"The Plan" - Part IV

This week we look at the elements of harmony and form.

Harmony

When developing harmonic concept in young children, baby steps are really important.  Singing in harmony and aurally identifying it are not easy tasks for most human beings - especially at the age of elementary students.

Here is the breakdown by grade level of how I cover harmony:

Pre-K - I make sure I use lots of "harmony" words when speaking in class.  "Let's sing that without the accompaniment...or...I am going to play an ostinato."  It's also important that students at this age learn to echo appropriately (i.e. not sing your part with you - which they love to do!).  It is important that young students get the idea that we "take turns" musically (my part, your part).

Kindergarten - In kindergarten we continue to make sure we know when our "turn" is and we develop the ability to identify the presence and absence of accompaniment.  At this age I have students play simple ostinati to accompany age-appropriate songs as well.

1st Grade - Here we actually want to identify an ostinato.  Later in the year we want to make sure students understand we can have rhythmic ostinati (that don't add harmony) and melodic ostinati (that do add harmony).  We play them while the class sings, we play along with recordings, we also make sure that we know when an accompaniment is NOT an ostinato.  Just because an instrument is playing along, does not mean it is an ostinato.

2nd Grade - In second grade we want to get to the point where we actually know what "harmony" is - two or more pitches being played or sung simultaneously.  I want them to understand that just because an instrument is playing with a singer (or singers) it may not necessarily be playing harmony.  At this age it's also appropriate to have students recognize simple chord changes in an accompaniment (I-V).

3rd Grade - Third graders really start getting into the nitty gritty of harmony.  They do all the previous activities with harmony, but also identify a chord as "three or more pitches played together."  We identify chord symbols when they are present in printed music and play them on classroom instruments.  We look at what harmony looks like in printed music.  In third grade we also work on identifying and singing canons (rounds) and partner songs.

4th Grade - In fourth grade I give my students more practice with all of the previous harmony experiences - accompaniment, ostinati, chords, canons, and partner songs.  We may also play a recorder song in two parts.

5th Grade - Once again, this is the year when we can approach the more theoretical side of all the harmony experiences they've had since pre-K.  We can add the idea of Roman numerals marking chords.  We can build chords based on scales (identifying scale degrees, letter names, and syllable names of pitches).  This is also the year when I introduce reading two-part written music (for singing) as well as the term "descant."

Form

This element is one of the best for relating music to life.  I usually start of my form introduction with the parts of a house - two squares for the windows, a big square for the actual house, a rectangle for the door and a triangle for the chimney.  I say, "What do you think might happen if an alien came to you and had never seen a house?  How do you think he would put these pieces together?  I then go about making some ridiculous combination of the above-named shapes.  Then I explain, "Because we know the order of the parts of a house, we can put a house together that makes sense.  Music is the same way..."  I also try to impress upon them that nearly everything has form (the body, the weather, visual art, buildings, etc.).

Here is the grade level breakdown for form:

Pre-K - Four-year-olds can identify "same" and "different."  At this age I play small examples or melody fragments and ask the students to identify if they are the same or different.  We also have lots and lots of experiences singing songs in AB and ABA form and do dance with "same" and "different" parts.

Kindergarten - In kindergarten when discussing form, I mainly want my students to know two words and know them well - these are:  "verse" and "refrain."  We make a big deal about "different words/same music" and "same words/same music" repeated.

1st Grade - In first grade we work on being able to identify AB and ABA forms in music.  We also point out that some songs simply have an "A" section and nothing else.

2nd Grade - In second grade we can add slightly more complex combinations of "A" and "B" and continue to find the verse and refrain in music both aurally and when printed.

3rd Grade - Adding to AB, ABA, and AABA, this is the age when I like to introduce rondo form.  It's also a time when we can actually discuss "parts" of a piece of music.  "How did you know A was ending and B was beginning?"  This is a perfect opportunity to review all the elements of music.  "What can change in a song's parts?  What if there is no singing, what can change?"

4th Grade - This is a good time to focus on printed music directions that give big clues to form - D.S., D.C., coda, and fine should all be parts of the fourth grade vocabulary when discussing form.

5th Grade - There was a time when I would use fifth grade to introduce more complex forms - sonata form, fugue...but...with new times come new demands and my daily lessons do not allow for this.  Now I am content to add theme and variations to their form vocabulary and if we get that far (when combined with all of the topics from the previous years), I am satisfied.

Next week I'll get into tone color and talk a little about the "expressive elements" and "music-related" elements.  Until next week...