The Making of Music—and Musicians—in the Early Grades
“Legs, clap, shoulders, head.
“Legs, clap, shoulders, head. . . .”
With a few giggles and a bit of squirming, the small group of second graders follows their teacher’s movements and quickly gets the hang of the repeating 4/4 beat. And they learn that, due to its insistent repetition, such a beat or rhythm is called ostinato (from the Italian for obstinate).
After that, the students take turns going up to the board to identify downbeats and different tempos, as music teacher Maggie McCallie (US’00, C’04) notates rhythmic patterns on the whiteboard.
Next, it’s on to movement. “I want to march,” says one little boy. “Let’s do ‘Here Comes a Bluebird,’” counters a little girl. To their delight, the students get to perform a couple of circle dances to traditional folk tunes, thus combining what they know so far of musical rhythm and repetition with words and movement.
The Kodály method of music education, named after its twentieth-century Hungarian originator, has been used with great success in Lower School for many years. Zoltán Kodály’s approach introduces a sequence of musical skills to children through aural, physical, and visual means—in other words, games, songs, or dances—before the specific concepts, terminology, and notation are introduced, McCallie explains.
“Games are used to help children understand the concepts, learn songs, and remind them that music is fun and part of everyday life,” says McCallie, who holds a master’s degree in music from the University of Missouri-Kansas City and has been giving private flute and woodwind lessons at the School for several years. Her hope is that each child will “take away a basic understanding of musical skills . . . an understanding of how to sing tunefully, how to keep a steady beat, and how to recognize certain elements in music.”
Judging by the performance of student musicians as they move up the ranks into Upper School, they are doing that and a lot more! The Upper School’s symphonic band performances are always met with high praise from audiences, and its jazz band has just come away with a second-place award at a statewide festival. In addition, the annual Spring Production wouldn’t be possible without the heard-but-not-seen members of the “pit orchestra”—many of whom got their start in the Lower School music program.