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Gearing up for school to start on Wednesday so I’ve been reviewing my notes and going over things in my head and I’ve come up with a couple quick questions.

What do you use to video tape assessments?  iPad or some other video camera?

I want to incorporate “the power of the glittery rainbow sticker”!  Do you hand them out for the youngest, but let the older kids self serve?

Looking forward to incorporating all the goodness from the class!!!

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Hi Friends - Happy Sunday! I have arrived home and have uploaded all of the things I think I was supposed to on the Padlet. If you think I have missed anything, please let me know and I will get it up there!

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Pachelbel Rant from 2006 [Official High Quality Re-Post]

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You may have to play with the margins to get each month to fit on each page :)

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First Steps Unit Planning Form - Powers.xlsx

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First Steps Lesson Planning Form - Powers

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First Steps Lesson Planning Form - Powers

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First Steps Lesson Planning Form - Powers.xls

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https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLINqHrYQ-VaeEaRcXEencHTwiQ7ON5j2c

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Share your videos with friends, family, and the world

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To continue connecting!

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Participant info for sharing and connecting

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To continue connecting and bouncing ideas and questions with one another as we head into the year and dive into CS in our own planning :) I will share this information out with all of us participating!

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Body Percussion to accompany rhythm syllables

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Body Percussion to accompany rhythm syllables

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Du = patsch legs
Du de = patsch-clap
Du da di = patsch-clap-snap
du-u (half note) = patsch-slide
quarter rest = hands out

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92gf8dAlhUw

These are all over youtube! They are also great for subs!

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Body Percussion - Can't Stop the Feeling`

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Feierabend Association for Music Education | A tuneful, beatful, artful learning community

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The Singing Band - Feierabend Association for Music Education | A tuneful, beatful, artful learning community

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The Singing Band Carol Swinchoski Dearborn In the Singing Band, Carol Swinchoski demonstrates how to use the singing and audiation skills young musicians have acquired in classroom music to sing through their instruments. Focusing first on aural skills, young musicians develop reading skills in a natural and successful way.

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From earlier today on the GIA website.

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Mind blown! I will be making a treble and bass one, maybe 4 part. I will post the link here when it's done.

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I loved this exercise! While I'm not a choir director anymore, I thought it was a very cool way to engage the students and help them be able to visualize and internalize what the notes sound like.  It's super neat!

I have only ever seen this exercise be done with the director shouting out directions like "altos, go down a half step" "tenors, up a half step", etc.

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Please wait until we are together to fill this out

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Please wait until we are together to fill this out

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I had so much fun with learning how your students adapted this game! My favorite part was how the holes closed at the end. Thank you for sharing it with us!

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I Knew You Were Treble by Jeanette Young

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Zapatito Blanco: A Spanish Chant for Teaching Quarter Rest - Mrs. Cookies Music Room

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"Zapatito Blanco" is one of my favorites for practicing quarter rest, but when I posted about it on instagram, many hadn't heard of it. Well then I'll share it with you. 🙂 One of the changes at my school this year is the addition of Spanish class for all grade levels, and it has been so beneficial for the kids.

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Great resources for Hispanic Heritage Month

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Great resources for Hispanic Heritage Month

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These CDs and DVDs feature a wide range of children's music recorded in English and Spanish, including well-known folk songs and nursery rhymes from Latin America, as well as bilingual songs written by popular artist José-Luis Orozco.

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These CDs and DVDs feature a wide range of children's music recorded in English and Spanish, including well-known folk songs and nursery rhymes from Latin America, as well as bilingual songs written by popular artist José-Luis Orozco.

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Beth's Notes Preschool & Elementary Music Lessons & Songs

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When assessing patterns is there a 'golden rule' for the number of patterns each child is assessed on before moving forward?

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2 students make an arch (the tree) all other students stand in a circle (goes through the arch). They walk on the beat while singing, on the word 'out' the arch lowers and catches a student. That student takes a place in the tree. The replaced student moves to a barred instrument to play the beat.

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Also has blank/editable ones

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Music-Word-Wall-Musical-Terms-Music-Posters-3903434?st=63d2f88b30a6856b09177859a7969502

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Music Word Wall: Musical Terms Music Posters

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Looking for beautiful and EDITABLE music decor for your music bulletin boards? This watercolor theme music poster set is for you! These musical terms posters are perfect for adding color to the walls of your music room and are also great teaching tools for your students. Perfect for both secondary .…

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Getting into Unit 4 makes me realize the issue with my current set curriculum and being 2 years behind. The curriculum is very fast paced and rarely reviews songs and concepts. There are few assessments and it doesn't show best assessment guidance/rubric examples. I am going to convince my district, since I am the only music teacher there, to use CS method to remediate and work towards a progressive track. I'm more confident how to quickly assess/track. CS feels wholesome and supportive. Very mappable for administration. I can't wait for First Steps and Kodaly Masters. Set curriculum texts are good enough for an educator who may be new, but its very messy when deciding how to fix what has "happened" in the past 2 years.

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I loved the various ways you showed students can "write". I think it is easy to get caught up in the paper trail and to forget to allow students to show their understanding in a multitude of ways. It can help students become more creative by showing them new possibilities of expression, too.

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2020 Supplement to First Steps in Music_Updated September 2021.pdf

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Another fun way to test notes on the staff is to use the sidewalk outside. I will write a giant staff on the sidewalk and have the students jump from line to space. There are lots of variations of this that you can use as well! They love it!

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Another fun way to test notes on the staff is to use the sidewalk outside. I will write a giant staff on the sidewalk and have the students jump from line to space. There are lots of variations of this that you can use as well! They love it!

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www.musicracer.com

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The iPad/Mac app for data tracking is called iDoceo. I found the template for CS on the iDoceo for Music Educators group. When you are on on that group page you can search for Conversational Solfege and find posts about the template. The template used to be in the Files section, but there have been some changes…. 

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The iPad/Mac app for data tracking is called iDoceo. I found the template for CS on the iDoceo for Music Educators group. When you are on on that group page you can search for Conversational Solfege and find posts about the template. The template used to be in the Files section, but there have been some changes…. 

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https://greystonebooks.com/products/is-the-by
If you like using books in your classroom. :)

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I know growing up I started piano very young, so I was able to count through everything in elementary music all the way through college. For me, that's how my brain works when sight-reading or problem solving rhythms/notes in class. This experience is making me think much more functionally for what my students can actually accomplish with this curriculum instead of how I am programmed to think about music. This is a big change for me but in the long term I can see my students accomplishing the goal of this program.

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I keep getting ideas for things to do with all of my grade levels and I'm so excited to start implementing these with my kids!

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I really enjoyed Humpty Dump, and more contemporary takes on what we know to keep interest and joy in children and myself.

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I really enjoyed Humpty Dump, and more contemporary takes on what we know to keep interest and joy in children and myself.

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I love how much we and our students sing without accompaniment. Today, you provided a great example of a brief chordal accompaniment that was a fun addition to our singing; however, I can see the accompaniment or "support" is not necessary.

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I love how much we and our students sing without accompaniment. Today, you provided a great example of a brief chordal accompaniment that was a fun addition to our singing; however, I can see the accompaniment or "support" is not necessary.

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Today, I really enjoyed the connection from music concept to classical music with "The Crane". I think this is my favorite part; connecting our precious youth to great music written years ago!

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Today, I really enjoyed the connection from music concept to classical music with "The Crane". I think this is my favorite part; connecting our precious youth to great music written years ago!

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I’m thinking that students who have become artful with 1st Steps training combined with reading patterns rather than note by note will lead to young musicians who are better sight readers, of course, but also students who sing/play with much more fluency. It should be easier to help them create a linear, musical line rather than the plodding of beat to beat playing. Looking forward to seeing this unfold!!

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I’m thinking that students who have become artful with 1st Steps training combined with reading patterns rather than note by note will lead to young musicians who are better sight readers, of course, but also students who sing/play with much more fluency. It should be easier to help them create a linear, musical line rather than the plodding of beat to beat playing. Looking forward to seeing this unfold!!

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NPR 100 Fact Sheet

Title: Grand Canyon Suite

Artist: Ferde Grofe

Reporter: Theresa Schiavone

Producer:

Editor:

Length: 9:45

Rhapsody in Blue

In 1916, an itinerant pianist in his 20s strapped gas cans to a vintage jeep and drove across the Arizona desert to watch the sun rise over the Grand Canyon. More than 40 years later, Ferde Grofe described what he saw in a radio interview.

" I first saw the dawn because we got there the night before and camped. I was spellbound in the silence, you know, because as it got lighter and brighter then you could hear the birds chirping and nature coming to life. All of a sudden, bingo! There it was, the sun. I couldn't hardly describe it in words because words would be inadequate."

So Grofe used music, the language he knew best. Ferde Grofe knew how to use every instrument in the orchestra to bring his compositions to life. In the "Grand Canyon Suite," he evoked the natural sounds he'd heard on his visit there. He made the woodwinds sound like birds and the trumpets sound like crickets.

When instruments couldn't mimic real life, Grofe found ways to incorporate the actual sounds into his music. Conductor Gerard Schwartz--whose Seattle Symphony recorded "Grand Canyon Suite" in 1991--says Grofe may not have been the first to use sound effects, but he was one of the most original.

"He uses a lot of percussion devices, you know, even the famous coconut shells to make it sound like the burro making its way around the mountains. And I guess the most interesting of all is in the "Cloudburst" movement, where he uses the rumblings of the wind machine, the thunder sheet. It's not to say that wind machines weren't used. I mean, Ravel used the wind machine in "Daphnis et Chloe." Thunder sheets had been used, and continue to be used to this day. But he did it in a very individualistic way. And I guess what we tend to reward in life is innovation as well as creativity. And Grofe was certainly a remarkable innovator, especially in terms of the orchestration.

Ferdinand Rudolf von Grofe was born in New York City and raised in Los Angeles. He came from a family of fiddlers, mostly from Germany. At age 13, Grofe quit school and worked odd jobs as a bookbinder, a theater usher and a horse driver. In his spare time, he liked to hunt in the desert and write music. He began playing second-chair viola with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. In the off-season, he took a job that provided him with a completely different musical experience, according to his son, Ferde Grofe Jr.

"He was playing piano in bawdy houses, brothels, as a matter of fact, in San Francisco when he was 16 years old where he wasn't supposed to know what was going on upstairs in the second floor. And that was when he actually first heard jazz.

Ferde Grofe began doing what few, if any, had tried. He started writing down what he heard and coming up with original jazz arrangements. Grofe's talent was noted by the popular dance band leader Paul Whiteman, who was himself experimenting with a small symphonic jazz orchestra. Grofe joined his band as a pianist and violinist in 1917. He eventually became the band's orchestrator, a job that gave him great visibility in 1924 when Whiteman commissioned a work from the brash George Gershwin.

When the time came to adapt Gershwin's dance band version of "Rhapsody in Blue" to symphony orchestra size, it was Ferde Grofe who did the job. According to Ferde Grofe Jr., it was this experience that lit a fire under the orchestrator to create his own work. So he picked up the piece he'd started a few years earlier inspired by his trip to the Grand Canyon.

Grofe divided the work into five sections: "Sunrise," the "Painted Desert," "On the Trail," "Sunset" and "Cloudburst." The last movement he conceived during his honeymoon in Minnesota. Apparently, he was caught in an outhouse when a storm hit. His son says he played a personal role in creating the famous rhythmic figure for the "On the Trail" movement. When Grofe Jr. was a year old, his father was looking for a way to depict a man on horseback or mule.

"My father was wheeling me around in a baby carriage. And across the street from the apartment, there were some pile drivers putting in pilings for a building. And that makes that `thunk, clunk, thunk, thunk, thunk,' you know, type of sound. My baby buggy had a squeak in it. And the squeak went `squeak, squeak, squeak, squeak, squeak.' And out of that came 'On the Trail.'"

Ferde Grofe completed the "Grand Canyon Suite" in 1931. At first, he wrote it for a small orchestra, around 20 players. But when he expanded it for a large symphony, Gerard Schwartz says that's when the work came alive.

"Then it became very much more pictorial, very descriptive and with elements of jazz. But really, it was just brilliant orchestration, not so different from what Rimsky-Korsakov would do in a Russian style. But he did it in an American style and in a 20th-century style."

Ferde Grofe is sometimes referred to as America's tone poem composer. He was a sentimentalist. His favorite composer was Tchaikovsky. His son says Grofe saw a wide range of emotional possibilities in the "Grand Canyon."

"'Sunrise,' birth; 'Painted Desert,' the mystique, the unknown, the divine unknown, if you like; 'On the Trail,' the human comedy; 'Sunset,' death. And then 'Cloudburst' is death and resurrection, the battle of good and evil. And I think that's why most people find it so important, because they can identify some emotion in themselves in his work."

Pictorial orchestration is sometimes overlooked when we consider the merits of musical compositions. Ferde Grofe's "Grand Canyon Suite," with its almost non-stop musical effects, communicates an infectious passion for the beauty of the untouched American West. It's become an international postcard, and many of its tunes have entered popular culture. And it's got a happy ending. At the end of the violent "Cloudburst" movement, Grofe leave us with two sections that he called "Moon Comes From Behind the Clouds" and "Nature Rejoices In All Its Grandeur."

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NPR 100 Fact Sheet Title: Grand Canyon Suite Artist: Ferde Grofe Reporter: Theresa Schiavone Producer: Editor: Length: 9:45 Rhapsody in Blue In 1916, an itinerant pianist in his 20s strapped gas cans to a vintage jeep and drove across the Arizona desert to watch the sun rise over the Grand Canyon.

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Going through each step of the purple binder today in Units 1 & 2 has made me feel more confident. The first time I opened the binder I was confused and not sure how to approach it. I love how we’re going over activities from the binder and also how to implement them well / discuss them.

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Greenwich CT Scope & Sequence for Elementary School

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Greenwich CT Scope & Sequence for Elementary School

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Humpty Dump (from Peter and Mary Alice Amidon)

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Humpty Dump (from Peter and Mary Alice Amidon)

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Going through each of the steps and practicing the techniques and methods has made the purple binder a lot less daunting. I look forward to continuing the practice in preparation for this school year.

My district has the CS 1+2 binders, but no one knows what to do with them. I'm excited to find my bearings, get the students going, and maybe change that moving forward.

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After listening to a classical music piece in Step 8, ask the students “if this piece of music was an underscore for a movie (sometimes I say cartoon) what would be going on?

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After listening to a classical music piece in Step 8, ask the students “if this piece of music was an underscore for a movie (sometimes I say cartoon) what would be going on?

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Here’s a former colleague (Sarah Elker) being awesome and creating a little more challenging Move It to Trombone Shorty!

https://video.link/w/R86Sb

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At any point would you incorporate a notation software for writing instead of hand-written notation? Lots of fun options online for free.

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For Oh My Fish in the Sky I use 4 poker chips numbered 1-4 to choose the corners. I make a big deal out of “not looking” while I draw.

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For Oh My Fish in the Sky I use 4 poker chips numbered 1-4 to choose the corners. I make a big deal out of “not looking” while I draw.

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Students sit in a circle with eyes closed and hands behind back. 1 student sits in the middle also with eyes closed. Another student has the key and walks around behind the students, drops key into someone's hand while everyone sings. With eyes still closed the person with the key sings "I have found your closet key" and the person in the middle guesses who it is.

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Karen Engelhart on facebook created an entire playlist using different CS rhythmic units to popular songs for students. Here is one example:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_ba8YkbR-w&list=PLudJa7QWA124Zsl-5ED_TW9jsMZQ6-REU&index=18

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Another music teacher (Sarah Elker) and I created this document to use for ideas for differentiation for the different 12 steps for students.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1nXFljkvo0RelPzZLnGnAh3gmLLLGGui-4b4adecLglc/edit?usp=sharing

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Here is a video of reading rhythms with "The Crane"...!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2JMwQN6bGA&t=63s

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I keep finding myself wishing I had been trained in this curriculum earlier.  I feel like I've been pulling things from TPT, youtube, etc. for the last few years and just surviving and been failing my students. I am so thankful to be here and be truly trained how to teach a music curriculum because I've never had that before. I am so excited to go into this school year with a new a new district, a new knowledge, a plan, and an excitement to teach music again. :)

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In my thoughts, this is making a clear process to me that weaves tuneful/beatful into songs (which is should be), into a scaffolding platform. In company curriculums that districts purchase, it can seem disjointed and the flow/transitions are not as smooth.

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Sharing some fun CS games when you get to the reading step!

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1yzE1qfH0ciJxuHdpDjNAwCdJWQ7lkt_BsZf4L-MbWTo/edit?usp=sharing

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You can use a pop tune (such as Counting Stars) as a background steady beat while going around and assessing create (step 5).

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I am teaching 4-6th grade and my district is a Feierabend district, so they will have already worked most of the way through Level 1 by the time I get them. Any suggestions as to what I should review or how much I should review before jumping in to new material with them? I am struggling to figure that out.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LuB9XFbeix0

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How would you go about incorporating literature that is interesting for older students who view themselves as “too cool for childish songs”? Would you take pop melodies or other genres of music beyond folk to hook students more?

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Do you keep doing echo songs with 5th grade on up? Do you replace them with the canons? What do you suggest as the sequence for successful part singing?

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Another way to teach a circle is to ask all of the kids to hold hands (pre-covid) or touch elbows. Then they can put their hands down and sit. 

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Another way to teach a circle is to ask all of the kids to hold hands (pre-covid) or touch elbows. Then they can put their hands down and sit. 

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A little game I like to play to get K/1/2 to listen to a song if they are struggling and want to join in but really aren't able to... "Beat the Teacher!" If any student sings with the teacher, the teacher gets a point. If they listen while you sing, they get a point. First one to three points wins!

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The folk dances and movement have brought me so much joy over the past few days. My room at school is not conducive to doing a lot of dancing, but after this experience I will make sure that I find a place I can do that with my classes this year.

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Reflection on Katalin Forrai's interview

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Reflection on Katalin Forrai's interview

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She said Kodaly influenced people to become better, well-balanced human beings who came closer together through singing.  EVERYBODY has this right!

This sense of community is so important in our classrooms and in today's society where it is so easy to connect globally through the world wide web but so challenging to make meaningful connections with the people around us with all the distractions. This also ties back into the concept of teaching people to be listeners.

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I love that Kodaly stresses the importance of all music teachers, no matter what grade level they teach,  would be well educated/trained in their musicianship and performance level knowledge on their chosen instrument or instruments!

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I love that Kodaly stresses the importance of all music teachers, no matter what grade level they teach,  would be well educated/trained in their musicianship and performance level knowledge on their chosen instrument or instruments!

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I am grateful for the time spent today on the history leading up to the development of the Feierabend method! Very helpful in connecting where so much knowledge has come from and how it works together!

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I am grateful for the time spent today on the history leading up to the development of the Feierabend method! Very helpful in connecting where so much knowledge has come from and how it works together!

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Today was awesome in the fact that we got to DO all of the fun games. The examples that were provided today were so much fun, and I really loved the canons that were sung today! Will be fun to try out for my HS choirs. :)

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Conversational Solfege Learning Target Visuals

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These are cards I print and put on a bulletin board as a visual for students during the 12 steps of each Conversational Solfege unit. Included are cards to write the name or room number of each class on to create an easy way to track the progress of individual classes through the 12 steps.

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Conversational Solfege Learning Target Visuals

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These are cards I print and put on a bulletin board as a visual for students during the 12 steps of each Conversational Solfege unit. Included are cards to write the name or room number of each class on to create an easy way to track the progress of individual classes through the 12 steps.

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Just like kids get fed every day, so must we have them singing/experiencing music every single day.

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CS Tonal & Rhythm Units - 1 Page - Created by Chris Powers.pdf

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CS 12 Steps of Music Literacy Poster - I use this in my classroom with my students :)

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CS 12 Steps of Music Literacy Poster - I use this in my classroom with my students :)

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Print it on your poster maker!!!

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CS 12 Steps of Music Literacy Poster - Created by Chris Powers.pdf

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CD that accompany Phyllis Weikart Book :)

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CD that accompany Phyllis Weikart Book :)

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The 2022-23 catalog is here! Save 10% on orders $199+. Your catalog source code is your promo code.

This set of 9 CDs is filled with beginning traditional folk dance music to accompany dances from the Teaching Movement and Dance book (item 825653, available separately). The directions for each of the dances are found in the Teaching Movement and Dance book. All of the Rhythmically Moving

This set of 9 CDs is filled with beginning traditional folk dance music to accompany dances from the Teaching Movement and Dance book (item 825653, available separately). The directions for each of the dances are found in the Teaching Movement and Dance book.

All of the Rhythmically Moving recordings feature real instruments (not synthesizer) with enhanced bass.

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The 2022-23 catalog is here! Save 10% on orders $199+. Your catalog source code is your promo code. This set of 9 CDs is filled with beginning traditional folk dance music to accompany dances from the Teaching Movement and Dance book (item 825653, available separately).

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Shhhh....you didn't learn about this from me ;)

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Shhhh....you didn't learn about this from me ;)

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Sample Song Chart (uneditable) - just for reference of what the final product looks like :)

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Sample Song Chart (uneditable) - just for reference of what the final product looks like :)

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Tonal Energy Tuner - great app to find the child's beat

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Tonal Energy Tuner - great app to find the child's beat

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TonalEnergy Tuner & Metronome, a musician’s best friend in practice.

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Music for Kings & Queens: "On The Danforth" by Assembly

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Music for Kings & Queens: "On The Danforth" by Assembly

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Shop Other Side of the Tracks now online or at your local West Music store!

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Scroll down to the bottom of the page to download the Feierabend Repertoire Database

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Scroll down to the bottom of the page to download the Feierabend Repertoire Database

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Welcome to the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion webpage for the First Steps in Music curriculum, presented by GIA Publications in collaboration with the Feierabend Association for Music Education. It is our sincere belief that children and music educators deserve only the very best materials, and our purpose in creating this webpage is to provide educators with information and resources regarding the recent revision of First Steps in Music.

When new information about the racist histories and context of some of the folk songs in the First Steps curriculum was brought to our attention, the Feierabend Association for Music Education (FAME) formed a committee to develop a set of standards for determining whether repertoire may be used with young children without being harmful, derogatory, or disrespectful. The full text of the committee's recommendations is available to download here.

Guided by the committee's recommendations, GIA Publications has revised the First Steps in Music and Conversational Solfege curriculums. The following documents provide specific details about each revision.
*A downloadable supplement will be available soon.
The Feierabend Repertoire Database, by Chris Anne Powers, is a curated collection of the newly revised First Steps in Music repertoire. Each song or rhyme has been thoroughly analyzed and classified using the following categories:

Title

Printed Source

Aural Source

Genres

Country/Language/Origin

Subject

Conversational Solfege Rhythm Unit (updated to reflect new Book 3 edition)

Time Signature

Conversational Solfege Tonal Unit (updated to reflect new Book 3 edition)

Scale

Tonal Center

Tone Set

Recommended Key

Additional Content Notes

Resources currently included in the Feierabend Repertoire Database are:

First Steps in Music for Preschool and Beyond

First Steps in Global Music

The Book of Pitch Exploration

The Book of Echo Songs

The Book of Call & Response

The Book of Children's SongTales

The Book of Movement Exploration

The Book of Fingerplays & Action Songs

The Book of Beginning Circle Games

The Book of Songs & Rhymes with Beat Motions

CD: Had A Little Rooster

CD: Old Joe Clark

CD: There's A Hole In The Bucket

CDs: Music For Creative Movement

Click here to download the database as an Excel file (this file is searchable). This file will be periodically updated as new information becomes available, so users may wish to occasionally return for updated versions of this file. Most recent version: October 27, 2020. It should be noted that at this time the Feierabend Repertoire Database is primarily an analysis of the musical content of the pieces contained therein. And while an historical analysis of each song or rhyme has not been conducted, information shared by the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee of the Feierabend Association for Music Education has been included.

Below we have suggested online resources teachers may find useful for researching American folk materials such as those in the First Steps curriculum. It is also worth noting that several comprehensive and thoughtfully prepared documents with information about the repertoire in the Feierabend curriculum have been compiled and posted on the Feierabend Fundamentals Facebook page.

The American Folk Song Collection: http://kodaly.hnu.edu/collection.cfm

Scholars and educators are encouraged to provide relevant feedback about any song or rhyme in the curriculum. Using the form below, please fill out your name, email address, the title of the song or rhyme, and any comment, question, or information you wish to provide.

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Welcome to the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion webpage for the First Steps in Music curriculum, presented by GIA Publications in collaboration with the Feierabend Association for Music Education. It is our sincere belief that children and music educators deserve only the very best materials, and our purpose in creating this webpage is to provide educators with information and resources regarding the recent revision of First Steps in Music.

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Move It Sequence created by Andy Himelick

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Move It Sequence created by Andy Himelick

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The human voice is the first and most important instrument to be developed. 

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The human voice is the first and most important instrument to be developed. 

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There was a lot to pull from these, but I'm just going to post three.

Kodaly: "beauty cannot come from nothing". All children should be offered the same level of music education because we don't know who will go on to be a professional musician or a lifelong music appreciator. But the musicians who fill the concert stages don't just magically appear, they are taught.

Forrai: "sing and be happy" and "art is imagination and fantasy". She mentions that it is easy to get caught up in the methods and technique and to forget to just simply enjoy making music.

Both Kodaly and Forrai discuss how importance of teacher training. Music teachers should have a high musical ability and the training involves constant learning.

Musical children, children with a strong musical presence at home when they were babies, are "open to receive".

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A takeaway from the Forrai video during the discussion of half steps…. I’ve known that music for young children should not include extensive use of half steps because they are difficult to sing in tune (adults at times too? 🤣).  But I found the discussion about using songs based on a hexachord with a strong do feeling can include fa as long as the mi-fa interval isn’t there very interesting.  Fa is present in many folk songs, but that should not immediately disqualify them for early childhood use.  

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A takeaway from the Forrai video during the discussion of half steps…. I’ve known that music for young children should not include extensive use of half steps because they are difficult to sing in tune (adults at times too? 🤣).  But I found the discussion about using songs based on a hexachord with a strong do feeling can include fa as long as the mi-fa interval isn’t there very interesting.  Fa is present in many folk songs, but that should not immediately disqualify them for early childhood use.  

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Also, we may not make immediate converts out of our students with regard to taste in music, but Forrai says we expose them to good music experiences early then they will have that experience to bring them back to them when they are older.

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Katalyn Forrai video take a way.  She recommends not to introduce young students to lots of different notation ideas before the 5 line staff.  Having a bumblee bee, for example, to show beat is only teaching them something they later have to forget.  I sometimes worry that I'm doing my young kids a disservice by not using lots of pre-notation visuals. This part of the video was very self-affirming.   "Ear before eye"

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Katalyn Forrai video take a way.  She recommends not to introduce young students to lots of different notation ideas before the 5 line staff.  Having a bumblee bee, for example, to show beat is only teaching them something they later have to forget.  I sometimes worry that I'm doing my young kids a disservice by not using lots of pre-notation visuals. This part of the video was very self-affirming.   "Ear before eye"

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TPT: Feierabend Unit Planners, Grade Books, etc :)

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TPT: Feierabend Unit Planners, Grade Books, etc :)

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https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Mrbottorff-Music

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Lots of different ways to accommodate students with limited mobility with teacher or student leaders. Work with students, families, and classroom teacher to discover best course of action!

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If I had a music theory/history teacher like Ben, I probably would have done so much better in undergrad. Which this is re-inspiration to my first mission as to why I became a music teacher.

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Paraphrasing here: you don't feed a child once a week and consider them fed for the week. For something to stick, to be fulfilling, kids need to be fed music (or any other skill or concept) daily. Quality matters, too. A balanced, nutritious diet is imperative.

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Interesting that Kodaly recommends time in school about the same average what it is today.

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"A man without music is incomplete". I feel like this is something as music teachers we all think, but how can we get our students, colleagues, and communities to believe in this as well.

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I love the sacred harp style of singing. It is truly an incredible feat that people have passed down. Truly a type of music by the people!

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Most learning happens when a student sings individually

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After day one I'm already thinking of ways to incorporate more movement into my older classes that they would enjoy. 

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After day one I'm already thinking of ways to incorporate more movement into my older classes that they would enjoy. 

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Takeaway to apply RIGHT away -- Don't ever sing WITH the class!

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Takeaway to apply RIGHT away -- Don't ever sing WITH the class!