Meter
This element is a logical follower to beat and rhythm because they are connected. It's not a topic to be brushed over and can easily get confusing for young minds - especially as you dive deeper into it. The basic principles I want my students to know are that each of the two main meters (2 and 3) has a feeling - I choose "march" for 2 and "sway" for 3 but that is arbitrary. If you have something that works, have at it.
I want students to know that all meters are combinations of these two basic meters. I divide meter into categories: duple (2), triple (3), compound (6 or 12), and unusual (5 or 7). Any time you have a meter other than 2 or 3, it is simply a combination of these two. Meter in 4 is two groups of 2, meter in 5 is either a 2+3 feel or a 3+2 feel, and so on.
I connect meter with life and address the reasons why meter in 2 is so much easier for us than meter in 3 or any unusual meter. We have two legs and feet. Walking is a meter in 2. We would certainly look a bit odd walking in 3. Our heartbeat is a meter in 2 (or the compound meter of 6 if you want to get technical). Meter in 2 or 4 is relatively easy to grasp as opposed to other meters.
Here is the breakdown of how I address meter in each grade level.
Pre-K - At this age, I am mainly concerned with my students knowing that "Meter in 2" and "Meter in 3" exist. They are too young to really intellectualize much more about it. Because of this, they need lots of experiences playing instruments, singing, and moving to each. I often point out "This song was meter in 3."
Kindergarten - I'm not so concerned that students at this age give a name to "meter in 2" or "meter in 3" but if they can, that's great. My main focus for kindergarteners is their ability to identify "strong-weak" and "strong-weak-weak" patterns in music. Movement and playing of instruments is the best way to accomplish this. Visual representations are also a must (big and little sticks, large and small pictures, etc.). The repeat sign is also something I like to introduce at this grade level.
First Grade - In first grade, we begin to name beat groupings as "meter in 2" or "meter in 3." We identify the time signature (meter sign) at the beginning of written music. We practice dividing written music with barlines. We review the repeat sign and also learn about the double bar.
Second Grade - With the introduction of longer note values during the study of rhythm, this is a good age to focus on the written aspect of meter a little more deeply. We can see that other meters exist (meter in 4).
Third Grade - In third grade, with the introduction of syncopation, much experience with reading, singing, and playing or moving to meter is very important. At this age I stick to basic meters of 2, 3, and 4. We continue to identify the meter sign (still using a number over a note value rather than an actual time signature) and discuss what it means.
Fourth Grade - In fourth grade we can introduce the lower number in the time signature. Why? This is traditionally the year students begin to learn fractions in math. We continue to identify the feeling of various meters, practice interchanging note values for number values in the meter sign, and practice counting multiple measures of rest (this can be done in third grade - however, in my current situation, we play the recorder in fourth grade so it's a prime opportunity to learn to count multiple measures of rest when playing with recorded accompaniment).
Fifth Grade - We continue to study all the meter concepts from previous years, but add the concepts of compound meter and unusual meter. At this age, you can test the waters to see if they truly understand meter as it is written and as it is heard. Play a simple tune like "Mary Had a Little Lamb" then play it again - changing the meter. How was it different? You can have the students practice this in writing if your daily schedule allows time.
Melody
I have a firm foundation in the Kodály method, although I have never taken the certification levels for this method. I prefer Kodály especially when it comes to developing melodic concept in children because of the hand signs. It provides a very kinesthetic aspect to the teaching of melody. Not only does each pitch "feel" different (the sign itself), but children gain the relationship of higher and lower that each pitch has in relation to the others.
My students learn these main ideas: The note head is the part of the written note that identifies the melody or pitch. Pitches are individual sounds (do, mi). Melodies are made up of groups of pitches (do-mi-so). Melodies can move in three ways - up, down, or staying the same. Pitches have four different relationships to each other - step, leap, skip, and repeat.
Before going into grade level introductions, it is important to note that singing a melody (not a short one, but one of any length) completely in solfege has little to no value to students at this age. You may want to try this type of activity late in fifth grade, but singing through music in solfege in the elementary grades has little to no meaning to a developing child. What we are aiming for here is that students begin to recognize patterns of sound and that music is, at the lowest level, a series of these patterns.
Here is my breakdown by grade level as to how I introduce melodic concepts to my students:
Pre-K - high, middle, low. This takes a lot of work. I also make sure to address that "high" does not mean "loud" nor does "low" mean "soft." We address melodic range in pieces of music as "high" or "low." We also do some vocal-visual work at this age - following abstract drawings (or actual drawings if you want!) with our voices.
Kindergarten - we continue work on high and low and upward and downward melodic motion. I do some visual representation of melodies (pictures, big circles) representing upward and downward motion, but don't get into actual notation at this point.
First Grade - In first grade we start to learn a few actual pitch names. I introduce them in this order: so and mi (together...if you prefer "sol" by all means, write it that way), then la, then do. We start to read so and mi on two lines, then on two spaces (three lines) and talk a great deal about "on the line" or "in the space." It's also important to strongly address the "left-to-right" nature of music reading. When writing melodies for the first time, it is common for students place notes on top of each other or place the first pitch of a melody then begin to write the second pitch before the first one. I demonstrate this by writing my name - left to right, then writing it again with the letters all jumbled up. I also talk about when the teacher says, "Write your name on the line..." it is quite different when we write music "on the line." We discuss how "so and mi are in spaces, then la goes on the line above so. When so and mi are on lines, then la goes in the space above so." After some practice with two lines and two spaces, we expand it to the full staff. We talk about the number of lines and spaces and how we number from bottom to top, not top to bottom. When I introduce do, I use the old Kodály "key" for finding do on the staff (present textbooks tend to write the word "do" at the beginning). We sing:
Then we sing the converse, "When do is in a space..."
Second Grade - In second grade we start looking at pitch relationships - step, leap, skip, and repeat. I introduce the pitches re and do¹. I have heard talk that this approach is best suited for Hungarian children and that American children should be introduced to the pentachord as soon as possible (do, re, mi, fa, so) but...the Hungarian way has worked for me for the past 27 years and I'm not about to fix something that isn't (for me) broken. If you want to do it that way, have at it...but you didn't hear it from me.
Third Grade - Third grade students continue to work on reading, singing, and playing the pentatonic and finding melodic patterns containing do, re, mi, so, la, and do¹ in songs that we sing. We practice reading the pentatonic (or its pitches) in various keys. This is also the age when we begin to look at tonality (major and minor) and pitches below do (low-la and low-so or la1 and so1). We learn about "home tone" for major and minor - the focus or "home tone" for major is do, for minor it is la.
Fourth Grade - I introduce fa and ti in fourth grade. Fa and ti get saved for this later stage in development because of the concept of the half step. There are plenty of adults who could not tell you which pitch is higher when listening to a half step and hearing it can be tough. I introduce the meaning of "sharp" and "flat." After the introduction of these pitches fa and ti, we can talk about the order of whole and half steps in the major scale. "We were happy when we were home." Whole-whole-half-whole-whole-whole-half. How will this order change if a song is in minor mode? We look at simple key signatures of C major, F major, and G major and their relative minors A minor, D minor, and E minor. Fourth grade is also the year that we begin to name pitches with syllables as well as letter names.
Fifth Grade - In this grade level we can address the full spectrum of key signatures and scales. We talk about the importance of key signatures ("Why not just write everything in C major?"). We discover the circle of fifths. We practice interchanging pitch names with syllables, letters, and scale degrees. This is kind of "heavy duty" so it's best to break this up over the year. Too much "theory" can make Jack a very dull boy - and Norm a not-so-fun-and-interesting music teacher! Find the most creative and fun ways you can to inject these rather heavy musical topics into each music lesson.
Next week...harmony and form...until then...
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