develop the children’s ability to write original music.

5. Singing

a. What is a good singing voice? How can it be produced?

A good singing voice is the singer needs to convey his true feelings through expressive and
interpretative singing and with a voice that is beautiful in quality and in technique. This
beautiful singing voice can be produced by many various factors and these are:
• Proper breathing- diaphragmatic breathing —and the proper control of the
breath for good phrasing
• Good sitting or standing posture conducive to the production of flexible singing tones
• Proper position of the throat, the jaw the lips and other muscles involved in tone
production
• Resonance of the voice or its high replacement —up in the head
• A clear diction so that the message of the song may be properly conveyed to the
listener.

b. Describe some ways of teaching rote songs.

There are two types of rote songs taught to children. Art songs are learned for the purpose
of providing creative experiences while observation songs are taught not only for the
same purpose but also providing the learners with adequate experience with the various
rhythmic and the tonal patterns that they are expected to meet in their later lessons.

c. What principles should a music teacher remember regarding children who are
untuned singers?
To remedy untuned singing, the cause should first be determined. Then remedial measures
should follow.
a. The untuned children should never be made to feel that they are deficient to prevent
their embarrassment and subsequent indifference to music
b. The untuned singers should be seated in front of or as near as possible the good singers.
The untuned singers should not be aware of the reason for the seating arrangement.
c. The untuned singers should be encouraged to participate in the nonsinging music
activities.
d. The untuned singers may be encouraged to play musical instruments.
e. Corrective exercise may be used in the spirit of play, such as: scaling games, imitation of
different sounds of animals and other things.

d. How may a music teacher develop choral ensemble?

The choral group may be made physically attractive by means of simple but impressive
attire. The singers should be arranged on the stage so as to look orderly. Their heights have
to be considered to make the group look attractive on the stage. Of course, it is necessary to
place the sopranos on the left front of the audience, the altos at the right front, the tenors
behind the tenors and the basses behind the altos. This is the standard arrangement but this
may be changed to suit the preferences of the conductor. The chorus should be trained to
move in a business-like but graceful fashion when passing to and from the stage.

e. What are the important movements in conducting?

The conductor is the overall leader of the chorus. He should be the object of the
uninterrupted attention of the performers directly by means of his movements and his facial
expression. This means that the performers should show complete attention so that they
are always ready to do as the conductor wishes. There is a direct psychological relationship
between the conductor and the performers

6. Listening
a. What are the ways we listen to music?

We listen to music that can be heard in school program, band concert, recitals, op etc. taped
music, and recorded music can had through the phonograph, radio, television, and movie.

b. What effective lessons can we have in listening?

The music teacher should always introduce the music to be played. Some facts about the
composer, circumstances about the composition, or what children will hear in the music
may be given adequately to show that the music teacher should gather as much information
about music and its composer before using it in a listening lesson. There is no sense in
letting the children hear a piece of music that the teacher herself has not heard nor read
about. However, all information beyond those needed for the enhancement of appreciation
and enjoyment of the music must be given.

7. Creative work
a. Name the various means of teaching music creatively.

Some examples of activities the music teacher can utilize in order to develop the creative
urge and powers of children are:

1. Drawing any picture suggest by music heard in a listening lesson — this should be original,
never dictated by the teacher.
2. Acting out familiar songs.
3. Making simple musical instruments such as drums, rattles, sand blocks, jingle bells,
cymbals, whistles, combs covered with paper, etc.
4. Making up simple melodies for greetings, calls, questions and answers, names, simple
directions, etc.
5. Keeping even rhythm to music heard using fundamental movements like marching,
skipping, clapping, etc.
6. Interpreting accent by means of tossing or bouncing balls or other objects or meaningful
movements.
7. Indicating phrase recognition by changing actions
8. Whistling songs instead of singing them
9. Composing simple original melodies for their school poems
10. Completing a song started by the teacher or other pupils
11. Writing words for a familiar tune
12. Writing new words for an old song
13. Using some appropriate songs as sound effects in plays or dramatizations
14. Learning fundamentals of notation through games
15. Producing original dance forms in response to music
16. Choosing the toys or rhythm instruments suitable for a particular passage in place of
music
17. Drawing or painting in rhythm to music heard
18. Expressive and interpretative singing
19. Singing games
20. Suggesting scenes, objects, animals, or feeling described by instrumental music heard

b. Describe how to compose a “small” song.

a. Choose words that are meaningful and interesting to the children.

b. Read the words over and over again to determine the mood.
c. Read the words to catch the rhythm and the accent.
d. Decide on the time signature and the duration of each syllable of the text.
e. Draw the staves as many as there are lines in the poem.
f. Write the words of each line under each staff in syllables.
g. Place a bar before every syllable which is accented.
h. Try different melodies for the words and decide on the final melody.
i. Sing the melody over and over again and try to commit it to memory.
j. Determine the pitch. See to it that the lowest and the highest tones are within the extent of
the staff, if possible.
k. Determine what so-fa syllables form your melody and write them down on the staff.

8. Instrumental Playing
a. How are musical instruments classified? Give examples of the instruments in each group.

Instruments are classified according to their materials, construction, manner of playing,

and timbre.
 Chordophones

Examples of chordophones are the violin, the violoncello or cello, the viola, and the
contrabass or bass viola.

 Aerophones

Examples of aerophones are the cornet, trumpet, trombone, horn, tuba,

Sousaphone (all of which are made of brass) and the flute, clarinet, oboe, and
bassoon (all of which are made of wood).

 Membranophones
Examples of membranophones are the different kinds of drums and the tympani or
kettle drums

 Idionophones
The fourth group of instruments includes the triangle, xylophone or glockenspiel,
marimba, castanets, and cymbals.

b. Name some instrumental group and describe each.

The Orchestra is one of the example instrumental group. The symphony orchestra uses
western instruments, which are grouped as the string section (violin, viola, cello, and
contrabass), the brass section (trumpet, cornet, trombone, tuba, French horn, Sousaphone),
the woodwind section (flute, piccolo, oboe, English horn, bassoon), and the percussion
group (cymbals, snare drum, bass drum, kettle drum or tympani, chimes, celesta,
glockenspiel, etc.)

9. Movement
How may movement be effectively used for music learning?
The use of movement is effective because students remained engaged for longer periods of
time. Students also retained more information through playing music games that included
movement. Students were learning music through play, which is the same way they learn to
understand the world around them.