Our Music “Road Maps”

               I explained “processing levels” in teaching music in a recent presentation.  Allow me to give you a few examples of teaching music concepts that I find almost always “over processes” young musicians when first presented.  It does not take much to arrive at a beginning musician’s “processing limit.” Most are just not used to the degree of “multi-tasking” learning to play an instrument requires.  Even the simplest of things (ones we take for granted) still quickly “eat into” our student’s use of “operational memory.” 

              A perfect example of this is what I refer to as “eye scripting.”  We sometimes have to literally show students “where” to look when reading music.  We follow the contour of the music line as we practice reading slightly ahead of where we are playing.  Reading ahead is crucial as we move from one music staff line to the next, knowing where to go if we run into a “repeat” or “skip to ___” cue.  Another area in music that initially always seems to give ALL music students difficulty is differentiating between such concepts as; “repeats,” “codas,” “fine,” and the abbreviations of “D.S.” and “D.C.” The confusion may not be as much the understanding of each term’s definition but in their execution, when students are close to (if not already exceeding) their own “processing limit.” 

              Earlier this year, I presented a series of four-part chorales/orchestral excerpts from the original middle school “Habits” book (The one which was not published).  The exercises were designed to help students navigate and apply the definitions mentioned above by using a “color coding” approach for easier reference and more accurate execution when performing them in music.  I refer to these colored line aids as a “road map” that would take the student’s eyes to a particular measure they had to “jump” to, as dictated by the written music.  Whenever a jump occurred, a new color line would originate from that measure we jumped to and would continue in the music until the next jump occurred or until the music ended.  Several “colored lines” would sometimes exist over the same measure(s), one below the other.  The director could initially “talk through” the “road map” using the measure numbers and the different colored lines to help clarify and review the role of each musical term or symbol as presented in the music.  The initial line was always “green” and would change in a particular order (yellow, red, blue, etc.) as needed.  The composer and music publishers use these different “mapping” terms for convenience and to save ink.  However, they always seem confusing to beginning musicians until a certain number of “reps.” are applied for each term.  The color helps clarify the specific sequence of measures and dramatically speeds up the comprehension aspect of each term as they are applied.  The “Composer’s Corner” exercises (as we called them) offered the number of “reps” by realistically using these terms in the context of short ensemble warm-ups.

              The “Composer’s Corner” series is not my main target for presentation to you today but as another example of how one might benefit by considering “processing levels” in presenting complicated musical concepts.  However, if anyone is interested in the “C. C.” materials, let me know and I can “re-present” some of them or put them all up on a website and present them to “Amplify” readers through a URL link.  The new material, “Our Music Road Map,” can be used as a “beginning of the year” quiz or worksheet to review or confirm comprehension and application of these various “mapping” musical terms.  Exercises “A” and “B” are given to the students without musical notation, but all measures are written out.  Not having notes in these measures helps simplify things for the eyes and allows students to focus on the targeted task and each exercise’s correct measure sequence.  On a separate answer sheet, there are a series of questions about “required jumps” in each activity.  The required answers are specific measure numbers in the student’s “road map.”  There is an “answer key” at the bottom of each answer sheet.  The answer key simplifies the student’s answers by writing down one alphabet letter, making grading easier for the teacher.

            I have four different answer sheets that you can use.  The questions are the same, but the answer key’s order differs.  Before I pass out the sheets, I might alternate the various versions (1 through 4) in my “pass-out” pile.  This way, no two students (sitting next to each other) will have similar answer sheet papers.  I was not concerned so much about cheating, but students knowing about the four different answer sheets in advance helped eliminate any “temptation.”  I could also do other needed “preparation tasks” while the students completed their sheets or even pre-set the activity for a substitute.   I would then use a single “answer key” sheet with all four answer sequences written to help speed up the overall grading process. 

Sincerely,

Rich Moon