This is my essay and review of the GuitarCirriculum website used in our class!
M2880R Guitar Curriculum Website Review Music Library I think that it is great to be able to have access to this online resource. It offers a variety of music for students and teachers to look at and print out to use whenever they would like. They are able to learn things on their own time and at their own pace. The library offers a large selection of music that can help a beginner grow into an intermediate musician with a plethora of music to develop their musical background. I think that the variety of music is great as well as there is a large amount from teachers and students to choose from. They can choose songs that they know or pieces that they have never heard before. The wide range of music provides so much for students and teachers. The music has different levels throughout the piece to choose to play from and I think that this is a great concept. This way if a student is a beginner they can start with the Guitar 3 part and slowly work their way up to the Guitar 1 part so that they can learn the entirety of the piece and develop their skills as a musician and guitarist. I believe that there can be some limitations and implications with having the pieces all contain different skill level parts, especially if you have some students who are either more or less advanced than others. They may have a hard time playing something that is too difficult for them if their technique has not been developed or if they have not learnt a certain concept. Only having a few parts to choose from can be difficult if you want to make sure everyone has the chance to play both the melody and bass line parts at some point. It is not fair if the same students receive the same melody part – this can hinder the playing ability of the students who are less advanced because they are not being challenged or learning new technique. This also does not allow the students who always play the melody part to fully understand the position and reason for the bass line and what technique they need to learn to play it. They can learn simple rhythms and become better at keeping time if they learn bass parts as well. Using unlimited PDF’s for students and teachers is a great benefit. Technology has brought classroom learning very far in the past couple of years and this accessibility does add to that. This makes it very efficient for teachers and students to pick out any piece to play and learn and print it out on their own time and have as many copies that they need and want. This is something that is easy for teachers to use and they can print out multiple songs to have smaller ensembles play. By making music this accessible for students and teachers, music is coming a long way. Especially when it is hard to find printable music that isn’t considered copyright, which can make it very difficult for teachers to teach guitar music. Since usually there are chords and tabs across the internet, having good classical guitar repertoire is key to keep a guitar music program influential and educational. The PDF’s are so instructional and beneficial to use and print off this easily without the hassle of copyright issues, its great that they’ve made them accessible to anyone. Video Tutorials The videos on the website I feel create a great learning atmosphere for students and teachers. They provide a useful and quick opportunity for someone to pick up the guitar and begin to play. The videos are very straightforward and easy to follow allowing for a quick lesson on whatever it is that you want to learn to play. They are a great for teachers to view and use as a basis if they are about to teach a concept to students or a specific part of a piece to students, it gives them ideas to bounce off and have something as a basis for their own teaching. I feel that the length of the videos is short enough for them to get straight to what it is that they are exactly teaching and they are able to teach it very effectively and efficiently – something that all teachers look for. Therefore, the videos do not drag on for longer than necessary and are quick to watch and understand, whether it be by student or teacher. The videos are short but focus on very specific techniques to playing the guitar, for technique, error detection, essentials of teaching, performance excerpt and rehearsal techniques. Having it online and something that is technologically accessible for teachers and students can make this type of teaching and learning much more useful and efficient. This makes it very easy when you are looking for something specific about a piece, the website even narrows the videos down to each part (a,b,c) and either right hand or left hand. This makes it a great resource for someone looking for a quick tutorial on a concept that can be large, but efficiently learnt. I think that Dr. Robert Duke has a great outlook on the music education curriculum and education in general. He points out a lot of main aspects of playing and teaching as a musician and teacher. He focuses on a lot of technique and fundamentals that you would want to focus on every time that you play and perform. He seems very well educated and has made so many important points throughout the videos about education and how one should go about both learning and teaching music. Its great to see how Professors and teachers with Doctorate degrees think about music education in the elementary system and I think it can be very beneficial for teachers and students to see what his outlook is like. Its great to see that he thinks that you need a strong foundation in order to become a good musician, he feels that if you have a concrete basis on fundamentals and technique – you can go very far in music, which I do agree with. You need a strong foundation and you should always be focussing on it no matter what it is that you are performing, music or not. Teacher Manual I think that the teacher manual is organized very well, it has a lot of useful information not just for teaching guitar but for teaching instruments in general. It is a great concept to have such an accessible source available for anyone to use. This can benefit first time teachers on guitar and teaching in general as it gives them a step by step guideline on what to do and teach, and this can be so helpful towards someone who possibly may be having a hard time coming up with a lesson plan or understanding how to teach something. The downside to having this manual is that a teacher in their first years of teaching may use this manual only, which can hinder their own personal teaching skills. Using this as a fallback method of teaching is not good as you as a teacher may not develop personal and correct skills with teaching. I think that its great all of the information that they have accessible for teachers to use who are just beginning to learn guitar or to teach it to others. It offers information on how to play, how you should assess students and what to look for in playing and performing. They focus on everything that you would want to pay attention to as you would be teaching the piece and go very in depth which is helpful if this is the first time you have taught guitar. The manual is extremely specific in everything that the composers and writers believe that you should know, it’s a great resource. Elementary Primer I think that these pieces are appropriate for grade 7 & 8 students, this is because this is generally where they begin to learn music theory and the background to more of why and how the music is written. After learning recorders and such in earlier grades and singing I think that this would be a good introduction to more instruments and give people more options of what instruments they would like to play. This opens up so much for students to learn and do in music and aids them in their musical background as well. These pieces are great to have students introduced to as they can be simple for them to learn and they have so many parts to them – you can get a lot of the class involved. They will likely already know some pieces and can recognize them as they are songs that they have heard before, but then there is still classical music and other repertoire that they can learn to have under their belt as a musician. I do feel that elementary students should be using correctly sized guitars in school, playing with a guitar that is either too large or too small can hinder the student in their playing. I personally would recommend for the teacher to learn how to size a guitar and have a variety of them in the school, if students are renting I would have the teacher recommend to the parents to ensure that they have the guitar fit to size for the student. As the student grows they can return it or switch to another guitar to fit. If a guitar is too big, it can hurt their fingers and muscles and cause future damage, it is safer to be using one that fits correctly. Certain pieces that are listed on the side and in the textbook, require a bit more technique to perform the piece correctly. The technical aspects of the pieces are things that students should learn and should have the opportunity to learn to help them grow as musicians. It is important in developing your technique – but for younger students that can be difficult. They are just beginning to understand the concept of music and how it should be performed while learning a new instrument so it can be overwhelming for them to learn new technique as well especially if they are not advanced players. The composers for this music have done a good job in ensuring that the beginning pieces in the book and on the website are easy enough without too many technical demands, as the online program builds up, more technique is introduced and students begin to broaden their understanding and technique. Students mostly listen to pop music these days and rarely classical, I think that learning guitar will excite children and motivate them to continue to learn more as they would want to learn their favourite pop songs to be able to play. This is a motivational technique that teachers can use as well, students can be given classical music all week along with a pop piece that they can prepare for Fridays, this way throughout the week they can practice what they need to learn and then still enjoy playing by learning one of their favourite pieces to motivate them to practice and play the guitar more often. They can start to become more confident in their musicianship and musicality and want to play and practice more. This is also an opportunity for students to learn an instrument that parents would normally have to put a student in lessons for. They can now save money and have children learn guitar in their classroom and not outside of school. It opens up more options for what students want to play in the classroom, instead of woodwinds, brass and percussion they can now play something different – it can be used as an introduction into string instruments for the students. Including Students with Disabilities It is extremely important as a music educator to make sure that all students are included in music making. As a teacher, it is your responsibility to give students the best education possible, doing whatever you can to aid them in their educational career. Inclusion is a topic that has become more and more prominent in the music education system and the education system itself. Making sure that students are taking a part in the classroom and connecting and interacting with others is a big component of education. The social aspect is something that students need to help them to learn, grow and develop as a person. Hindering this aspect may cause dependency issues and other issues with self esteem and confidence. We want our musicians to be confident and outspoken people who are strong believers in what they say and who are thoughtful and persuasive. We want to build independent people who can be confident with themselves and the music that they create, either as a soloist or a student in a classroom. Including students with disabilities is a large aspect of this. Oftentimes students with disabilities are left out and even bullied because they are either physically or mentally uncappable of doing something. In music, it can be hard since physically there are instruments to play and mentally music to understand along with theory, but there can definitely be modifications made to help aid the student in learning a concept in a much simple manner or teaching an easier instrument that is not too complicated to understand or learn. This can help the student to feel wanted and included within the classroom and feel a part of what is going on. There also have been many studies that have shown how music and learning an instrument can help certain parts of the brain to develop and keep healthy, this can be an outlet for a student with a disability and can help them with calming down and relaxing too. It can ease anxiety for them to sing or play an instrument and be around their classmates. They can make music and be proud of what they have accomplished.