AP Music Theory Snapshot
I have recently been engaged in some “heavy-duty” teacher reflection. I truly believe that effective educators are disciplined reflective practitioners. To that end, as prompted by some work I have been doing on the district level in my teaching position, as well as my own need for regular detailed teacher reflection, I have decided to present some snapshots of my teaching on my blog. As always, I welcome any perspectives, feedback, or questions. In my previous three posts, I have been focused on my work within a choral music education classroom. In the next three posts, I would like to share some glimpses of my work with the non-performing side of music education, namely, my work with Advanced Placement Music Theory courses. Here’s the first of three posts regarding a unit for my Advanced Placement Music Theory course:
In an Advanced Placement Music Theory course, such as that featured in this entry, students study not only the what and how of musical structure but also engage in the richer, more evocative why and what if. Skills ranging from sight-singing and aural recognition to visual analysis and composition comprise the curriculum. Developing the “seeing ear” and “hearing eye” empowers AP Music Theory students to become independent musicians. The course mirrors a college music curriculum and seeks first to instill mastery of the rudiments and terminology of music. These concepts are addressed through a wide variety of music, including that based in the European classical tonal system as well as contemporary, jazz, popular, and the music of other cultures. Students are guided to interpret, analyze, and compose through sophisticated and creative tasks. Rewards for the successful AP student are great: gaining musical understanding and confidence; enhancing performance skills; acquiring a head start on college-level study; and satisfying a broadening musical curiosity. Instructor rewards spring from the day-to-day teaching of a subject that has a powerful impact on the musical lives of students.
Many students enter AP Music Theory as skilled musicians with trained auditory senses and are active members of curricular ensembles. Other students come with a devotion to music, a creative interest in improving their technical knowledge, but possess very little formal training. While both groups of students are enthusiastically welcomed, those students with music literacy and basic performance skills are those who pass the placement exam required for enrollment.
The class featured in this entry is comprised of 10 students, five males and five females. Eight of the students are seniors along with one junior and one sophomore. One of the ten students is of Asian/Pacific Islander decent. Nine are members of advanced auditioned choral and instrumental ensembles and are leaders in their sections, both musically and otherwise. The remaining student is an accomplished guitarist, and is not enrolled in a curricular performing ensemble. Four are proficient instrumentalists and the remaining six are vocal/choral musicians. They are intrinsically dedicated to, and have a natural command in every music situation in which they perform. Beyond their fine arts talent, these ten students are actively involved in major student organizations throughout the school. They have a marvelous intellect, a mature sense of interaction, and a genuine care for others around them. Through their leadership, they have a great deal to do with maintaining a positive climate within the music department.
Due to their maturity and work ethic, the AP Music Theory students are often surprisingly docile and serious. They so strongly strive to acquire information that aids them in improving as musicians that they meticulously take notes, work from bell to bell, and complete coursework with pride and confidence. They are not competitive but are appreciative of peer assistance. They enjoy performing and sharing their creative work, but are also able to thrive as independent workers. They reinforce each other’s work, provide sensible criticism, and possess a mature sense of humor. In many ways, the students in this class do not reflect the conventional high school musician.
I challenge myself daily to administer an AP Music Theory curriculum that fosters an integrated approach to music. While concepts may be successfully presented through isolated exercises, students desire to see the ways in which these concepts relate to the larger context of “whole music.” I challenge and promote students to be grounded in recursive learning. That is, student comprehension of concepts become stronger as new concepts build upon those previously studied. Various methodologies are incorporated to engage and accommodate different learning styles. For example, students create visual models to demonstrate form, harmonic motion, or melodic contour. Movement is encouraged for internalizing rhythm, meter, or form. Interdisciplinary resources such as language arts, science, or social sciences are frequently used. Students are supplied with opportunities to perform, evaluate, analyze, and revise each other’s compositions. They develop board games or competitions to keep repetitive and memorization activities engaging. Algorithms are used as a means of approaching dictation activites so students can efficiently “chunk” what they hear. Numerous opportunities are provided for students to teach the class and lead discussions.
A recent lesson on Melodic Principles served as the introduction to the creative/compositional processes in the AP Music Theory curriculum. The primary focus of this lesson was to introduce and analyze the following characteristics of melody: (1) all melodies have structure; (2) rhythm cannot be separate from melody; (3) all melodies have contour; (4) all melodies create tension and repose – that is, musical motion; (5) all melodies have a range; and (6) all melodies can be described as tonal or atonal. Prior to this lesson students developed fluency in basic notation, keyboard orientation, elements of rhythm, major-minor tonality, intervals, and triads. They had experience analyzing and writing small compositions to demonstrate understanding of various concepts. However, they looked forward to investing their knowledge in larger, more substantial composition projects that challenges them to holistically apply their previous work.
On a daily basis, as students enter the classroom (MIDI Lab) a music recording is always being played. Students attentively listen to the song as it often directly relates to the daily lesson. This particular lesson began with a sequence of two pieces: Attention by Congolese musician Rigo Star, and Jaojoby, a Madagascarian vocalist, performing Vamba Anao Nomoaly. When class began, a short discussion ensued regarding the melodic similarities and differences of African popular genres as compared to that of the United States.
Upon entering the classroom, students are also in the habit of logging onto the computers in the MIDI lab and entering an AP Music Theory website. I custom designed this web-based music environment as a series of web pages that allow students to progress through topics, assignments, and projects. Within the site, students are led to explore concepts as well as integrate with their peers. In the end, the website promotes a student controlled learning environment, cooperative learning and review, and portfolio assessment that enables students, parents, and the instructor to guide, observe, and evaluate musical knowledge and growth.
In this lesson, a presentation of melodic principles found on the course website guided students through the sequence of topics. The presentation was created on Microsoft PowerPoint, converted into an Adobe Acrobat file, and uploaded onto the website enabling students to easily reference the file outside the classroom. Prior to the class, I equipped one student station with a CD recording that contained musical excerpts demonstrating various topics. Additionally, I asked three students to bring their instruments (alto saxophone, tuba, and trumpet) to perform musical examples.
With students facing their individual computers, equipped with materials with which to take notes, they loaded the 11-slide melodic principles presentation. The first slide was simply a black screen which a specialized silver “melodic principles” graphic acting as the running header for the presentation. Slide 2 provided an opening description of the three domains of music: melody, harmony, and rhythm. The third slide influenced a class discussion regarding the definition of “melody.” A student was asked to read and justify the definition: A coherent succession of pitches. The fourth slide described an intriguing fact: All cultures have perceivable melodies. The slide contained a listing of nine different countries, each with a CD icon beside the name. The countries included: Tuva, Pakistan, Bulgaria, Ireland, Colombia, Sardinia, Tanzania, United Kingdom, and the United States. The students were prompted to request the excerpts of several countries.
The fifth slide presented the outline for the remaining slides in the presentation by introducing six characteristics of melody. In regards to structure, slide 6 inspired conversation about intervallic structure and conjunct/disjunct movement. The opening violin melody from Wagner’s Overture to Die Meistersinger served as a notated example of a conjunct melody. A notated example of a melody by Smetana was also used on this slide. A student played this melody on the saxophone as his peers were asked to carefully listen for its disjunct qualities.
Slide 7 addressed the relationship between a melody and its imbedded rhythms. In demonstrating the ways in which rhythmic motives can give a melody movement and motion, the second movement of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7 was played. In order to take an already familiar melody to demonstrate a concept, Wagner’s Overture to Die Meistersinger was used to demonstrate the ways in which a balance between similar and contrasting rhythms can sometimes make a melody interesting by shaping it.
The eighth slide in the presentation gave notated and aural examples of ascending, descending, arch, inverted arch, and stationary melodic contour. The opening melodic motive of Mozart’s Piano Sonata in F Major (KV 332) served as an example of ascending contour. Descending contour was demonstrated by the melody from Fields of Gold by current English pop artist, Sting. Pete Seeger’s recording of Turn, Turn, Turn served as the example of arch contour, while the aural example for inverted arch was the opening flute solo of Debussy’s Prelude A L’Apres-Midi D-un Faune. Finally, stationary contour was demonstrated in the chorus of Africa by 1980′s hit band, Toto.
Slide 9 of the presentation led students to discuss and discover the ways in which a melody uses tension and repose. The notated and aural example used was the English horn solo from Dvorak’s Symphony No. 9, 2nd Mvt. While listening, students were prompted to read the music and explain the ways in which Dvorak uses repetition and range to fulfill the listener’s expectations.
In the following slide, a student tuba player was asked to play a challenging excerpt by Dereau. Students were asked to listen to the performance, view the notation, and identify the lowest and highest pitches. A subsequent discussion followed regarding the ways in which a composer must be sensitive to the ways in which range can impact performance and perception of melody.
In the final slide, students were led to discover that a tonal melody has a modal center. On the other hand, in an atonal melody, the pitches have no “common denominator,” and can best be described as being random. A student trumpet player performed a short march excerpt that clearly included diatonic pitches within a tonic/dominant harmonic structure. Another example used for tonal melody was Some Enchanted Evening from the Broadway musical “South Pacific.” To demonstrate the characteristics and qualities of an atonal melody, the students listened to and discussed Milton Babbit’s Philomel: Section I.
During the course of this lesson, an environment was established where students were able to choose what music selections they desired to hear, how fast or slow to progress through the slides by making inquiries regarding concepts, and giving opportunities for students to perform for their peers. Students were constructively engaged in the sustained activity of reading text, interpreting notation, listening to excerpts, performing, taking notes, asking questions, and making statements of analysis. While each student was working at individual computer stations, a collaborative atmosphere was evident as they cooperatively learned about and experienced the variety of melodic principles. As evidenced on the videotape, throughout the class, I created a congenial and purposeful learning environment by walking around the room, calling on all the students, prompting them to listen and perform well, and encouraging note taking skills.
Upon the entering the classroom, students were aware that the concepts at hand were purposeful and important to their musical growth and progress. In preparing the presentation, converting it to be viewed on the website, creating the excerpt recording, guiding the presentation, providing student performers with music prior to the lesson, to having the computers on, playback volume appropriately set, and chairs and stands ready for class, the environment was orderly and workable. The routines of listening as they walk in the classroom and logging onto the computers maximized the student engagement, listening attitude, and musical performance. These routines ensured that the students knew what was expected of them in this class, motivated their careful attention, and empowered their confidence and willingness to participate.
