{"id":326,"date":"2018-12-10T04:59:04","date_gmt":"2018-12-10T04:59:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lakeshoremusicstudio.com\/blog\/?p=326"},"modified":"2018-12-10T06:32:43","modified_gmt":"2018-12-10T06:32:43","slug":"a-conceptual-christmas-teaching-broad-music-concepts-through-familiar-holiday-literature","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/lakeshoremusicstudio.com\/blog\/a-conceptual-christmas-teaching-broad-music-concepts-through-familiar-holiday-literature\/","title":{"rendered":"A Conceptual Christmas – Teaching Broad Music Concepts through Familiar Holiday Literature"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Holiday Songs represent an evolving musical culture that spans 6 centuries and are the one body of songs that are more universal to our culture than anything else. Even though the harmonic treatments become more removed from the original with each passing year, there is still enough recognition of these songs even if they are now used to sell merchandise instead of their sacred original meaning.
\nThe reinforcement students receive from family and friends by playing something \u201cfamiliar\u201d, as well as the short time span and goal of performance opportunities make students highly motivated to work on these songs.<\/p>\n

However, in addition to the benefits to students mentioned above, these songs offer a treasure trove of opportunities to for discovering or reinforcing important basic music concepts that you are already teaching in other areas of your lessons. Don\u2019t miss this golden opportunity for learning.<\/p>\n

5-finger Patterns<\/strong><\/p>\n

Dreydl Song
\nJingle Bells
\nGreat for level 1 students. Have a spinner with 12 pentachord patterns on cards fanned around it. Students spin to transpose the song into the new key. To add extra zest, students give the jingle bells a shake after completing each scale.<\/p>\n

Sequences<\/strong>
\nHave students discover the sequences in these songs.<\/p>\n

Deck the Halls
\nWe Wish You a Merry Christmas
\nO Christmas Tree
\nAngels We Have Heard on High
\nDing Dong Merrily On High (one of the longest sequences I know)<\/p>\n

Applying I and V7 chords<\/strong>
\nUse the formula, when the melody notes are 1, 3 and 5 use I chord, when on 2 and 4 use V7 to create a left hand for these melodies;<\/p>\n

Dreydl Song
\nJingle Bells<\/p>\n

I IV V<\/strong><\/p>\n

Apply the same formula, adding the information that the 6th scale note goes with the IV chord.
\nJoy to the World
\nSilent Night (once the chords are established, apply broken chord style to bass for a simple but effective accompaniment pattern \u2013 if they are more advanced, they can apply ballad style (Root 5th 3rd above \u2013 use fingers 5 2 1)<\/p>\n

Intervals<\/strong>
\nLook for the examples of these prominent intervals in these songs<\/p>\n

Steps \u2013 The First Noel (the entire song is comprised of steps and fourths)
\nSkips –
\n4th and 5ths find the one fourth and one fifth, one skip, and the rest are repeated notes and steps
\nOctaves and major scales \u2013 Joy to the World<\/p>\n

Major and Relative Minor Key Signatures<\/strong>
\nWe 3 Kings
\nGod Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen<\/p>\n

Modes and Minor Keys<\/strong>
\nUse these songs to discover the difference between minor and dorian modes.
\nWhat Child is This
\nO Come O Come Emmanuel
\nCoventry Carol<\/p>\n

Common Rhythm Patterns<\/strong>
\nShort Short Short Short Short Short LONG
\nGood King Wensceslas Looked Out
\nJolly Old St. Nicholas
\nCompare to Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Old MacDonald Had A Farm, Melody, by Schumann, Song by Kabalevsky., Haydn Surprise Symphony, and many others<\/p>\n

Form<\/strong> \u2013 find songs that represent the following forms:
\nAABA (O Christmas Tree)
\nAABC (First Noel, Good King Wenceslas)
\nABAB\u2019(Jolly Old St. Nicholas, Jingle Bells)
\nHave students listen and guess which form that song follows.<\/p>\n

Repeated Patterns<\/strong>
\nStudents often are so focused on individual notes that they don\u2019t notice broader patterns in the music. With your early level students, don\u2019t make them learn all new notes of Jolly Old St. Nicholas for the second half when all they have to do is change the last note! This song is a great example of songs going \u201chome\u201d at the end, but ending on a dominant note \u201cnot home\u201d in the middle.<\/p>\n

The same applies to Jingle Bells \u2013 just learn the two differing parts of One Horse Open Sleigh first, then the rest of the song is mostly steps and repeated notes.<\/p>\n

Acquiring Early Experience in Leading the Sing a Long<\/strong><\/p>\n

Help your students become valuable to their friends and community by getting them used to playing carols early; with the chording tools above they will realize they don\u2019t always need to have music. Additionally they can transpose to singable keys (instead of C which is usually presented in early books because of ease of key signature)<\/p>\n

Teach them how to use the last line of the song for a introduction, and to use body language (head nod) to start the group singing.
\nTeach them basic conducting patterns, by having students take turns, conducting, playing and singing.<\/p>\n

Teach them how to work with other instrumentalists or vocalists by reading the chords of a fake book (or chords included in a song with traditional notation.) Many have friends who play guitar, etc.
\nTeach them a basic sing and strum method if the melody is provided by another instrument such as flute or vocals.<\/p>\n

Jump in and have fun!\u00a0 Holidays only come around once a year!<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/sup><\/sub><\/i><\/b><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Holiday Songs represent an evolving musical culture that spans 6 centuries and are the one body of songs that are more universal to our culture than anything else. Even though the harmonic treatments become more removed from the original with each passing year, there is still enough recognition of these songs even if they are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40,9,165],"tags":[164,42,92,163,107],"class_list":["post-326","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-group-piano-level-1","category-teaching-tips","tag-christmas-carols","tag-comprehensive-musicianship","tag-group-piano","tag-holiday-piano-music","tag-robert-pace-piano-method"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/lakeshoremusicstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/lakeshoremusicstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/lakeshoremusicstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lakeshoremusicstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lakeshoremusicstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=326"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/lakeshoremusicstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":329,"href":"http:\/\/lakeshoremusicstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326\/revisions\/329"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/lakeshoremusicstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lakeshoremusicstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lakeshoremusicstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}