When I work with Dalcroze teachers-in-training, the most frequent question I ask them is, \u201cWhat are you teaching?\u201d It\u2019s easy to confuse what we are teaching (music) with how we are teaching it (Dalcroze teaching strategies). For most teaching situations, the goal of the class shouldn\u2019t be Dalcroze teaching techniques like follows or quick reactions, it should be a musical goal like experiencing simple triple meter or syncopation. I named the blog (\u201cMusical Subjects\u201d) after this concept to help myself remember what my job\u2014when I\u2019m not training teachers\u2014 actually is: teaching music. But at the end of this school year I noticed myself pulling at the harness, and so I allowed myself (um, my other self) to loosen the reins. This took on quite two quite different forms in two different classes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In my 5\u20137-year-old class, I used a scenario about inhabitants of far-flung islands who don\u2019t yet know that other islands and people exist. The children each demonstrate how they move in their world, gradually discover each other, and come together to learn about each other\u2019s culture, which can involve things like flag making, pageants, peace anthems, musical and dance performances. (Yes, I\u2019m creating the actual world I want to see. I can dream, can\u2019t I?)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I usually tie the different islands to specific rhythms, for example, if my subject is compound meter (like 6\/8 or 12\/8) one island may be the beat (i.e. dotted quarter notes), another is the division (groups of three eighth notes), another the long-short skipping pattern (quarter-eighth) intrinsic to compound meter, and so on. Students would move their assigned rhythms as the sun came up on their island indicated by what they hear me play. They would come together to form combination rhythm patterns as they discovered each other. Their \u2018flags\u2019 would be large notecards with their rhythms printed on them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But as I was teaching it this time I suddenly dropped all of that and let the kids completely decide how they wanted to move. When it came time for \u2018flags\u2019, I let them create their own with crayons and paper. Though I definitely influenced their choices by the music I played to match their movement, I wanted them to feel ownership and agency in the direction the story took. We all improvised together at the end, each child with their own unique percussion instrument. I told them that after the islanders encountered each other, they decided to play so that they could hear each individual instrument well. They succeeded, much to my delight. The girl playing the finger cymbal let it ring instead of playing it as fast and loud as she could. This let us hear another child\u2019s simple soft beat on the drum as well as another\u2019s gentle repeating pattern on the xylophone. It needed little intervention from me once I decided that it was okay that the sounds they were making weren\u2019t going to fit neatly onto a rhythm grid. If I were evaluating a student teacher, I might have been critical of this, but they were making their own music, not \u2018teacher music\u2019. Maybe their rhythmic inclinations did not align perfectly with my curriculum\u2014but it was authentically and undeniably theirs. Of course, rhythmic precision and clarity is indeed an essential musical skill to learn. But who am I to say that the kids must do this all the time? The most important thing was that the kids were really aware of and listening to each other. That\u2019s not a theoretical musical topic like beat and division, but it is an essential musical skill. I don\u2019t think the result would have been the same in a lesson focused on an exclusive set of rhythm patterns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In another class, I went the opposite way: from creative freedom to more structure and accountability. These kids are older (3rd<\/sup>-5th<\/sup> grade), and they\u2019ve spent quite a bit of time with \u2018loose reins\u2019 this year. We\u2019ve done our share of straight nuts-and-bolts Dalcroze exercises, but have also done a lot of freer, exploratory improvisation as these kids seemed to really respond to that type of work. Over the year, engagement has been up and down, and the group lately has been a bit cliquish. So instead of planning a precise lesson with sequenced events, I gave them a practice list of things to figure out and perform, such as dissociations (hands, say, do one rhythm and feet do another), conducting patterns to execute, and rhythmic systems to move (such as stepping a rhythmic pattern with divisions that change position in each measure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n I demonstrated each one and asked them to practice one thing with someone else, making sure they partnered at least once with every person in the group. I expected some resistance, but to my surprise they were completely into this. One girl who had seemed intimidated by the older girls all year left the room with a big grin. Although my main goal was breaking down the social barriers that kids this age are prone to, I realized it also tied into the essential musical skill of collaboration: orchestra members must find a way to work with their stand partners; a comping jazz pianist should support the harmonic choices of the soloist, for example.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Typical Dalcroze classes are focused on a single subject and we aim to let the subject unfold so that as much as possible students discover what they need to learn on their own. At our best, the lessons gradually unfold, building skills and understanding in an artful way. But in this class I just dumped a bunch of stuff onto the table and let them work on their own. It seemed to bring them closer together and more independent. My takeaway from this is to question the value of any kind of rigidity, orthodoxy or dogma. There can be a time for freedom and a time for control. And given the state of the world at the moment, that may be even more important than building musical skill and understanding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I was also reminded that my teaching is not always about the kids, it\u2019s often about me. I needed to loosen up my own expectations about what a class should contain, about what constitutes \u2018good teaching\u2019. I wouldn\u2019t have given either class in a public demonstration. If a student-teacher taught similarly for a teaching exam, I wouldn\u2019t have passed them. But I realized I needed to listen not just to the kids, but to myself. What do I need this week? What will prevent me from going through the motions of a lesson I know will \u2018work\u2019? I think our students, especially when they are children, respond well to us when we are being true to ourselves. They can certainly sense when we are not.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When I work with Dalcroze teachers-in-training, the most frequent question I ask them is, \u201cWhat are you teaching?\u201d It\u2019s easy to confuse what we are teaching (music) with how we are teaching it (Dalcroze teaching strategies). For most teaching situations, the goal of the class shouldn\u2019t be Dalcroze teaching techniques like follows or quick reactions, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[85],"tags":[93,103,113],"class_list":["post-19546","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-musicalsubjects","tag-1st-2nd-grade","tag-3rd-5th-grade","tag-children"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9ohMj-55g","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":19086,"url":"https:\/\/joviala.com\/jovialaworks\/invisible-subjects\/","url_meta":{"origin":19546,"position":0},"title":"Invisible Subjects","author":"Michael Joviala","date":"June 20, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Sometimes, to see the whole, we need to look at the parts. But suppose some of the parts are difficult to see? This is one of the things that makes Dalcroze education so notoriously hard to describe. In one sense, the curriculum for the Dalcroze classes I teach is very\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Dalcroze Reference"","block_context":{"text":"Dalcroze Reference","link":"https:\/\/joviala.com\/jovialaworks\/category\/dalcroze-reference\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":418,"url":"https:\/\/joviala.com\/jovialaworks\/a-basic-structure-for-4-5-year-old-dalcroze-classes\/","url_meta":{"origin":19546,"position":1},"title":"A Basic Structure for 4-5 year-old Dalcroze Classes","author":"Michael Joviala","date":"August 12, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"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\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Dalcroze Reference"","block_context":{"text":"Dalcroze Reference","link":"https:\/\/joviala.com\/jovialaworks\/category\/dalcroze-reference\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":500,"url":"https:\/\/joviala.com\/jovialaworks\/7-9-year-old-dalcroze-3617\/","url_meta":{"origin":19546,"position":2},"title":"7-9 Year-old Dalcroze: 3\/6\/17","author":"Michael Joviala","date":"March 31, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"This was another very unusual class. The story from the previous week was very strong in their minds, and they desperately wanted to continue it. That kind of intense student engagement is very hard for me to resist, so I relented, not having the least idea about where it would\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Dalcroze Reference"","block_context":{"text":"Dalcroze Reference","link":"https:\/\/joviala.com\/jovialaworks\/category\/dalcroze-reference\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5914,"url":"https:\/\/joviala.com\/jovialaworks\/guided-improvisation-sessions\/","url_meta":{"origin":19546,"position":3},"title":"Guided Improvisation Sessions","author":"Michael Joviala","date":"January 14, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"As we returned to (mostly) in-person teaching and learning, I found myself wondering if I could create a short class that would actually work best remotely. I thought about things the internet does well, like encouraging a feeling of connectedness while simultaneously allowing users to be completely isolated. To exploit\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Projects"","block_context":{"text":"Projects","link":"https:\/\/joviala.com\/jovialaworks\/category\/projects\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":944,"url":"https:\/\/joviala.com\/jovialaworks\/beat\/","url_meta":{"origin":19546,"position":4},"title":"Musical Subject: Beat","author":"Michael Joviala","date":"September 23, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"I enjoy working with the subject of \u2018beat\u2019. The phenomenon itself is so fundamental it can be a challenge to define it. It\u2019s like asking, \u201cWhat is air?\u201d We can all produce a quasi-scientific definition of the air we breathe, but our experience of it could not be more fundamental\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Dalcroze Reference"","block_context":{"text":"Dalcroze Reference","link":"https:\/\/joviala.com\/jovialaworks\/category\/dalcroze-reference\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":447,"url":"https:\/\/joviala.com\/jovialaworks\/infrequently-asked-questions-about-early-childhood-dalcroze-classes\/","url_meta":{"origin":19546,"position":5},"title":"Infrequently Asked Questions About Early Childhood Dalcroze Classes","author":"Michael Joviala","date":"July 25, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"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\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Dalcroze Reference"","block_context":{"text":"Dalcroze Reference","link":"https:\/\/joviala.com\/jovialaworks\/category\/dalcroze-reference\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/joviala.com\/jovialaworks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19546","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/joviala.com\/jovialaworks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/joviala.com\/jovialaworks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joviala.com\/jovialaworks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joviala.com\/jovialaworks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19546"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/joviala.com\/jovialaworks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19546\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19547,"href":"https:\/\/joviala.com\/jovialaworks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19546\/revisions\/19547"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/joviala.com\/jovialaworks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19546"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joviala.com\/jovialaworks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19546"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joviala.com\/jovialaworks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}