Henry’s music room was a non-purpose-specific classroom he had set up for music class with guitars and a piano and additionally equipped with a range of good quality, tuned percussion instruments: marimba, xylophones and
metallophones. Henry mentioned that he sought funding to purchase the barred instruments for his classroom after experiencing the positive value of these instruments in Orff workshops.
4.9.3.1 The planned focus for the lesson
Henry was teaching the second class of a 5-week unit in which he was focusing on: 1. preparation for the subsequent completion of a composition task for Level 1 NCEA; and 2. preparation for and practice in the aural component of Level 1 NCEA, namely rhythmic transcription.
4.9.3.2 The lesson
As the ten (seven boys and three girls) Year 11 students arrived in the classroom, some went straight to the instruments and began to play, while others waited quietly for class to begin.
Henry signalled the beginning of class with a Keith Terry (2002) body percussion activity using patterns of 2s, 3s and 4s, and inviting students to imitate. The students were able to imitate and to respond almost instantaneously, as Henry changed from patterns of 2 to patterns of 3 or 4 and so on. He then performed a body percussion routine that was a combination of patterns of 2s, 3s and 4s and taught this routine to the students naming it the ‘A’ section of a rondo. The ‘B’ section, he explained, would be a section in which a repeated pattern of three
would be performed at the same time as the ‘A’ section. The whole class then performed this piece with Henry performing the patterns of three during the first ‘B’ section (B1) and the students performing the patterns of three during the second ‘B’ section (B2). It was evident that there were some students in the class with a very secure sense of rhythm who ‘carried’ the piece, effectively providing a scaffold for all students to participate and experience as a performer the
complexity of counter-rhythm from the ‘inside’.
The students were then directed to the barred instruments and began playing immediately with high, but focused energy – many experimenting with different ways of playing, such as tremolos and scale patterns using a variety of rhythms. After a few minutes Henry invited them to play a drone (as a chord) using C and G, checking that all students understood that a drone was an open fifth. As the students continued to play the drone quietly, Henry revised the term “ostinato”, checking that all students understood that this term meant a repeated pattern. He invited them to make up such a pattern using the notes of the drone (C and G). All students explored and experimented with rhythmic patterns on C and G, some playing C and G simultaneously and some splitting the chord. Henry chose a particular chordal pattern to be played as an accompaniment by all, while one by one students (and Henry) took a turn at improvising patterns on C and G only. Henry then reviewed the pentatonic, ensuring that all students knew that he in this instance he was referring to a five-note scale beginning on ‘C’ with no semitones. Being concerned to prepare his students to work independently on their own compositions in the following weeks, Henry reminded them that repetition was one of a number of compositional devices, some of which were also displayed in poster form on the walls of the classroom. Moving then to a hands-on experience of repetition he asked one student to continue to provide a bordun accompaniment and explained that everyone else would have the opportunity to improvise a phrase in C pentatonic on their instrument that could be repeated by the rest of the class. Henry led the way by playing a series of simple eight patterns (in C
pentatonic) and invited the students to repeat each pattern.
particular individual responses. However, as he offered the leadership of this exercise to the students, he directed them to begin on C and offer short patterns to ensure the best chance for accuracy in the echoed response. Sustained playing, with each student taking a turn at leadership and Henry becoming a member of the ensemble, followed for fifteen minutes or so. During this time the students
remained actively involved, while occasionally Henry intervened to ask for patterns to be repeated or to draw attention to particular patterns and give the opportunity for correct imitation by all.
At the conclusion of the ensemble work, the instruments were put away and books and pens were brought out for practice of rhythmic transcription of aural patterns. Henry revised rhythmic notation with reference to rhythmic patterns that he had used earlier in the class, before offering a series of rhythmic patterns that the students were required to notate. These patterns were corrected in class and feedback given in response to confusion or errors. The class finished with a rendition of ‘Three little birds’, with all students participating either as singers or instrumentalists on piano or guitar.
4.9.3.3 Henry’s reflection
In the first instance, Henry mentioned that he had recently changed the order of classroom activities from doing aural exam prep at the beginning of this class to the end of the class, following a focus on composition which involved work on the instruments: ‘If they come in and they sit down they don’t want to get out of their seats so I’ve switched it round and it’s working much better.’ He also mentioned that he integrated Orff processes of imitation, exploration and improvisation on the instruments into the class with the specific purpose of introducing concepts that were relevant to the compositional task that would follow, believing that the practical experience on the instruments was invaluable in developing these understandings:
Previously, because it was just talking about these ideas, it just didn't mean anything to them.…Most of them don’t come to music class to talk about it [music]. They want to play, get into it, and through the experience of playing they’re actually picking up a lot more ideas.
Henry reported that, while participating as an ensemble member, he had used the time to observe how individual students, in particular, two new students, were
managing; ‘Seeing where they are at, I learned quite a bit about them actually.’ He was aware but not bothered by the fact that during the activities on the barred instruments, there was quite a variety of both skill levels and focus on the specified task:
Quite a few of them, when they were supposed to be watching the leader, were off doing their own thing, but they were still creating music …focused on exploring scales and things. I’m not too worried about that.
He had also observed that the students who were not necessarily following his or the students’ leads, but rather using the time to explore their own ideas and ‘take things in a different direction’, were often ‘the ones who come up with really awesome ideas of their own’.
In the classes that were to follow, Henry would give the students opportunities to come up with a musical idea and look at ways of extending and developing that idea using specific compositional devices. These devices would be experienced first through playing as a whole class, and then, eventually, the students would break into small groups or work individually to ‘put their own music together’, scoring for instruments of their choice and notating their composition using
Sibelius software.