There have been some wonderful ideas submitted to this site and the "old" site in the past four years. Enjoy, and keep 'em coming! To submit ideas, click here.

: Your Suggestions for teaching band, voice, and strings! Please submit them, and new categories will be added!
Suggestions for teaching elementary:

From Gennifer Bradshaw: I have done stations for the last 3 years. I have 4 MIDI stations, a reading station where they read about a composer but that was not laways effective because of low reading skills. I have found if they read to each other or follow along with a tape it works best. Then they fill out a summary sheet. I have a listening station where they follow a listening map of two songs and complete a Venn diagram comparing the two pieces. I have music blocks where they have to piece the phrases of songs together in the right order. They compose a song on instruments in ABA form. They compose a song on paper and play on the recorder, they practice the recorder, I have even done stations where they come to me and I teach them something directly in small groups. I have music games, a theory station where they fill out a worksheet, I even had a foot piano that was one of the stations. It is a lot of work to put together but easy once they are in use. I usually ! try to keep 4 to a group with a few exceptions. Everyone in the group is assigned a job and they are to follow through on thier job. It has taken me 3 years to establish and I am still ironing out some ruff edges but it is worth it to see the kids work on their own.

From Mikal Hughey:I liked the ideas from Damon Wurth and Erica Davis for teaching rhythms to primary students. I do something similar, because I have a hard time saying "ti-ti" myself. I call a quarter note a "walk" and an eighth note a "run", so two eighth notes together is a "run-run". A half note is a "walk-slow" and a dotted half note is a "walk-so-slow". A whole note is a "walk-so-so-slow". The kids like it and it seems to make sense to them.

From Jolee:I am the director of my church's children's choir. Right now the ages are kindergaten through primary. Anyway, They don't like to stand up while they sing. To help them enjoy singing more while they are standing, I try to give them a chance to sit before we begin. Once we start singing, everyone needs to be on their feet. After we are done singing, we play for a few minutes. We run in place, do jumping jacks, etc. It helps them to get thier energy out without driving me up the wall.

From Di:Make simple rule reminders: Use three pieces of posterboard and laminate for following years. Draw a mouth on one, an ear on the next, and hands on the last one. Number them 1, 2, and 3. When a student breaks a rule such as talking without permission, you can just look at them, and signal one, two, or three fingers as a reminder of which rule they are breaking. Keep a folder for each class with a seating chart and class list to mark behavior with a code (t=talking, etc..) Use a piece of paper for each folder or zerox one with numbers and lines for their name, the date, and the number of rule they broke if they did not take a hint, and need an extra reminder. This comes in handy for when parents deny that their child behaved incorrectly. The child's signature is a written document that they knew the rule they broke and were reminded. For Kindergarden, a time out will do, and document it with their handwritten initials. Keep a file box with all students names for documenting all correspondence and phone calls made to parents, detentions, etc.. Of course, you may want to incorporate a reward system for seconds worked (start the stop watch any time they are not working and subtract that from the points (every minute is one point off or they have to work so many minutes to get so many points, etc..) Let students who have worked have a stamp on their hand and extra hard work gets their name on a giant bulletin board monthly shape on the door with a gel pen or marker on the lines or one pinky finger big, followed by a sticker the next time, a certificate, or a raffle ticket for a prize. Make it fun! This should be planned before school and approved with the principal.

From R. Wilson:When teaching the notes of the staff. It is best not to teach them as a strict pattern. Otherwise, if the student grows to atoned to the pattern, it may be difficult to play songs if the student learned them as a strict pattern. For example, if the student learns the notes as a scale,let's say the C major scale. The student may accidently play a D after the C, instead of the B after the C in the song.

From Diane Joslin: I start each music class with the same "hello song," one for each grade level. The kids practically come in the door singing "their" song, and they know how each class is going to start. You can use any song; here are mine: K - "Clap and Say Good Morning," 1 - "Oh, It's Time to Come to Music," 2 - "Hello, 2nd Grade," 3 - "Here We Are in Music,"
4 - "My Friend." You can even use a well-known song, like "London Bridge" or "Mary Had a Little Lamb" and change the words to coming to music class.

Another idea from Diane: When I want my elementary students to know a song really well, I have them sing it in a variety of ways, so the song is repeated many times, but they aren't just sitting and singing. For example; "Can you sing that song with your hands on your head? With your eyes closed? Back to back with a friend? Sitting in a circle? Sitting feet to feet with a friend?" And so on . . . I have found this particularly useful before a concert, when they have to memorize songs, or when I want to use the song to add motions, scarves or instruments. They have fun and are learning the song at the same time. (They especially like singing back to back!)

From Bob Wood:To add a thoughtful note to Christmas music,I had the teachers in my courses ask their children to close their eyes and think of the most wonderful place they could imagine. Then, half the class would take the words from Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, and the other half would take Santa Claus is Coming to Town. Each child would then think of each line of the song and see who it fit in their most wonderful possible world. Reactions are usually dramatic in helping children to accept classmates outside their normal stereotypes, and in the wake of all the school violence, this fitted into the hopper measures schools are taking to catch early and head off violent impulses in all students.

My good friend Deborah Jeter has a nifty idea to use for Christmas. I tried it, and it's great! Have your kids "reword" The Twelve Days of Christmas to fit with 12 things your particular state (providence, country, whatever) is famous for. For instance, my students came up with things such as "One Arch in the Big City (St. Louis Arch)", "12 Toms Whitewashing (Tom Sawyer)", "A bluebird in a dogwood (state bird and flower)" "2 big rivers", etc. Try it! Your students should get a kick out of thinking up famous points about your state, and they'll enjoy singing them just as much.

(With older kids I have the inside circle also step to the right simultaneously with the outer circle for the partner change and it makes for a smoother transition)

I have a repeat function on my CD player at school and it's great to pop in the CD from Book 2 (p. 188 in the text) of Silver Burdett Ginn "The Music Connection" and just let the children dance until they have changed partners several times!

I remember seeing the directions for the clapping part of this dance somewhere in print, but after years of using it and adapting it, the source is unknown. If anyone recognizes this, please fill us in so that we can give credit where credit is due!