Posts Tagged ‘Pedagogy’
Using Recorded Music in a Dalcroze Class
Today’s Dalcroze teacher has easy access to a world of recorded sound that would have been unfathomable to M. Jaques. How do we take advantage of this rich resource and still retain the essence of eurhythmics? Louise Mathieu helps us sort through the issues in this reprint from the American Dalcroze Journal (Vol. 23, No.…
Read MoreDalcroze Pedagogy: Motivating Repetition and Improving Movement
(adapted from Dittus’s Embodying Music) In each lesson, Dalcroze students will need to engage in a fair amount of repetition until they achieve mastery or automatization of the required skill. This takes time and energy for the student and requires the instructor’s watchful eye to ensure that the students are sufficiently challenged and engaged. Furthermore,…
Read MoreLesson Plan: Waltz of the Flowers
This lesson can be used for a wide range of ages and abilities. It may also be adjusted to fit a variety of classroom goals and settings. It explores measure groupings of 3’s and 4’s. Enjoy and please feel free to make it your own! Activity 1: Walks & Bows “Show me how you take…
Read MoreLesson Plan Editorial: Andante from Symphony No. 5
A few weeks ago, we released Joy Yelin’s lesson on subdivision, which uses the Andante from Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5. It is such a delight to use this familiar theme. With some tweaks here and there, I enjoy playing the marvelous melody, harmony and modulations of Ludwig van Beethoven’s “Andante.” The students move with rapt…
Read MoreLesson Plan: Andante from Symphony No. 5
It is such a delight to use this familiar theme. With some tweaks here and there, I enjoy playing the marvelous melody, harmony and modulations of Ludwig van Beethoven’s “Andante.” The students move with rapt attention, responding to the subdivisions of the beat which are inherent in the music. Begin with a slow tempo. The…
Read MoreLesson Plan: Living Music: Eurhythmics and Jazz Improvisation
This lesson was first presented at a New England Dalcroze Chapter Workshop, January 27, 2019, and is designed for adults of all levels. In this lesson, students develop some of the basic skills that go into jazz improvisation, working in various musical styles. Through their improvised movements, students experience the relationship between beat and measure…
Read MoreOptions for Improvising
Herb Henke (1931-2015) inspired many of today’s Dalcroze educators. Here, he guides us in improvisation by suggesting simple but profound changes to a piece of music. After playing the piece as written, try the following versions: Add three flats (b-flat, e-flat, a-flat) to the key signature. The indicated b-naturals, however, should be retained. Create a…
Read MoreLesson Plan: Old Joe Has Gone Fishing
This lesson was presented at the 2012 DSA National Conference at Seattle Pacific University and teaches 7/4 with Benjamin Britten’s “Old Joe Has Gone Fishing” from his opera Peter Grimes. Benjamin Britten wrote this canon as a sort of faux sea chanty/drinking song. It is charming a capella; when heard in the opera with full…
Read MoreA Conversation With Anne Farber, Lisa Parker and Michael Joviala
Anne Farber and Lisa Parker have been close colleagues in the classroom and on the concert stage for over 30 years. In January of 2014, I sat down to talk with Anne and Lisa on the eve of a weekend of TriState DSA workshops. The series included a presentation to New York area Kodaly, Orff…
Read MoreHeart to Heart: Music and Movement for Seniors with Dementia
How curious, poignant, and profound that when all is taken from us: our professions, our routines, our sense of ourselves, perhaps even knowledge of our own names, we still possess our deep capacity to respond to music: melody, rhythm, harmony, song. Why is this? Perhaps it is because our very being is music. Music is…
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