Michael Joviala

Tag: For Parents & Families

  • Letter to 1st and 2nd Grade Families

    note: here’s an end-of-the-year summary for the families of my 1st and 2nd grade Dalcroze classes. I refer to a list of skills and experiences. It’s a bit long for a post, but if you are intersested, I’m happy to send you a copy.

    Dear 1st and 2nd grade families,

    The 1st and 2nd grade Tuesday Dalcroze group came a long way this year. Dalcroze learning is based on the accumulation of musical experience. We move, sing, play games and use our imaginations for 45 (or fewer!) minutes per week. In a music conservatory like Diller Quaile, a portion of that time is spent relating their experiences to skills, knowledge and understanding they will need as they learn their instruments. However, children especially will have a hard time explaining exactly what they learned or even did. I’ve attached a long list of skills and experiences they have had this year, but even I am overwhelmed by looking at it! We did all that?! Wow. It’s important to remember that the kids may have not, say, completely mastered the concept of meter, but they can probably perform a requested action (a jump, for example) on the first beat of a measure, even when the music changes between meters. They may not be able to explain what the difference between consonance and dissonance is just yet, but they have created shapes with their bodies to express the differences, which are all too apparent to them even at this young age. It’s best to keep that in mind when looking at the list of skills and experiences that I culled from my record of lesson plans for the year. It’s just a beginning.

    Demonstration classes are the most effective way to understand what goes on in a Dalcroze class, but those were difficult this year because of COVID, so here’s a description of a typical class. Hopefully that will give you a context through which to understand the larger list of skills and experiences.

    I like to start my classes with a physical warm-up, and I love to do it with them. Their class is at the end of the day, and I imagine they need to be grounded in their bodies as much as I do. For each class, I choose a movement subject, a rhythm subject and a pitch subject. I don’t always get to each, but that is the goal. (To make it easier, I sometimes try to kill two birds with one stone!) In this class, from week 19, my movement subject was isolations (i.e. moving a single part of the body by itself), meter and basic vocal exploration. Here’s what we did.

    I began by putting on some music by a young jazz vibraphonist I like named Joel Ross. This week there was nothing definite they were supposed to hear in the music, but I hoped it was set a tone of focused, creative curiosity. I began by slowly moving a single part of my body (maybe an arm, my shoulder, a foot), and gave them the direction, “Move a different part of your body at the same tempo.” When they got the idea, I let different students lead. After a while, I switched the directions: “Move the same part of your body at a different tempo.” I had a couple goals in mind. One was to expand their movement vocabulary. This can be accomplished by watching others, and perhaps by moving, say, an arm much more slowly than they are accustomed to. The other goal was to work with the concept of tempo.

    After the movement warm-up, I usually move into the rhythm subject, which often calls for more specific kinds of movement. Today the subject was meter (regular groupings of 2, 3 or 4 beats). An important musical skill is being able to keep track of the first beat of the measure, even if the groupings change. First we sat, and we tapped the floor on count 1, and the remaining beats of the measure we clapped silently. At first I called out the number of beats, but soon I was just playing on the drum as they followed the changes. When they could do this well, I switched to the piano. After they mastered this, I asked them to step only on count 1 and clap the remaining beats. It’s challenging for this age to take a single step and hold it while doing something else. By this point in the year, though, they were getting better at these kinds of activities.

    This is a very focused activity, and when I begin something like this, I know I will have to end it soon and give them something much freer. So our next movement game is what we call a “reaction” game. They were asked to move to music that suggested walking, running, skipping, lunging, etc. and at the signal (“hop”), they were to stop and clap four beats. This also gives them an experience of meter, but now I can change the tempo, the style, the dynamics, etc. to give them the experience of lots of difference kinds of music. If they are very good at this, we can alternate between stopping and clapping 4, then hopping 4, and perhaps more. This helps build their musical memories and powers of focus while still moving with joy and abandon (hopefully!).

    After all this, they earned a rest. We melted down to the floor and allowed bodies to succumb fully to gravity. I typically have a moment in each class like this to allow body and mind to recuperate. At this point in a class I will often bring them up to sitting for some board work to tie in whatever experience we’ve had to notation or terminology. This time, however, because the subject was somewhat a review, I chose to move into a bit of vocal exploration. Many of the kids are a bit shy to sing. This has been an increasing trend over the past 10 years or so, and I am at a loss to explain why. To help them to loosen up their voices a bit, I pretended to shoot a basketball, and asked them to use their voices to trace the arc of the ball, gliding up and down. I then asked students to lead this as well.

    We ended with an improvisation. I told them I would answer any question they asked, as long as they asked it with their singing voice. (This was a follow-up from the week before, in which I had sung them questions like, “What did you have for breakfast?” in a singing voice, and asked them to sing their answers back. I remember this having the desired effect. They forgot they were singing and got interested in things they could ask me. I moved on from this type of exploration after this class, but I now wish I had returned to it. I think it was paying off!

    And that’s a class! We sometimes end with a song, but not this time. 40 minutes goes by pretty quickly! By the end of the year the class was working well as a group. They had made progress in using their bodies effectively and creatively in many musical ways and I was really enjoying their ever-emerging personalities. Never a dull moment! I wish you all a good summer and hope to be able to work with your children again. I’m happy to answer any questions you may have about our work.

    take care,

    Michael Joviala

  • Infrequently Asked Questions About Early Childhood Dalcroze Classes

    Aside from one or two perennials, I don’t get asked too many questions during my Dalcroze classes for young children. With busy toddlers demanding attention, there just isn’t a lot of time for chatting. (There are one or two questions I am commonly asked. See if you can guess what they are – I’ll include them at the end.) But here are a few questions I imagine some might have:

    1. What’s the goal of the class?

    I know that seems like an obvious question, but the answer may not be so obvious because we don’t really have time to talk about it. My hope is to immerse the children in music as much as possible. I sing, tap, clap, walk, move and play in music, and hope to encourage an environment in which everyone feels fully comfortable and free to do the same. For musicians, this is a more or less natural way of relating to others. For those with less experience in music (whether formal or informal), this may be new. I hope that everyone leaves the class inspired to try the activities at home – or make up their own ways of relating to each other through music.

    2. My child is not ever asked to do anything special, and sometimes does not even seem to be paying attention. What is she really learning about music?

    Children’s ability with language (speaking, reading, writing, etc.) is closely correlated with the amount of language they have heard from infancy. Music works the same way. (I would also argue that we learn this way at all ages.) We don’t have to teach children what a noun or verb is, or what order to put them in before they can fluently communicate. Children are actually capable of using quite sophisticated grammar from a surprisingly early age, all without formal instruction. If we want musical children, we surround them with music. We make it irresistible. We make it as natural as speaking, and we do this by simply being musical with them as often as possible.

    3. Why does Michael discourage me from talking to my child in class, and yet he talks all the time?

    For children, being musical is no more unusual than anything else they encounter minute by minute. It’s all new! For the adults, who perhaps are not as accustomed at this point in their lives to being musical on a regular basis, it is sometimes unclear: What am I supposed to do? And then: if I don’t know what to do, I am sure my child doesn’t!

    My goal is always to make the room move and breathe in music together. I model with movement, or a ball, or a scarf, and I hope to look out and see uninhibited musical expression and experimentation. If I don’t see it, I keep working until I do. Sometimes I am successful, sometimes not, but my verbal coaching is entirely for the adults. The kids don’t need it! Children absorb by their own combination of being and doing. The best mode for the adults to be in is to ‘be the music that you want to see’. Just know that you may not see that music right away, just as they don’t utter every word they hear the first time they hear it.

    What’s the most frequently asked question? The winner is: “When can my child start an instrument?” My answer is always the same: 1) when the child asks for it, and 2) when you think the child is ready to sit down and play everyday. But what’s the rush? The cello, the piano, the violin are instruments for musical expression. What needs to be developed, nurtured and fed (at all stages of musical life) is the need – the hunger – to express and engage musically. Then, the rest is easy.

    I hope you will be encouraged to try some of the things we do at home. You might want to play some of the recordings I have used in class. Many of these come from larger sets of music. It’s great to play the whole set (in the car, in the background at home, etc.) Get out the balls, the scarves, the stuffed animals; walk/gallup/tiptoe/dance as the louds and softs, fasts and slows of the music change. (A streaming service like Spotify, Rhapsody or now Apple Connect are wonderful resources and well worth the $10 subscription fee.)

    Make it a part of your every day life, and your child will enjoy the gift for life.

    Here’s a list of some of the pieces I have used recently:

    1. The Old Castle by Mussorgsky, from Pictures at an Exhibition

    2. Rockin’ in Rhythm and Daybreak Express by Duke Ellington

    3. Des pas sur la niege (“Footprings in the snow) by Claude Debussy from Preludes for Piano

    4. Prelude to the Mother Goose Suite by Maurice Ravel

    Happy playing… And keep those questions coming…

    Michael Joviala

     

  • Drawing Music

    For the past few weeks, you may have noticed your children leaving the classes clutching drawings. In the spring of the year, I usually begin to focus the children’s attention on ways that musical events and phenomenon can be visually represented. However, the longer I teach, the more I find myself delaying the introduction of standard notation symbols for younger children.

    This is not because young children are not able to hear rhythmic relationships in music. Studies have shown that babies are able to perceive complex musical features that we consider quite sophisticated. (For more on this, see the work of University of Toronto researcher Sandra Trehub.) As they become accustomed to the music of their particular culture, these perceptual abilities are pruned away. And while 4 year olds may have lost some of this natural perceptual ability, I am very wary of reducing their experience to symbols too soon.

    One of the main goals of a Dalcroze class is learning initially through discovery and experience, rather than conceptual explanation and visual representation. I can tell a four-year old that eighth notes are twice as fast as quarter notes, but what will those words mean to a young child who has had only limited experience using numbers to add, subtract , multiply and divide? And if the conceptual ground is not solid, emphasizing the symbols seems for these young musicians seems to be the wrong way to go. By this point in the year, I know that they can already perceive the difference – they easily change from running to walking as the music changes.

    If I show them a quarter note and tell them that this is for walking music, a great deal of their experience will have been disregarded (not to mention the many ways quarters are used as symbols in music, not always for ‘walking music’ by any means). I would rather ask them questions: How could you draw walking music? Then: How could you draw soft music? Fast music? Heavy music? The fact that something that you see could possibly represent something that you hear is not necessarily obvious, or even logical, to a four-year old mind, and so as I ask these questions I let them draw what they like. I invite them to tell us about their drawings, and, the accompanying sounds that go with them with using percussion instruments or their voices.

    And so, while I do now and then show them quarter notes, eighth notes and the like while we play and sing, I don’t make a big fuss over them. The tools of notation, with all of their inherent freedoms and limitations, will be available to them as needed.  But until then, I hope as much as possible to preserve their direct connection with their essential experience of music as we begin the process of mapping sound to visual representation.

    Michael Joviala

    March, 2014

  • Is my child gifted?

     DSC_0769

    There is one comment that I often hear from parents that still catches me off guard: “He really responds to music!” The sentiment is usually expressed with a mix of surprise and awe, but seeing children respond to music with delight, enthusiasm, passion, abandon, inventiveness and curiosity would likely surprise few teachers of young children. We are more surprised – concerned, even – when we don’t see those things.

    Our notions of what children are able to perceive have changed drastically in the last 40 years. Whereas we used to regard infants and young children as blank slates waiting to be inscribed, every month brings more reports on the remarkably sensitive distinctions babies are able to make in the language and music that they hear. By the time they are 4 years old, they have logged thousands of hours listening to the sounds that surround them. They are absolutely ready to engage.

    Along with the surprise that parents often express when they see their child so passionately responding to an art form that they themselves may now have little involvement with or feeling for, a question sometimes follows, “Do you think he is gifted?” (Not always stated so baldly, but…) Though I often suppress it, my first instinct is to unequivocally shout, “Yes!” no matter what child I am talking about. Having watched so many children over the years, I am constantly reminded that most are supremely gifted artists in that stage of their lives. We all used to be so: actively engaged in our environment during our waking ours, as all committed artists are; constantly creating and exploring in order to make sense of – and take delight in – our surroundings, ourselves and others.

    Over the coming year, if you peak in the door or window, you may see your child skipping with abandon, totally immersed in a drama or story, or lost in a sound world of his or her own creation. Our culture has made a fetish of musical ability – either you have it or your don’t, and only the lucky few who do should spend their days making music. However, the longer I teach, the more respect and awe I have for that special moment in their lives when they are all able to do these things with complete unselfconsciousness.

    I am very interested to know what music is to them, and I will carefully try to introduce to them my own conception of it as well. It will be difficult to for them to express what they are learning in class, because in the early ages they are completely full of their own music, and I am loath to disturb that process. (See my earlier blog post for more on this subject). I do have an agenda – a curriculum, if you must – but my primary goal is to let them enjoy their gift while it is still unequivocally theirs.

    Michael Joviala

  • A Basic Structure for 4-5 year-old Dalcroze Classes

    Hello Lucy Moses Summer Intensive 2013 participants, and anyone else interested teaching music to young children!

    As requested, here is an outline of the structure I use for my classes for young children. Though I do follow this basic plan for most of my classes, this represents only what works for me – there are many possible ways a lesson can go. However, I have found that not having to think about what kind of activity is needed (floor work, movement in space, improvisation) allows me to more easily fine tune what we are doing to the ways the kids happen to be responding.

    Floor work/body warm-up

    This is an opportunity to bring the group together. Kids enter the class in many different physical and emotional states and they seem to benefit from a sensitive transition period from ‘out there’ to ‘in here’. We start in a circle on the floor with simple body warm-ups that might introduce a musical focus point for the day, often through a new song.

    Movement in place

    Standing in once place for long periods of time is not something that comes naturally to many children (though there are exceptions!). Whenever possible, I like to find ways to engage the children musically as they ground themselves in one spot – another way to experience the day’s musical focus. Arm swings, body shapes and sculptures requiring quick reaction, waiting and watching as soloists move can all build this ability which will be required of many of them if they begin the study an instrument such as the violin.

    Movement in space

    Once the children get to know my routine, they know that they will soon be moving around the room with abandon (though always with a listening ear!). The transition to moving in space looms large as they are standing still. I include many kinds of locomotor opportunities, taking suggestions and cues from them as often as possible. After a month, most can recognize and respond appropriately to music that walks, runs, skips and all the rest. I may use images here to focus or inspire movement (trains, horses, taxis, a previous weeks story..). As the year unfolds, I find ways to have them move in different size groups – solo, duos, trios and full ensemble. I often build the movement to a high point, and then invite a rest and relaxation transition.

    Story

    The story is often the heart of the class. It is hard not to take advantage of the children’s hunger (well – all right, and my own) for image, story and drama. With the right chemistry of elements, they fully invest themselves in the action. Many musical subjects can be explored this way: meter, phrasing, duration, dynamics, tempo…

    Cool down/relax

    Another relaxation period follows. I usually play a full piece during this time without speaking. I have used short pieces by Schuman, Chopin, Ravel Debussy. If they are especially restless, we might do some quiet relaxing movements on the floor (snow angels, limbs slowly up and down, quiet singing).

    Different seated activity

    After the story, I try take advantage of the quiet focus that comes after a lot of physical activity and a good rest. I might use symbol work on the board, drawing, a ball passing experience, or the exploration of an unfamiliar instrument to attempt to tie our experiences to whatever musical concept or element has been the focus of the class.

    Improvisation

    Every class of mine includes some kind of improvisation – to say nothing of all of the improvised movement that has gone on up to now – using percussion, voice, xylophone or tone bells. This is a time for us all to observe and learn from each others’ musical responses and ways of playing. I rarely have all of the children playing the same instrument. Through individual musical interaction with me, I sometimes encourage children to discover new ways of playing, or attempt to steer them toward a desired musical goal. (I always hope that it emerges unbidden, however!) Often, I find myself affirming something I have heard in their playing by reflecting it in my own musical response. It is a time to see how our experiences are influencing musical development.

    Songs

    Though I do not use goodbye or hello songs, I do like to end the class singing. I often ask, “What should we sing?” or “Who’s got a song?”. If no one pipes up, I’ll offer one that we’ve done in the class, sometimes playing just the rhythm on a percussion instrument to see if they can recognize it. (A variation on the Mystery Tune, see Farber, Anne for more details!) I often try to adapt favorite class songs to the day’s musical focus.

    And then, “See you next week!”

    I hope that answers a few questions, and doesn’t raise to many new ones. If it does, feel free to ask! Also, I’d love to hear about your own basic class plans. I’m sure there’s lots of variation! Feel free to comment here on the blog, or in person at our next meeting.

    Michael Joviala

  • For Parents: Classes for 4-5 year-olds

    For Parents: Classes for 4-5 year-olds

    Parent: “What did you do in class today?”
    Child: “I was a cat.”
    Parent: “Oh.”

    It is difficult for young children to express exactly what they are ‘learning’ in a Dalcroze classroom. What happens in the room after we take off our socks and shoes and close the door?

    Of course, in the mind of the child the most important thing we did probably was that he became a cat. And not just any cat, but one who plays, prowls, chases mice and catches one for dinner. The class attempts to take every possible advantage of a child’s passion for drama and role-play. While he was busy being a cat, he was also moving to music that moved very softly (the prowl), music that moved very quickly and lightly (the chase), and music that slowly crescendo-ed to a loud accent (the pounce).

    Experiences like these are meant to align the child’s sense of music with the way she naturally moves. This will, hopefully, inform the way she perceives and responds to music, and the way she might engage a musical instrument.

    In a eurhythmics class sound equals movement, and vice versa. Many initial experiences are meant to help the student begin to discover this for himself. The child may hear music that walks, runs, skips, gallops or marches. Most children do not need to be asked to move appropriately to what they hear – it is often their natural impulse to do so. To give them a more personal experience, the students also are given opportunities each week to have the piano match as closely as possible their own improvised movement. You can try this at home. Put on music that walks, runs, skips, sneaks, slides, rolls, marches… and see what your child does!

    In the first semester, the 4-5 year-old groups will have classes built around basic oppositions: slow and fast, long and short, heavy and light, for example. In the first 30 minutes of class, we experience the subject in as many ways as possible: songs, stories, and games requiring the students to follow changes in what they hear on the piano or drum. In the last 15 minutes, the students might have opportunities to create the music themselves. For example, if they have experienced soft walking and loud pouncing, individual students can try these sounds out on the drum while the class responds to what they hear. Or student conductors will create gestures for loud and soft, while the class responds on percussion instruments.

  • Reinforcing the Classwork at Home

    The Dalcroze classes are now in full swing (ok, pun intended), and the kids have heard and experienced music with a variety of tempos, rhythms, and dynamics. They  have been encouraged to express those changes in movement. Children naturally learn in many different ways. Some like to watch in class and ‘do’ at home. Some are more active in class. All learning styles are appropriate and children instinctively give themselves what they need at this age. So, the more opportunities they have to hear, experience and respond to music, the better. Parents are often interested in ways to continue the work at home. I’ll share some possibilities in this article.

    In the stories I create for movement in the class, I attempt to take full advantage of children’s natural connection to the world of animals. The composer Camille Saint-Seans uses the same phenomenon in his “Carnival of the Animals”, a perennial favorite for children since its composition in 1886. The different temperaments and tendencies of various orchestral instruments are matched with an appropriate animal. Using a recording at home, it would be possible to reinforce many of the experiences we have been having in class.

    You might start by simply playing a track, and asking your child to become any animal they like. The simple act of moving like that animal as the music plays is enough to get a wide variety of nuance as the dynamics, rhythm and tempo change. There are no wrong answers. Of course, you can also tell them the name of the movement. Each short piece has a specific way of moving, and many exhibit one or both sides of a musical opposition (slow/fast, high/low, etc.) You might enjoy seeing what they respond to as they listen. Here is a list of some of the musical features of each movement that might catch kids’ attention:

    1. Introduction and March of the Royal Lion: A stately and proud march, something kids love to do. Contrasts between high and low (in pitch) between the two pianos; loud dynamics.

    2. Hens and Roosters: Starting and stopping.

    3. Wild Donkeys: Fast and loud.

    4. Tortoises: Slow and soft. (contains a musical joke – Offenbach’s popular Can-Can played very slowly)

    5. The Elephant: Heavy with a medium tempo. (more jokes: music by Berlioz and and Mendelssohn originally written for flutes, now given to the low basses)

    6. Kangaroos: the opposition of short and long; starting and stopping.

    7. Aquarium: Light, gliding, running.

    8. People with Long Ears (Donkeys): Lots of oppositions. Fast and slow; high and low (meaning pitch); loud dynamics.

    9. The Cuckoo in the Woods: Phrase length awareness. The piano plays phrases (musical sentences) of different lengths. The “cuckoo” of the clarinet marks the end of each phrase.

    10. Aviary: High, light, fast, soft.

    11. Pianists: moving between high and low (pitch).

    12. Fossils: Short, light, quick, loud dynamics. Twinkle Twinkle is tucked into this movement, along with a few other French folk tunes which may or may not be recognized. But this movement is really just about the dance!

    13. The Swan: legato (smooth and connected), gliding, soft.

    14. Finale: All of the animals are brought back. See how many you can recognize.

    There are many recordings of this piece, and it is often packaged with other orchestra kid’s favorites such as “Peter and the Wolf”. I have a fondness for Leonard Bernstein’s recording with the New York Philharmonic from the 60’s. He does talk about each movement before he plays it, and his voice might not be every young person’s cup of tea these days. He uses young musicians whom he introduces on the recording however, and the idea of that might be inspiring for some. Pictures books related to the piece abound, and this could be of further inspiration.

    This type of play can be done with many kinds of music, not just Carnival of the Animals, and not just orchestral music. So plug in the ipod, pull up something interesting, and enjoy some active listening with your child today!

    Michael