What Role Does Music Play?
Literacy is a priority in all grades of schooling. While it is more obviously emphasized in the core subjects, literacy instruction should occur in all content areas. When studying content area literacy, it becomes clear that the discourses and literacy concepts of various disciplines not only differ from each other, but they can also greatly vary from the foundational literacy that students built through their first few grades (Kucer, as cited in A Call to Action, 2004).
Literacy in music education is three-fold:
Literacy in music education is three-fold:
- Music literacy entails competence in reading, writing, and performing music as well as understanding and describing musical concepts.
- Academic literacy can be practiced in the music classroom by reading and writing about music.
- Skills and knowledge developed in the music classroom assist with the improvement of literacy in the core subject areas.
Academic Language of the Music Classroom
Musical literacy requires fluency in several languages. Of course, musical literacy involves learning to read the notes and other markings on a musical score. Ensemble performers must also understand the non-verbal language of the conductor. The other language of music is that which is used to understand and describe aspects of music. These are just a few of the terms specific to the music classroom that students must have a thorough understanding of in order to be musically literate:
- Various instruments and parts of a choir
- Types of musical works: chorale, opus, concerto, aria, overture, etc.
- Parts of music: pitch, rhythm, melody, tempo, articulation, style, dynamics, form, etc., and their associated vocabulary
- Theory terms: harmony, key signature, major, minor, modulation, progression, mode
- Musical techniques (which may or may not be instrument-specific): vibrato, fulcrum, tremolo, pizzicato, roll, glissando, etc.
- Genres of music and their notable characteristics and composers
Decoding Text = Decoding Music
In their 2002 article, Dee Hansen and Elaine Bernstorff described the basic skills used when reading and decoding written text. They then examined how those skills are utilized in developing music literacy. The six skills outlined are phonological awareness, phonemic awareness, sight identification, orthographic awareness, cueing systems awareness, and fluency.
What do the Standards Say
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For example, under the artistic process of Performing, one anchor, Interpret, asks students to "support interpretations of musical works that reflect creators'/performers' expressive intent" (NAfME 2014 Music Standards EUs, EQs, Definitions, 2014). In the musical sense, this would mean looking at cues in the music such as style, dynamics, articulation, etc. in order to interpret how the creator intended the piece to be performed (expressed). Understanding such cues and how they relate to an overall work of music is an important component of musical literacy. However, if one looks further, it can be seen how this specific standard relates to general literacy. Students are challenged to identify the cues and use their understanding of music to provide support and justify their interpretations. It is not much of a stretch to see how this same assignment could be given in an English class where students would be asked to provide support from a particular text to justify their interpretations of the author's message.
Long story short, many skills set by the Core Arts Standards in music have relevant and critical purposes to building students' academic literacy.
Long story short, many skills set by the Core Arts Standards in music have relevant and critical purposes to building students' academic literacy.
Arts Integration
A current trend in education is the infusion of the arts into the core subjects. The Kennedy Center defines arts integration as "an approach to teaching in which students construct and demonstrate understanding through an art form. Students engage in a creative process which connects an art form and another subject area and meets evolving objectives in both" (Silverstein & Layne, 2017). Often times, the focus is incorporating the arts into the classrooms of other content areas. How can we, as educators, flip the narrative and incorporate other content areas into the music classroom? And leading to my next question...