Making Time For Fundamentals That Stick!
Cheryl Lines

It was a busy summer for your MMEA executive board and a most rewarding one at that. The preparations for this year’s state conference are well underway and it is with great enthusiasm that we welcome the first-ever general music performing ensemble to Salon C at Tan-Tar-A Resort, 2009! Congratulations to the Shere Khan Percussion Ensemble and their director Pam Dumey of Cape Girardeau for expanding their music vision across the state. Best wishes for a memorable performance and many thanks to all the ensembles that sent in audition materials for the conference. I encourage all to make plans now to consider submitting a recording for 2010. It does take planning. It does take patience. It does take quality equipment. But, it is also one of the most affordable and enriching experiences you’ll ever share with your students, especially students at the elementary and middle levels who don’t have as many opportunities to see and hear the world of music beyond their classroom walls. Please consider taking your chances this school year. You won’t be sorry.

The next issue of the state magazine will give you many details regarding the 71st Annual In-Service Workshop/Conference, but for those of you planning early for PDC opportunities, here are the highlights for the general music sessions in addition to the Shere Kahn ensemble:

• Phyllis Weikart, famed author, professor, and renowned music/movement specialist will lead 2 sessions (1 pre-conference, 1 in-session) with folk dance.
• John Feierabend, leading authority on music and music development will be making a much requested return visit to Missouri to offer a session titled, “12 Steps to Music Literacy Using Conversational Solfege”.
• Mary Lynn Lightfoot, respected Missouri composer and Choral Editor for Heritage Music Press will present a reading session, “Motivating Music for Middle School Choirs”.
• Brett Nolker, a Missouri native and Assistant Professor of Music Education at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro is a sought-after presenter nationwide. He will present 2 sessions for general music at the middle levels promoting literacy and advocacy.

With conference business well cared for, I know that you are well underway in another new school year. As general music teachers, most of you see every student in the school and teach a wide range of music activities in a given school year including (just to name a few) pitch matching, instrument families, multicultural and historical music, movement and dance, recorders, and school musicals all in the context of reaching hundreds of children with multiple learning styles and abilities.

In this submission, I hope to bind all those areas of focus in your diverse curriculums with one sure-fire plan for success. I recommend that every general music teacher include basic fundamental music concepts into every class period at every grade level regardless of what the primary focus of the lesson is for the day. As you probably guessed, the key word here is “EVERY”. By human nature, we are all creatures of habit. Things we do repeatedly and frequently over a long period of time tend to “stick” with us. In fact, this learning style doesn’t only stick, it gives us great confidence and independence, qualities we, as teachers, need for own individual success and further, what we wish for our students.

I believe that music fundamentals are important because note reading, content area vocabulary, rhythmic skill, and proper sound production are the building blocks to successful musicianship. Not only will all these skills carry over into any area of music performance, vocal/instrumental and solo/ensemble, but these skills, “under a student’s belt”, so to say, will promote a faster learning curve for performance. With that said, the student who learns faster is more likely to stay interested and involved in a given area of performance and is more apt to stick with their musical specialty for a lifetime.

Many general music teachers teach fundamentals for a unit or two in a given school year, but then get wrapped up in musical preparation, PTO meeting performances, or other individual units and choose not to keep up with fundamental instruction due to time restraints. Other teachers feel that kids get “burned out” on fundamentals and worry about their students becoming bored rather than remaining inspired and engaged. Teachers who stick to music fundamentals for at least a few minutes of EVERY class period, find several benefits to all other areas of instruction. Here are just a few examples of what to expect:

• Make Minutes Count! Children can only stay on task about one minute per year of age so squeezing in a little note naming, vocabulary drill, or sight-singing can be a great break from an otherwise intense and draining rehearsal.
• Establish Routine! Students who experience a set routine that begins and ends with vocalises, unison singing, or rhythm reading tend to settle down faster and are more alert and handle transition better, knowing that they’ll have both familiar and new material in each lesson.
• Use It or Lose It! Research shows that children who do not read music by age 13 are not likely to ever learn and furthermore, those who don’t use their music reading skills regularly may never gain proficiency. With this in mind, the general music teacher not only has ample opportunity to give students this knowledge but also an obligation to further the art itself.
• Set Priority! In private study or performing ensembles, a rehearsal would not be complete without warm-ups, scale study, and technique exercises. A teacher who fails to routinely ask for this at every lesson is in short, teaching the student that fundamentals are unimportant. Always be mindful of the unspoken lesson that you’re teaching if you cut corners or take shortcuts in a well-rounded music education.
• Efficiency is Key! If time is your main concern, think of the efficiency you’ll gain if your students have a solid foundation of fundamentals before you begin work on that next important performance. Fundamentally sound musicians will learn parts quicker, read rhythms more accurately, match vowels and sing in a healthy way, understand instruction better, breeze through honor group audition materials and festival selections, and guess what? They’ll be able to take the music home and learn and study it for themselves with success!

Voila! There you have it. Taking time for music fundamentals EVERY class period really will “stick” and will impart confidence and independence in your students. Below are some easy ways to implement fundamentals into your daily teaching routines that won’t cost a fortune, take up much time, or involve the reinvention of the wheel.

1. Use warm-ups that have a specific purpose.
2. Sing the note names of a unison song daily.
3. Try series such as “Successful Sight-Singing” or “Rhythm Reader”.
4. Use flash cards for vocabulary. Try to add 3 new words per week.
5. Clap and count rhythms aloud every day.
6. Try speed worksheets for letter names.

Any of the above activities take just a minute or two of your class period and can be done at the beginning of class, the end of class, as a sponge activity, a large group activity, a partner activity, or even individually.

Whatever you try, keep it simple, keep it short and keep it up…over and over and over again, until the confidence builds, the independence appears, and the transfer of knowledge takes place right before your very eyes. When music fundamentals are made a part of your daily classroom routine, you’ll see that you are not only teaching music successfully, but you are also carrying out MENC’s mission statement: “To advance music education by encouraging the study and making of music by all.” And don’t forget: Your job is to carry out this mission EVERY day!