Week 3

Another week in Music 373 has gone by and we have continued on our quest of gaining musical knowleadge. This week we continued working on steady beat and rhythm while adding on new concepts. To work on rhythm we learned the Bee Bee Bumble Bee song, where we put big X's on the quarter notes and little X's on the eight notes. Then we could clap out the rhythm following our X's. After figuring out the rhythm we learned about melody, which is a combination of various pitches high, low, or constant. Now that we knew what melody was we tried singing the song. Looking at the song we could tell if the pitches were higher or lowere than the one before by looking at the notes position. The higher the note on the staff the higher the sound, the lower the note on the staff the lower the sound. We learned the different note names, how to draw a staff, and treble clef or G clef. We are starting to learn how to look at music and make it music. Once we had figured out the rhythm and the relationship of the notes to pitches we went ahead to draw pictures to go with the rhythm pattern and where the pitches fell. The pictures were a easier way for the children to understand the music. To keep practices pitch relation, melody, and rhythm we practiced the same concepts on the rain song. On Friday we switch moods and went to the recorder. First we reviewed the notes we learned last week and there position on the staff. Next we got a chance to write our own notes to the rhythm of the bee song. Then we got to preform our composition.

These concepts of melody, rhythm, and notes were taught to us through learning and then applying them to certain songs. I would say for me personally what we learned this week was review of past knowleadge. I did though learn more on how to work with children. How they are more visual learners so teaching them through pictures is easier then teaching them on a staff. Simple is better with younger kids. As a teacher we need to remember that they are not at are level; we need to go at a slower pace and teach concepts one on one to their unquie needs.

The importance of this week comes through the concept of melody. Knowing melody is knowing music. Knowng how to interpret music so it can be expressed through voice or instrument is important. This week provide good information to us because it helped take are knowleadge of rhyming to the next level. Kids need to know melody because that is what makes music. Its the melody of the song that express the music.