08 November 2010

First Reflections on Teaching and Learning

I finally started school again sometime in July this year and it's been 3 months plus at a wonderful secondary school. :) The academic year has officially ended so here are some of my experiences and thoughts. 

Ever since I started teaching proper, I have been plagued with countless questions on ‘teaching’ in general – how to keep my students in order, what to say when students misbehave, how to deliver a lesson effectively, how to engage them such that they become excited and motivated to learn, how to develop a positive classroom culture, when to use the hard or soft approach, and the list goes on and on. With that amount of inexperience and uncertainty, I cannot bear to imagine what my first three months as a beginning teacher would have been like without the sincere care, generous support and guidance from my teacher mentor. I have learnt very much and am still learning from his dedication and integrity as a musician and music teacher, his meticulous and disciplined work habits, as well as his respect and care for students, colleagues, superiors and other members of the PRCS community in the way he interacts with them. For this, I am extremely grateful for my teacher mentor, Marvin.

Sometime towards the end of August, with Marvin’s recommendation, I had the opportunity to sit in one of June’s classes (Sec 1/7) in a bid to figure out the various aspects of ‘teaching’ I have mentioned above which I find so difficult to grasp. I was immediately drawn towards how comfortable and relaxed her classroom atmosphere and the pace of her lesson was. With some prodding, students were able to respond freely and orderly and not surprisingly manage to cover much lesson content. It was clear that she was in complete control of the lesson/class and that gave students the sense of security, hence the comfortable pace and willingness to respond and learn. After class, I posed her the million-dollar question, “how do you achieve that??” Her response was simple and said that I first need to have a strong grasp of the subject/lesson content in order to be in control.

Immediately it struck a chord. I mentally scanned through my teaching experiences thus far and could identify specific lessons that were more successful because of my familiarity with the lesson content, as well as unsuccessful lessons because of the lack of it.
An example of the more successful lesson was the one for the O Level Music class on Chinese music traditions as part of the world music component. I was familiar with it mostly because I learnt it as a student myself previously. As a result I was able to scaffold their learning process in terms of meaningful activities and handouts that gave them the ability to think and listen for themselves as opposed to me simply presenting them with the information. To introduce cipher notation, I first gave them the score of the well-known song Spirited Away but written in cipher notation. I explained several rules about the notation and then they had to figure out the score themselves and play it in three-parts on the Orff xylophones. Listening activities followed after. They certainly learnt as I assessed them at the end of the lesson and they also had fun with the ensemble playing. Familiarity with the content allowed the freedom and confidence to answer students’ queries and for organized learning to take place.
An example of an unsuccessful lesson was the one for the GMP class on community songs in preparation for National Day. I did have lesson materials such as the video clips for those songs as well as PowerPoint slides in the style of the game show Don’t forget the Lyrics! for the activity. Like most typical students, they enjoyed the videos but were not very keen on singing these songs. Forced repetition was worse as it made them become slightly rebellious as they wanted fun and began to make fun of the songs. In that state, the game show activity did not work well either. I remember looking at the clock and desperately wondering what to do with the class for the remaining 20min. Resorting to playing videos would have been the easy way out just to keep them entertained but then the students would not have learnt anything musical and I would have wasted the music lesson. As much as I wanted to, I was simply unable to carry on with the singing and activity. I was terribly lost. On hindsight, this boils down to familiarity with the subject content as June advised. Being able to sing the songs was just barely scraping the surface, I should have asked myself questions such as ‘Why do we celebrate National Day? Why do we sing community songs? And why were these songs written in the first place?’ I learnt the lesson when Marvin admonished students (from another class but similar lesson) on their complacency and ungratefulness to their forefathers who toiled hard to give them what Singapore is today. He also showed them clips on what Singapore was like in the past to give them insight. As a result, the students sang with enthusiasm because they understood the meaning behind those songs and it gave them a real reason to sing praise and be grateful. I was so enlightened. 

In addition to having a strong grasp of the lesson content, the lesson/unit structure is no less important. This refers to the need for perspective when formulating the unit plan, time frame, type of assessment, down to preempting the necessary details for each lesson. I’m still in the midst of trying to figure this out so I’m unable to pen my thoughts on this for now. I’ve had glimpses of it though. Here’s an example with my Sec 1/7 music keyboard lessons. 1/7 has indeed been challenging for me most of the time. Week after week I observed a pattern in their behaviour that they are usually more cooperative and on task at the start of the lesson, and then gradually become chaotic towards the last 15-20 minutes. Initially I didn’t know why. I resisted having to ask Marvin if he could sit in because I wanted to try again and was hoping that I would manage the class better the following week. Well, things got quite out of hand so in the end I had Marvin drop by to take a look and to troubleshoot. After that session, his response came as a slew of questions, “Did you identify and separate those students who already have music/piano background? Did you give them more challenging or the same piece of music to work on as the others? Did you have extra pieces of music for students who have completed their task ahead of the rest? Were there special seating arrangements? Clear and challenging targets for students to meet at the end of each lesson?” My response was a series of sheepish ‘no’ and ‘half-yes’. These questions seem quite obvious now but definitely not at that time. From that perspective, a well-structured lesson would have eliminated a large amount of the negative behavioural responses that were displayed each week. Not only that, I was also made aware of real classroom applications of differentiated learning for students of varying abilities from this experience.

Several of such learning experiences the past few months have certainly served to show me the reality of teaching. ‘I feel like I’m finally back on earth,’ I shared one afternoon. I’ve always wanted to teach from a young age but had in mind lofty and cotton-candy ideas of being a carefree and wonderful teacher with eager students. Far from that, I realized wanting to be a good teacher is an arduous task and a formidable skill to acquire that requires much determination, time, effort and love. I came to recognize this reality after a bout of discouragement during the first two months when I compared the lessons Marvin and I conducted. Marvin and I would conduct the exact same lesson for certain classes and I observed that in his class, the students are generally bubbling over with excitement and eagerness to complete their tasks/assignments. However in my class, using the same resources, students were at times reluctant to do any work and some were even confused with what they were supposed to do. At that time I wondered what was wrong because I had thought that having ‘transferred’ all the necessary resources/materials/information from Marvin would put me in good stead. Indeed it has in a way (and I am heavily indebted to him for his generosity) but there’s so much more I need to learn for myself in order to be a good music teacher. Perhaps I could start with developing an ability to be firm, decisive, give clear/concise instructions and build relationships with the students.

I learnt that making a conscious effort to consistently build caring and trusting relationships with students is crucial and indispensible. Again, taking an example from my experience with dear Sec 1/7, throughout the semester I was very fierce with them, scolding and punishing individuals each week because I simply didn’t know what else to do when they started getting mischievous/defiant/disruptive. (The worst was when one of them fired off the fire extinguisher!!) The negative reinforcements certainly didn’t work well and did not create any positive impact at all. In fact on two occasions, the students commented that I needed to ‘relax’ and ‘learn to have a sense of humour’. (Perhaps I do need to learn these as well.) Despite all these seemingly bad experiences, I really appreciate having to teach 1/7. Yes, I really do and that was what I told the class on the last day of school as they were all busy discussing about their report cards they received from their teacher earlier on. As usual, I had to raise my voice over their huge din to speak to them. But something really interesting and never seen before happened after my first declaration. Many students went “Shhh! Shhh!” and started to settle down. I repeated myself again since it seemed to work and just in case some didn’t hear it the first time, “I honestly and sincerely appreciate having to teach your class the last semester”. I went on to explain amongst several other things that I had only wanted them to learn and take away with them useful lessons and skills, but that could not take place if everyone was not cooperative and hence the frequent punishment and scolding. I appreciate them for their liveliness and transparentness because their behavioural responses helped to reveal many loopholes in my teaching and planning and thus makes good learning experiences for me. It is amazing how ready and willing they are to listen and respond positively when they know that I do in fact like them and care about them. If only I had been able to express it to them during the semester and not only scoldings. Their responses became more supportive and positive as I ended by telling them that I still look forward to seeing them the following year if I get to teach them again. 

03 February 2010

Jon Schmidt - Love Story Meets Viva La Vida


I love this arrangement so very much.. right from the moment they start walking in with their expressions so full of joy and positive vibes. I liked how they arranged the two songs together so seamlessly and how they made such good use of Viva la Vida's rhythmic motif to achieve that seamlessness.

20 October 2009

Love Her More and Love Her Less

By John Piper May 29, 1995


For Karsten Luke Piper
At His Wedding to
Rochelle Ann Orvis
May 29, 1995

The God whom we have loved, and in
Whom we have lived, and who has been
Our Rock these twenty-two good years
With you, now bids us, with sweet tears,
To let you go: "A man shall leave
His father and his mother, cleave
Henceforth unto his wife, and be
One unashaméd flesh and free."

This is the word of God today,
And we are happy to obey.
For God has given you a bride
Who answers every prayer we've cried
For over twenty years, our claim
For you, before we knew her name.

And now you ask that I should write
A poem - a risky thing, in light
Of what you know: that I am more
The preacher than the poet or
The artist. I am honored by
Your bravery, and I comply.
I do not grudge these sweet confines
Of rhyming pairs and metered lines.
They are old friends. They like it when
I bid them help me once again
To gather feelings into form
And keep them durable and warm.

And so we met in recent days,
And made the flood of love and praise
And counsel from a father's heart
To flow within the banks of art.
Here is a portion of the stream,
My son: a sermon poem. It's theme:
A double rule of love that shocks;
A doctrine in a paradox:

If you now aim your wife to bless,
Then love her more and love her less.

If in the coming years, by some
Strange providence of God, you come
To have the riches of this age,
And, painless, stride across the stage
Beside your wife, be sure in health
To love her, love her more than wealth.

And if your life is woven in
A hundred friendships, and you spin
A festal fabric out of all
Your sweet affections, great and small,
Be sure, no matter how it rends,
To love her, love her more than friends.

And if there comes a point when you
Are tired, and pity whispers, "Do
Yourself a favor. Come, be free;
Embrace the comforts here with me."
Know this! Your wife surpasses these:
So love her, love her, more than ease.

And when your marriage bed is pure,
And there is not the slightest lure
Of lust for any but your wife,
And all is ecstasy in life,
A secret all of this protects:
Go love her, love her, more than sex.

And if your taste becomes refined,
And you are moved by what the mind
Of man can make, and dazzled by
His craft, remember that the "why"
Of all this work is in the heart;
So love her, love her more than art.

And if your own should someday be
The craft that critics all agree
Is worthy of a great esteem,
And sales exceed your wildest dream,
Beware the dangers of a name.
And love her, love her more than fame.

And if, to your surprise, not mine,
God calls you by some strange design
To risk your life for some great cause,
Let neither fear nor love give pause,
And when you face the gate of death,
Then love her, love her more than breath.

Yes, love her, love her, more than life;
O, love the woman called your wife.
Go love her as your earthly best.

Beyond this venture not. But, lest
Your love become a fool's facade,
Be sure to love her less than God.

It is not wise or kind to call
An idol by sweet names, and fall,
As in humility, before
A likeness of your God. Adore
Above your best beloved on earth
The God alone who gives her worth.
And she will know in second place
That your great love is also grace,
And that your high affections now
Are flowing freely from a vow
Beneath these promises, first made
To you by God. Nor will they fade
For being rooted by the stream
Of Heaven's Joy, which you esteem
And cherish more than breath and life,
That you may give it to your wife.

The greatest gift you give your wife
Is loving God above her life.
And thus I bid you now to bless:
Go love her more by loving less.

15 June 2009

youtube: Mr. Nichols


How important is corporate success/work to you? What about God, family or health? Take a step back and think for a moment.

Be careful cos the thing you're striving so hard for might just be the thing that would take your life - just like Mr. Nichols'.

08 April 2009

Musician's 1 Corinthians 13

1 Corinthians 13 paraphrased just for musicians. (Click to enlarge)

"Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres."

02 April 2009

John Cage - Renga

Check out Cage's work Renga!! First the 'prepared piano' and now the 'underprepared score'..

Nah, certainly not underprepared at all.. just that so much of the musical decisions is left to the performers!! Perhaps I think this work is super cool cos it is very structured and well-planned for a piece of Aleatory Music and at the same time there's so much space for improv/interpretation for each individual in the orchestra.

It's so exciting it makes me feel so ticklish all over.. can't wait to hear YTSO's performance of this piece. :)

PS. Wonder what are some other great works catagorised under Aleatory Music?

02 March 2009

TED Prize Winner: Maestro Jose Antonio Abreru

Maestro Jose Antonio Abreru on music education as a form of social rescue and means of life-transformation for vulnerable and lower/middle-class kids. A courageous and inspiring role model for all music educators. :)



Teresa Carreño Youth Orchestra. I rated this jaw-dropping, fascinating and inspiring. One of the bestest orchestras i've came across ever. It's incredible the amount of determination, sincerity and connection they have and put in their music.

26 February 2009

The King's Singers - Masterpiece

The King's Singers singing Masterpiece by Paul Drayton.

Really top class singers, fit for the king.

09 November 2008

End of Learning Journey with Babbitt (yet another stepping stone)

Funny that my ears are actually getting accustomed to listening to Babbitt’s music, or other avant-garde compositions for that matter. Why am I surprised? This is simply the result of a small attempt to immerse myself into the world of previously unfamiliar 20thC music for the last 3 months.

Out of all the different domains and aspects of 20thC music we’ve covered, Minimalism still appeals to me the most. (This has always been the case actually.) Somehow I can identify with it without much difficulty and it captures my attention. Don’t know how else to put it. argh. Really wonder if it’s the same for others or is it just my ears? Is it true for most people that in general, Minimalism is more accessible (aurally) than other forms of 20thC music?

Looking back, I’ve realized that I’ve come quite a long way in a short 3-month time frame. Reason being that previously I found 20thC pieces completely unintelligible. Also, I’m ashamed to admit that I was even mocking at such form of “music” and questioning the musical ability of their respective “composers”. (absolutely rude and obnoxious of me.) :-S This was because I was still listening to them through my tonal and biased ears! I just simply need to put on another fresh pair of listening ears.

I must say that I have been humbled by my newfound respect for the 20thC composers. (Well, it’s ‘newfound’ from my perspective – they have always been great and respectable.) Another reason is that I tried my hand at writing a piece of music in the 20thC style (quite vague, I know). And it’s really really difficult/tedious (but rewarding) despite it only being a short 1.5min piece with superficial features. Imagine the massive amount of mind-boggling compositional decisions that Babbitt had to grapple with. Respect.

So, yep.. I’m sure Babbitt would be pleased with my learning-journey. :-)


“.. in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself.”

31 October 2008

Notes on Babbitt's Electronic Music

Just jotting some notes on electronic music..

Interview with Babbitt (1968)
Babbitt says that there are three ways to produce electronic music:
- the tape studio
- the synthesizer
- the computer



finding this article is very timely and i'm very thankful for it! :) especially this is directly from Babbitt describing his works.

i was just getting so confused over one other reading which makes the distinction between ‘computer music’ and ‘tape music’ in the domain of ‘electronic music’. however it does not explain it clearly. most other readings also do not make the distinction even though it is significant.




Other interesting quotations/points raised in this article but not directly relevant to this research:

- pitch is the most impt aspect of musical structure? hmm..

Babbitt says, "As a composer, I still feel that pitch is the single most important aspect of musical structure."


- Babbitt's opinion of electronic music in music education, back in 1968.

"Fowler. In your opinion, what would an eighth- or ninth-grade music teacher have to know in order to introduce electronic music to his students in an interesting way?

Babbitt. The significant issue here is how to develop a child's musicality from every conceivable point of view. The question of the particular medium would just be a question of being able to inform the child in a rudimentary way. I would think that the music educator who is competent to make decisions about a child's musical training could easily acquire the slight amount of information that would be necessary. There's no music educator who couldn't learn to do that in a very, very short time. The information is available. In fact, this issue of the Journal should provide enough such information. There's no reason in the world why the music educator should have to be a technological expert. Very few composers are. I don't have to know how to build an oboe to write for it, and I don't have to know how to build a synthesizer to write for it. The educator doesn't need this technological information either. The educator simply has to be able to describe in very general but accurate terms how these media operate, just enough to arouse the child's interest and avoid misunderstanding."

"It is entirely up to the music educator to decide the complexity of the music appropriate to the development of a child. Whether it be electronic or not, I would insist, is irrelevant."


These are excerpts taken from:
An Interview with Milton Babbitt (1968) from the Music Educators Journal, Vol. 55, No. 3

25 October 2008

Structure/Outline of Research on Babbitt

Core focus:
- An introduction to Babbitt and his music
- How to approach Babbitt’s music


History of Babbitt
- Most known for his works in Serialism and Electronic music
- Very strong background in mathematics (has an impact on how he conceives music)
- Influenced by Schoenberg and Webern. He first encountered their works when he was studying in New York University and carried on to develop his 12-tone technique.
- He was part of the faculty at Princeton which was at the forefront of electronic music (Griffiths, 1981). This complemented Babbitt in his musical pursuit.


Serialism
- Babbitt’s development of Serialism (different from other serial composers – both his predecessors and contemporaries)

- Pieces to focus on:
Semi-Simple Variations (1956)
Minute Waltz (1977)
- Analysis by Morgan (1992), Wintle (1976), Blaustein and Brody (1986)
- Other interesting ideas identified such as its surface features


Electronic Music
- Babbitt’s purpose of exploring this medium is to achieve precision which is not possible with humans
- There is a need for the electronic medium
Examples of Relata I (1965) and Post-Partitions (1966)

- A piece to focus on:
Composition for Synthesizer (1961)
- Analysis by Morris (1997)


Listening to Babbitt
- Straus’ (1986) opinion on listening to Babbitt’s music is by appreciating the surface features: (a) contours; (b) dynamics; (c) register.
Example of String Quartet No. 2 (1954)

- However, I do have some reservations about Straus’ article.
(i) He focuses all his attention on surface features and relationships and does not agree with an in-depth exploration of Babbitt’s works. I disagree because Babbitt’s music is so much more meaningful and valuable below its surface.
(ii) Using String Quartet No. 2 as a sole example in this article is not a fair representation of all of Babbitt’s works, especially when Straus uses this to prove his point that ‘Babbitt’s music should be appreciated by listening to surface features’. This piece of music is one of Babbitt's simplest in terms of prominence of surface features.

- There is a need to understand the structure and underlying compositional strategies in order to fully appreciate Babbitt’s music.

24 October 2008

Reply to Jean - programmatic titles?

Hello Jeanette, :)


My response to your comment is quite long so I’ll post it here instead of the small box in the Comments page. Thanks for dropping by!



(Programmatic title – Titles which evoke a scene/image/mood in the mind.)

A few of Babbitt’s music does indeed have programmatic titles, while most have neutral sounding ones which simply describes the form or compositional technique used. Let me give you a few examples:

Programmatic titles:
An Elizabethan Sextette - 1'When I Was Fair And Young' (1979)
An Elizabethan Sextette - 3'Your Face, Your Tongue, Your Wit' (1979)
Lagniappe (1985) (meaning: a small present/gift)
The Widow’s Lament in Springtime (1950)

‘Neutral-sounding’ titles:
Duet (1956)
Partitions (1957)
Preludes, Interludes, And Postlude (1991)
Three Compositions (1947)



Just to add on if you were wondering if the music itself is programmatic, my answer would be ‘no’. This is quite tricky. Take Minute Waltz for example – analysts discovered that Babbitt exploits all possible types of ‘oom-pah’ patterns in this “waltz”. Hence by right the listener should be able to have the waltz feel and perhaps imagine a ballroom where people are waltzing. However when I listen to this piece of music, it does not even remotely resemble a conventional waltz like we know it to be. This – as I understand – is due to the nature of Serial music. Therefore Babbitt’s music is not programmatic even though the descriptions used might seem like it.

10 October 2008

"Listening to Babbitt" by J. Straus

Just browsed through the first few pages of Straus' article on Listening to Babbitt. :) It seems great. What a refreshing perspective - he takes a listener-oriented approach. This is as opposed to the few other articles I’ve seen that gives micro-detailed analyses of how musical notes are structured in a piece. I'm sure this reading would be useful and would yield interesting insights.

Careless of me to have put aside this article all these while and instead pore over complicated impossible-to-comprehend analyses of Babbitt's music. **Perhaps my focus should be more on what I 'hear' instead of all the detailed analyses which I feel are slightly beyond me. Then again, not sure if I'm doing justice to Babbitt if I take this superficial approach..

02 October 2008

Learning to appreciate Babbitt's music (or 20thC music as well)

I’ve been wondering..
All those pieces of 20thC music we’ve explored so far (eg. Babbitt, Berg, Ravel, Messiaen, Schoenberg, etc.), they seem to be crafted in such an intellectual and mathematical way and it is really quite exciting when we discover these compositional strategies. Does it mean that the way we appreciate these pieces of music should also be from an intellectual perspective as well? The reason why I say this is also because these pieces of music are not those that our ears are accustomed to listening or the conventional sit-back-relax-and-enjoy type (like FM92.4 would say it).

Referring specifically to Babbitt’s music, Andrew Mead (1994) says that we must be able to follow the music’s structure in order to fully appreciate it. This is because “the strong emotional and expressive charge of his music is deeply rooted in the ways notes and rhythms work together to create webs of association and connection over ever-larger spans of time.” I was quite pleasantly surprised that Mead or anyone else would describe these music with phrases like ‘strongly emotional’ and ‘sensuous beauty’. Previously, I only thought that music by Chopin, Liszt or their contemporaries could be described as such, but not anymore. This new perspective opened up for me another set of ears when listening to 20thC music.

06 September 2008

The Glossary

Terms used in analysing Babbitt's Semi-Simple Variations:

Aggregate


Hexachord
A collection of 6 chromatic pitches. (Hence each twelve-tone set would contain two hexachords.)

Hexachordal Combinatoriality
This refers to a specific type of tone row that is obtained from the combination of a hexachord with a transposition of its inversion.

Derived Set
This refers to a very specific type of tone row. It requires a segment - trichord, tetrachord or hexachord - to be subjected to transposition, inversion or retrograde in order to derive the entire set of twelve tones.