|
On March 29, 2021, the Alberta Government released their draft curriculum for Kindergarten through Grade 6 in all subject areas including music. It was demonstrably horrible. Apparently it wasn't horrible enough. They actually added some errors in. Read the original article on the objectively wrong draft music curriculumCertainly there were some edits. But if you didn't read my original post (linked above), you wouldn't know where those edits came from. In actual fact, you wouldn't know where any information came from at all. They have not cited a single thing in the production of this draft music curriculum. We have no idea where they got all the errors in their first draft. And we have no idea where they got the ideas for the corrections they put in, or the errors they chose to add in. This is a HUGE issue. It shows to me that whoever wrote this curriculum in the first place did not have to have any musical knowledge or even pedagogical training (or if they did, they abandoned it). Aside from public record showing that the individual who consulted on it had no musical training, how do I know there was no musical knowledge or pedagogical training involved? Because half their edits are pulled from a blog. My blog, to be precise. And to be clear, I am trained in music education pedagogy and curriculum design (M.M.E. from Boston University, summa cum laude), but they don't know that. Or, at the very least, they never asked me for my credentials. Here's the reason this really bothers me. It's not so much that they took, in some cases verbatim, my content and attributed it to "feedback". It's that my feedback is placed alongside new errors. It shows to every Albertan that the ability to fact-check was not a credential required of the draft music curriculum's authors. Now my expertise has been diminished to the same value as whatever napkin was submitted with the errors scrawled in coffee stains. Nearly 11 months ago I posted an analysis of the facts contained within the Draft K-6 Music Curriculum. It was obvious in that article that the curriculum was inadequate, as evidenced by the 42 errors I catalogued. I also reminded the reader that teachers are required by law to teach the curriculum, even if there are fictions contained within. Today I rehash that. We'll see a number of errors I overlooked, for which I apologize. 42 errors seemed like too much already, but nearly a year later I'm still finding more. We will also see where there are in fact edits, how they've been edited, and maybe even see where the edits came from. We will also identify the changes that are erroneous or outright wrong. At final tally I found 15 errors I overlooked, 22 errors that remain unchanged, 11 corrections (3 of which need further changes to be truly fixed), 1 change that didn't fix the problem, 7 changes that actually made things worse, and even 1 change that has no rationale explanation for the change. So while I started with 42 errors, after nearly a year of collecting feedback, that list has actually increased to 48 outstanding errors. But before I do, this time I think it's necessary to get into the philosophy and rationale, if only for a brief moment. Honestly, I've already spent far too much time on this rag, but it's still necessary to explain just how horrible this is for children, and how difficult it will be to maintain my professional rigour while delivering this curriculum if it were to ever be implemented. Again, I still encourage all Albertans to Have Your Say, and tell the government how dangerous and wrong this curriculum is. Delaying it, as the government has already done, is simply not enough. It's better to stick to a 33-year-old factually-accurate curriculum than it is to work with a new one where facts were not a requirement for publication.
That means treating music as a verb as opposed to as a noun. This concept was first coined by Christopher Small in the 1990s, and is not new information. "To music" means to engage in musical activities in a way that students are deeply connected to. Much music education research has been centered around this idea, although sometimes it's framed in different ways, such as by saying "relevant music-making", or avoiding "methodolatry" as discussed by Thomas Regelski. The joyful act of making music is the primary learning tool for students, not the memorization of facts, theory (which come subsequent to actually making music), much less any "official knowledge" published by any government. The key takeaway is that great research about how to do music education constructively and effectively exists, and that there is no evidence of its existence in the draft curriculum. Let's start with some basics of good sequencing of any educational concept. In order for a student to learn, they must be able to connect to the topic. It must be relevant to them. That means they need to be physically capable of performing the skills and procedures requested of them, they need to be mentally capable of comprehending and understanding the concepts, and socially capable of connecting these things to their own lives. This draft music curriculum shows no evidence of such considerations. As an example, Grade 1 students are expected to understand the 12-tone system of Ancient Chinese music when all they have ever performed themselves (according to the draft curriculum) is the three tones known as sol, la and mi. If you aren't physically capable of performing 12 tones, how could you possibly understand it? If they are still in pre-operational development, how can we even expect them to understand what is meant by "Ancient" in Ancient China? And although the document says students are to be exploring music in communities, unless they are Chinese themselves, this knowledge has no relevance to their identity formation, or even the rest of the curriculum. And these issues of age-appropriateness, relevance, and sequencing persist from grade to grade to grade. And why should we be surprised that the curriculum shows no evidence of basis in research? The person in charge of the curriculum wasn't even a music specialist. When a list of songs that was to be considered for inclusion was released in 2020, it was shown to be plagiarized from the United States, and smacked of racism. When the draft in March of 2021 was released, our worst fears were realized; evidence of Eurocentricity remained, transphobic language was included, it was rife with errors, no music education pedagogue had been consulted, and no music education pedagogue would endorse it. When it comes right down to it, kids will hate music if this draft curriculum is implemented. They will spend so much time on history and theory that there will be no time for the actual joyful act of music-making. Music-making is such an important part of human development and identity formation that to kill that part of what it means to be human is more dangerous than our current government seems to be able to fathom. It has ramifications not only on the individuals involved, but on the collective education system, health care system, and general sense of pride in community, nationality, and culture. And the only "specific and constructive feedback" that has been collected has actually made it objectively worse. How can I stay professional?Many are concerned about how we, as teachers, will be able to deliver this curriculum when we have been given no resources or funding to implement it prior to its implementation. But to me, that's a secondary problem. There is a bigger problem that teachers must address, and the general public must reconcile with. It is that if we are expected to teach this draft, we cannot maintain our professionalism. It is another attack on our profession. It is important that Albertans know that whatever ends up in the final curriculum, teachers are required by law to teach it. If there are errors in the curriculum, teachers must teach the errors. If the students aren't capable of understanding 12-tone Ancient Chinese music, it doesn't matter, teachers still need to teach it, and your kids will get the marks that reflect their understanding (or lack thereof). If students are taught that jazz made African Americans of the Harlem Renaissance feel free, that is because that racist sentiment is in the curriculum, and teachers must teach it by law. Teachers will struggle with this deeply. As a teacher, we are to help students form themselves, and as part of that, we cannot engage in destructive behaviour with our students. However, if we are required by law to teach this unresearched inaccurate developmentally inappropriate drivel they call a draft curriculum, we will be doing exactly that, and destroy our students. So what do we do? Do we teach the way we know we are supposed to teach (because we've gone through 5+ years of training to know how to do it properly, are subject-matter experts, and have been certificated by the Education Minister to prove it), and risk being fired because we're not only ignoring what our boss told us to do, but as it's enshrined in law, also run the risk of legal repercussions? Or do we teach what's in the draft, and cause harm? I'll tell you what many teachers are considering - leaving the profession. 37% of teachers, at last pulse-check by the Alberta Teachers' Association. The fact of the matter is, if you can't give teachers space to do what they have been trained to do and love to do, you won't have teachers. From hereon in, I catalogue the errors I have been able to detect in the draft music curriculum, so you can see how incredibly poor this unresearched, inappropriate curriculum is, and maybe get a glimmer of how much harm it has a chance of causing. Organizing Idea: Foundational ElementsMusic literacy is developed through knowledge and application of Foundational Elements. Kindergarten Guiding Question: What are the qualities of sound? Sounds have qualities that can be described as loud or soft (dynamics), as heard in Gioachino Rossini, The William Tell Overture. Patterns can be created through a combination of sounds, including ... loud and soft. Overlooked Error: Although this is a new addition to this catalogue, it existed previously. Despite this being discussed clearly in my original post, this error remains, and it persists through all grades. The opposite of "loud" is not "soft", it is "quiet". One opposite of the word "soft" can be "strong". I did not include this in my original post, because at Kindergarten, the semantics of loud vs. soft is often lost on students who are in the preoperational stage of intellectual development. However, in reconsidering my position on this, students should not be taught antonyms that are not in fact antonyms of one another. "Loud", if coupled with its opposite "quiet", would be appropriate for Kindergarten learning. "Strong" and "soft" will need to be used later to match the actual terminology used, and this will be shown later. Body percussion is the art of making sound with the body, including clapping, snapping, patching, stomping, rubbing Overlooked Error: Thank you to the Calgary Board of Education for pointing this one out to me. The word "patching" is not a term that makes any sense to body percussion. Quilting, perhaps, but not music. The word that should be used is a german-originated word called "patschen", which refers to a series of patting and slapping techniques used to mimic natural sounds like rain. Grade 1 Guiding Question: How can musical sounds be interpreted? Body percussion is the art of making sound with the body, including clapping, snapping, patching, stomping, rubbing Overlooked Error: Thank you to the Calgary Board of Education for pointing this one out to me. The word "patching" is not a term that makes any sense to body percussion. Quilting, perhaps, but not music. The word that should be used is a german-originated word called "patschen", which refers to a series of patting and slapping techniques used to mimic natural sounds like rain. I will also note that this learning outcome was already in the Kindergarten list and has been copied verbatim to Grade 1, which shows there was no intent to properly sequence learning. Music symbols are used to indicate the volume of sound, including f for loud and p for soft. In Western music, dynamics are described by using Italian terms, including forte for loud and piano for soft… Unchanged: This error remains after 11 months of consultation. Although i discussed at the Kindergarten level the necessity to use proper antonyms, such as "loud" vs. "quiet" or "strong" vs. "soft", in Grade 1 we now see the use of the latin words typically used in music, but with inaccurate translations. The word forte does not mean "loud", it means "strong". A curriculum document should not include interpretations of a word, but should include proper translations. Grade 2 Guiding Question: In what ways can tone and duration contribute to music? Visual representation of music symbols in written form is known as standard notation, but it can also be represented using stick notation or other manipulatives. Overlooked Error: In my previous post, with the number of errors I catalogued, it was quite possible I missed something. And I did. I overlooked the error here, and while some might call it being "nitpicky", one of the stated intentions of the Education Minister was to make the curriculum clear and easy to understand, and this statement is actually easy to misinterpret. Not all musical notation is considered "standard notation". What you think about when it comes to sheet music is likely "standard notation", however musical symbols can include guitar tablature, bar-based notation (such as in the use of MIDI), and others. This is a compositional fallacy much like saying that a fork is silverware, so all silverware must be forks. It ignores the spoons, knives and sporks. A whole piece of music can include a number of sections that may be alike or different and can include AB, ABA, ABAB (sectional form), as heard in Camille Saint-Saëns, Carnival of the Animals – Fossils, in which the xylophone part is A and the clarinet solo is B Fixed: This error has been corrected, and replaced with two very good simple examples of sectional form, folk song Rocky Mountain and French Canadian folk song Vive La Canadienne. Tone has dynamics and tempo. Unchanged: This remains ambiguous and, as a result, false. "Tone" has multiple meanings. One possible meaning is as a specific pitch (the word is used with this intent elsewhere in the draft). Another is that it refers to the space between pitches called an "interval", usually in the interval of a major second. The last one refers to the general concept of tone as the timbre and quality of sound. In this last definition, dynamics could be argued (albeit loosely) as being a component of tone, but tempo, as in the speed at which music is played as caused by duration, has no bearing on the quality or timbre of sound. This separation between the concept of "tone" and "duration" is even used explicitly in the Grade 3 Guiding Question for Foundational Elements in this draft documents. This error remains in the curriculum document. Music dynamics that suddenly change are called accents and are indicated using the > symbol. Fixed: A simple definition of an accent is now appropriately included. Grade 3 Guiding Question: To what extent do tone and duration affect the way music is perceived? The duration of a rhythm or musical sound can be extended by placing a dot next to a rhythm, such as a half note, to extend the duration of the note by one beat. Fixed: This inaccuracy has been fixed, and the terminology used came almost directly from the article I posted 11 months ago. The duration of a measure is indicated by ... repeat signs to indicate measures to be repeated. Overlooked Error: Another I overlooked Repeat signs have no impact on the duration of a measure. They are symbols that organize groupings of measures. Differentiate between the time signatures 3/4 and 4/4 in various musical selections. Illustrate strong-weak beat patterns in 2/4, 3/4, and 4/4 time signatures through the use of body percussion, non-pitched percussion, or movement.
Dynamics direct how music should be played, and can be notated using a music symbol on the musical score, including mf to indicate mezzo-forte, which means moderately loud … ff to indicate fortissimo, which means very loud. Unchanged: This inaccurate translation of the word forte remains in the curriculum. I have already discussed this inaccuracy, and will not add anything further. In Western music, Italian terms are used to label tempo, including allegro, meaning fast. Fixed: This minor error was fixed to indicate a proper translation as was mentioned in my previous article. Music symbols (articulation markings) can indicate the duration of music notes, including; staccato and legato, phrase marks to indicate length of phrases, accents to indicate emphasis of a sound. Unchanged: The stem of this list remains inaccurate. Articulations do not indicate the duration of music notes alone. A better definition would be to say "music symbols (articulation markings) can indicate the manner in which music notes are to be played, including...". This would appropriately align to the fact that phrase marks have nothing to do with duration, and that accents likewise have nothing to do with duration. This error remains in the draft. The treble clef indicates pitches on the staff that begin at middle C and move higher. Fixed: This erroneous explanation of the treble clef has been corrected as per my original article stating the treble clef in fact indicates where the note G above middle C is. The correction also removes a statement that suggested treble clefs organize high and low pitches. The new definition is far more accurate. Pitches belonging on the lines of the treble clef are labelled EGBDF. Pitches belonging in the spaces of the treble clef are labelled FACE. Unchanged: These mnemonics remain in the draft document despite them not being the rule, but rather are only hints to remember the rule, and should never be in a curriculum document. For that matter, anyone without musical training might be confused into thinking that the EGBDF sits on the five-lined staff from top-to-bottom, not from bottom-to-top. It is extremely important to teach the rule first, then share mnemonics that will help students remember them. As an example, in the draft mathematics curriculum even the Order of Operations is taught with the explicit rules, and neither BEDMAS nor PEMDAS mnemonics are even included in the curriculum. This is the appropriate way to include this rule in the curriculum (whether or not they should be introduced in Grade 4 and 5 or not is beside the point). So if the rules are explained explicitly for math, why aren't the rules in music the same? The answer is that they should be in a curriculum document, and the "how" to teach that rule to the students should be left up to the educational professionals in the room. Two or more melodies can be combined or layered to create harmony in the form of a descant, partner song, or canon, as heard in; (descant) Johann Sebastian Bach, Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring, (round) French folk songs Frère Jacques and Alouette, gentille alouette Fixed, but with opportunity for improvement: This original from the March 2021 draft was rife with errors, including providing a poor example of a descant, a poor example of a round, and an unclear explanation of what a canon is. The correction has separated the definition of a descant from the original statement, the addition of an appropriate partner song exemplar, and the removal of the poor canon example. The opportunity for improvement sits in whether or not a definition of descant should even be included in the curriculum at the Grade 3 level (with research to back up that decision), and if so, what is a good example? One was provided in my original article, however this is a question of pedagogical value and philosophy, and I said I'd avoid that in this post. Some pitched instruments can play chords, including keyboards, barred instruments, tone chimes, ukuleles, and hand bells. Unchanged: In my original post I indicated that tone chimes and handbells were not capable of playing chords on their own, and that fact was even stated properly elsewhere in the draft. To be clear, that place where it is stated accurately is in the Grade 5 region of the draft. However this and a large number of other moments tone chimes or hand bells appear in the draft indicate falsely that these instruments can play chords. Overlooked: Included in this statement is the term "barred instruments". Yet the next statement suggests that resonator bells can't play chords. Which of these statements is correct? I go more into detail on this in the next statement. To be clear, a tone chime can play a single pitch, just like a clarinet can play a single pitch. You can layer multiple tone chimes, or clarinets, together to produce chords, but on their own they are not capable of doing so. This must be fixed in multiple locations in the draft. Instruments that can only play one tone can be layered with other tones to create harmony, including resonator bells and voices. Overlooked Error: This statement is confusing when paired with the previous statement. Are resonator bells not barred instruments? In fact, what are resonator bells? Without a clear understanding as to what was meant by the term "resonator bells" as all bells of musical instruments hold a function with regards to resonance, I looked up what was meant, and discovered something akin to a glockenspiel, but where the bars can be separated. Either that, or they are to be played as a set. It is difficult to tell. If these "resonator bells" are truly single bars, much like tone chimes or boomwhackers, then this statement is true. If they are in fact organized as a set, like with Orff instruments, a true glockenspiel or a xylophone, my undergraduate degree was spent playing chords on those instruments, so I can comfortably attest to the fact that this statement would be false. The ambiguity here is inappropriate for a curriculum document. Perhaps the purpose of a set of "resonator bells" is to be versatile. At this point it seems valuable to mention that indicating any such instruments as exemplars is inappropriate. The learning outcomes that should be included in the curriculum should be that some instruments can play multiple pitches simultaneously, some cannot. Let the music instructor decide which tools are best to use for their circumstances, and keep that prescription out of the curriculum. A printed piece of music (musical score) is used to illustrate the duration of a piece of music. Overlooked Error: No it's not. There is minimal correlation between a musical score and the duration of the music it represents. A musical score may be a 8 pages long, but if played at largo could take 5 minutes to play, or if played at presto could take 90 seconds. A musical score can be used to illustrate the organization of a group of instruments playing music at the same time to produce a complete musical work; a definition that is likely more appropriate for the intent of this portion of the draft curriculum. Instrument families in Western music include the strings, woodwinds, brass, and percussion. Unchanged: This continues to be an incomplete statement, ignoring the value of the electrophones that have been involved in Western music for a century as of 2020 (the Theremin was the first Western electronic instrument, however there are many electrophones that have stood the test of time). What good is updating a curriculum if you're not going to actually update it? Seeing as the curriculum is interested in providing exemplars, I would recommend Mercy, Mercy, Mercy by Joe Zawinul featuring the Rhodes Piano, and Symphony No. 3 "Universe", I: Expansion of the Universe by Fazil Say, featuring the Theremin. Grade 4 Guiding Question: What is the role of structure in music?
Changed, Not Fixed, Maybe Worse: The first quote box is from the original March 2021 draft. The second is from the current version of the draft. Neither address the issue I pointed out in my article, and left a hole in the content. Double bar lines and repeat signs do not impact how rhythm patterns are organized. Double bar lines tell you when a series of successive rhythmic patterns stop, indicating the end of a section of music. Repeat signs tell you when to repeat certain rhythmic patterns. They have no impact on the organization of rhythmic patterns. Additionally, there is no mention of symbols used to organize beat groupings. Beat groupings tend to be indicated by beamed rhythms, as in grouping multiple eighth note or sixteenth notes to fill up a quarter note's value, or three eighth notes together to indicate the main pulse in 6-8 time. The structure of beat groupings (metre) in music are identified using a symbol called a time signature, including 2/4, 3/4, 4/4, and 6/8. Overlooked Error: This is one of three adjacent learning outcomes that all suffer the same error. As I discussed in the Grade 3 portion of the curriculum, if you cannot write time signatures properly, you should avoid depicting time signatures as though they are fractions, because they are not. The structure of the pentatonic scale omits the fourth and seventh degrees of the scale. Unchanged, with Consequences: This definition is Eurocentric. It assumes that everything is based on the major scale. It is not. Pentatonic scales are not designed as though they are taking the bottom ribs out and creating a new scale out of it. Pentatonic scales are constructed outside of the major/minor concept of modality. While this definition remains unchanged, changes they made later in the draft in the Grade 5 region actually demonstrate an unwillingness to remove Eurocentricity. Changes made to learning outcomes in the Grade 5 area leave explanation for those learning outcomes open to interpretation. By not being explicit in how pentatonic scales are constructed, their changes only serve to put lipstick on a still-Eurocentric pig. See the comments below on pentatonic scales in Grade 5 for more information. There are numerous ways to structure a melody using intervals that move by steps, skips, and repeats. Unchanged: The more appropriate term to use is "unisons" instead of "repeats". "Repeats" are a term used in the specific circumstances of repeat signs. Music symbols can be visually represented to direct how a piece of music should be performed, including: dynamic (articulation) markings, including phrase, accent, legato, and staccato; dynamic range of soft sounds, including pp, mp, and p to indicate pianissimo, mezzo-piano, and piano; dynamic range of loud sounds, including ff, mf, and f to indicate fortissimo, mezzo-forte, and forte Unchanged: Legato and staccato remain inaccurately depicted as dynamic markings when they are in fact stylistic markings that have no bearing on volume. Forte continues to be depicted as though it means "loud", when the proper translation from latin is "strong". Grade 5 Guiding Question: What is the relationship between rhythmic, melodic, and harmonic structures in music? The bass clef indicates pitches on the staff that begin at middle C and move lower. Fixed, almost: This erroneous explanation of the bass clef has been largely corrected as per my original article stating the bass clef in fact indicates where the note F below middle C is, except they didn't say that. What they said was that the bass clef "indicates the position of the note F on the fourth line of the music staff". What is unclear is whether or not this is the fourth line from the top or the bottom. Why not use the same structure of definition as was used for the treble clef, or explain how the symbol indicates the location of F? There are much more clear definitions available than the one that was used. Pitches on the lines of the bass clef are labelled GBDFA. Pitches on the spaces of the bass clef are labelled ACEG. Unchanged: These mnemonics remain in the draft document despite them not being the rule, but rather are only hints to remember the rule, and should never be in a curriculum document. For that matter, anyone without musical training might be confused into thinking that the EGBDF sits on the five-lined staff from top-to-bottom, not from bottom-to-top. It is extremely important to teach the rule first, then share mnemonics that will help students remember them. As an example, in the draft mathematics curriculum even the Order of Operations is taught with the explicit rules, and neither BEDMAS nor PEMDAS mnemonics are even included in the curriculum. This is the appropriate way to include this rule in the curriculum (whether or not they should be introduced in Grade 4 and 5 or not is beside the point). So if the rules are explained explicitly for math, why aren't the rules in music the same? The answer is that they should be in a curriculum document, and the "how" to teach that rule to the students should be left up to the educational professionals in the room. Music symbols and abbreviations of terms can be illustrated on a musical score and direct how to play music, including; articulation markings, including phrase, accent, legato, staccato, and fermata, … dynamic range of loud sounds, including ff, mf, and f to indicate fortissimo, mezzo-forte, and forte, … (dim) to indicate diminuendo or decrescendo Unchanged: The false definition of forte as "loud" remains, and the inaccurate suggestion that dim is the only appropriate abbreviation for the word decrescendo also remains. Structures for organizing rhythms can include; … double bar lines, repeat signs, … codas, introductions, first and second endings. Unchanged: None of these tools organize rhythms. Double bar lines, repeats, codas, and first and second endings simply indicate where the completion of significant sections of music are and/or which sections need to be performed multiple times, but they cannot impact how you read the rhythms on the page. Introductions are not rhythmic structures, but are instead formal structures that may include harmonic, melodic, and/or rhythmic structures. Further, there is no concrete symbol, unlike every other example in this list, that indicates something is an "introduction" in music, so this becomes very difficult to explain with clarity. The duration of a rhythmic pattern can become more complex by adding dots, ties, or combinations of rhythms, including ... syncopation, which combines eighth notes with a quarter note Made Worse: The definition of syncopation has been separated in the updated draft from the original statement, however the new definition remains faulty. The corrected draft states that "syncopation may be created when accents are placed unexpectedly on an off-beat". However this is not entirely true either. A single accent on an off-beat does not a syncopation make, and a syncopation does not require accents to exist. In my previous article I indicated the use of the words "strong notes" and "weak beats" or "off-beats". While they chose the word "off-beats", they denied the definitions I provided and rendered all of their examples as contrary to their definition, despite the fact each exemplar is a good example. Duple metre, or 2/4 time, is a grouping of two beats per measure and alternates one strong beat with one weaker beat. Triple metre, or 3/4 time, is a grouping of three beats per measure and starts with one strong beat followed by two weaker beats. Quadruple metre, or 4/4 time, is a grouping of four beats per measure with an accent falling on beats one and three. Compound metre includes 6/8 time, where the six beats are divided into groups of three and an accent falls on beats one and four. Made Worse: The change has simply removed the words "duple", "triple", "quadruple" and "compound" meters entirely from the curriculum, leaving the remaining portions untouched. But this produces many new problems. While it is true that 2-4 time has two beats per measure and has one strong beat and weak beat each, so does 2-2 time and alla breve. While it is true that 3-4 time has three beats including one strong and two weak beats, that is also true of 9-8 time. None of these definitions actually explain what time signatures mean. To be clear, 2-4 time indicates that there are two quarter-notes in a measure. That is all. 3-4 time indicates that there are three quarter-notes in a measure. 4-4 has four quarter-notes in a measure. 6-8 time has six eighth-notes in a measure. What actually indicates strong versus weak beats is not the time signature, but rather the manner in which the beats are grouped. Trying to define these as anything different than what they are sets students up for failure when they have to determine what 9-8 time, 2-2 (alla breve) or 5-4 time means. Additionally they have removed definitions of Duple and Triple meter entirely, and chosen to remove Compound meter so that they don't have to add Simple meter, despite the fact that later in the curriculum they are expected to apply this information. How do you apply information you do not know? Finally, a reminder that time signatures should not be depicted as fractions.
Changed, but for the Worse?: The most recent draft has removed this Eurocentric definition of pentatonic scales (in the first quote box), although they did not do this earlier in Grade 4. That being said, the new definitions (in the second quote box), which simply list the tones of the three scales, does not explain their construction. A person is therefore left believing that the Eurocentric explanation from Grade 4 remains the rationale. This smacks of appeasement. The change here in Grade 5 was only made to appease those providing negative feedback, but does not solve the issue, and in fact subverts it under the guise of "we accepted feedback and made changes". No, you were just more sneaky about your Eurocentricity. A proper definition was provided in my previous article. Pentatonic scales used in musical works can include Claude Debussy’s La fille aux cheveux de lin (The Girl with the Flaxen Hair). Fixed, but with opportunity for improvement: This piece was a horrendous choice for exemplifying pentatonic scales, and showed how little research actually went into creating the curriculum at the outset. It has been replaced by a Canadian folksong and an Irish folksong, however obvious options from non-European cultures were ignored, including my suggestions of Arirang or Chippewa Lullaby as chronicled by Richard Johnston. A music symbol called an accidental is placed at the beginning of a musical score to define the scale name, including; B flat to indicate an F major scale, F sharp to indicate a G major scale, no accidental to indicate a C major scale Fixed: It no longer falsely identifies the use of flats and sharps at the beginning of a score as "accidentals", but now rightly refers to them as the key signature. Accidentals are visually represented as the black notes on a keyboard. Fixed: Accidentals are no longer referred to as "the black notes", but rather the most recent version of the draft defines accidentals as a sharp, flat, or natural sign. There are other accidentals as well, but none of them are relevant for Grade 5 students. Intervals used to structure a melody can be classified as Overlooked Error: I'm mad I missed this. Some of these terms are arbitrary and subjectively used. The proper musical terminology is conjunct and disjunct melodic motion, of which a "step" would constitute conjunct motion and "skips" and "leaps" (as defined above) constitute disjunct melodic motion. Defining the terms "skip" and "leap" separately from the concept of disjunct melodic motion is arbitrary, and should not be in a curriculum document. Grade 5s may never use the phrase "disjunct motion", but how they are taught disjunct motion should be left up to the educational professional in the room. Additionally, a "repeat" is ambiguous when considered with the fact that repeat signs are also included in this draft document. Instead, the concept that should be discussed is the "unison". Chord charts or diagrams can be used as a form of music notation for instruments, including the guitar, handbells, and ukulele. Overlooked Error: Handbells cannot play chords independently. Piano scores can be interpreted and arranged for a handbell choir, but so too can that happen for a vocal choir. You still don't see chord charts ever written for the choir, nor do you for handbell choirs. This is even clarified in the adjacent learning outcome, listed immediately after the one above. Improvisation is a way to structure music. Unchanged: Improvisation is the absence of or avoidance of adhering to a structure. Any structure that previously existed in a piece of music, whether melodic, rhythmic, or even harmonic, may be abandoned as part of improvisation (although more often than not, it is inspired by the structure that previously existed). Improvisation does not provide formal structure to the piece on the whole, and therefore this statement is false, and remains false in the current draft. Grade 6 Guiding Question: How are musical structure represented across various musical contexts?
 Changed, but not Fixed: The original issue here was that a rhythm change does not automatically change the melody, such as with songs that have lyrics. In one verse of She's Like The Swallow, the lyrics require a change to the rhythm, but the melody remains in tact. Changing the original draft (in the first quote box) to the new draft (the second quote box) does not address this issue, so the error remains. A triplet rhythm structured with eighth notes is played in the space of one beat. Unchanged: A major issue with this draft curriculum is its clarity, despite the Education Minister stating that was an intended outcome of the curriculum, to be clear and concise. This statement is one such issue. I would amend my suggestion from my previous article to make this obviously clear, especially when this learning outcome is adjacent to an explanation of 6-8 time; "Triplet eighth notes are a rhythm where three notes are played evenly in the space of a quarter note." Although even then, neither definition truly captures the likely intended outcome, which is that a triplet is a rhythm of three evenly spaced out notes where a duplet is expected. A basic 12-bar blues chord progression is structured using a pattern of I, IV, and V chords of any scale, as heard in B. B. King’s The Thrill is Gone. Unchanged: B.B. King's The Thrill is Gone is not a good exemplar of a standard blues progression, especially when coupled with the definition that indicates only the I, IV and V chords would be in it. King's song is in fact a minor blues with a borrowed chord from the relative major of the subdominant (it includes the i, iv, III/iv and V chords). It seems odd that the new draft removes bad examples of pentatonic songs, but not bad examples of blues progressions. Better examples include John Coltrane’s Blue Trane, or Duke Ellington’s C-Jam Blues. Structure of theme and variation found in music selections can include Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s variations on Ah! vous dirai-je Maman (familiarly known as Twinkle Twinkle Little Star). Overlooked Error: I was bothered by this previously, and I remain bothered by it. Twinkle Twinkle Little Star is only one way a person might know this melody, and only if you were an English-speaker. You could also know it as the Alphabet Song or Baa, Baa, Black Sheep if you spoke English. If you spoke Italian you might know it as Bolli Bolli Pentolino, Estrellita if you grew up in Mexico, My Little Shining Moon in Greek, Ang Munting Bituin if you spoke Tagalog, or Altijd Is Kortjakje Ziek in Dutch, along with many others. To claim that all Albertans should be familiar with the melody as Twinkle Twinkle Little Star denies the variety of cultures who live here, and children should see themselves in the curriculum. Accidentals can be used to change an interval or to indicate pitches that do not belong to the key signature in which the music is written, including; sharps that indicate the specific pitch to be raised, flats that indicate the pitch to be lowered, natural signs which return the pitch that was changed back to a natural state Unchanged: This remains somewhat unclear, as a natural does not return a pitch to its "natural state", a phrase that would leave one to believe a natural returns a note back to the key signature. This is not true, a natural indicates that the note is to be played as its absolute pitch. For example, in F-sharp major, placing a natural beside an F does not indicate it should be played in the natural state of the key signature provided, but rather that it should be played as the absolute pitch F. This can be easily corrected by changing the last option to "natural sings which indicate the pitch is to be played at it's absolute pitch value", but it currently remains unchanged.
Changed for No Reason?: The original draft had perfectly fine examples of the time signatures specified, and while it was appropriate to remove the words "can be altered to", I cannot see any reason why the pieces would require changing. That is unless you include the fact that the Prokofiev piece would be very difficult for any human, much less a 12-year-old, to determine the organization of the 7-8 time and that the Unsquare Dance is far clearer to hear, and that the Mission: Impossible Theme is a far more relevant exemplar, but the curriculum thus far has not made any considerations for relevance or age-appropriateness, so I don't understand why they would start here. A simple harmony consists of chords built with a few tones and chord changes. Unchanged: This statement remains ambiguous, confusing, and unchanged. What understanding is even intended here? That chords are built with a few tones, or that a harmony has a few tones, or that a harmony has chord changes, or that few tones have chord changes? An Oxford comma would be useful here at the least. Western music choirs are structured according to group members’ vocal ranges, including bass, tenor, alto, and soprano, as heard in Gustav Mahler, Symphony No. 8 in E-Flat Major (Symphony of a Thousand) Pt. 1 Unchanged: This exemplar remains an inappropriate selection for this concept, being as the piece is an exemplar of symphonic or orchestral music, not choral music, even though it includes singers. A better example, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Mass in G minor (1921), was apparently not good enough for consideration, so I now offer Eric Whitacre, Sleep or There is a Sound, Allan Gilliland. Big band ensembles give jazz music a larger sound, as heard in; Made Worse: While my feedback was taken and Duke Ellington's It Don't Mean A Thing was added to the list of examples here, other bad exemplars were added. The first bad example isn't so much that the music Chattanooga Choochoo was a bad example, but that it was attributed incorrectly to Tommy Banks who, although a great musician, was not the composer nor even the first recording artist to record the song; that honour falls on Mack Gordon, Harry Warren, and Glenn Miller and His Orchestra. Mart Kenney's poor example of a Big Band remains steadfastly in the draft curriculum despite being proven in my previous article as a bad example of Big Band. But wait, there's more. The Edmonton Symphony Orchestra is listed as a Big Band. Really. An ensemble called an "orchestra" is being misrepresented in the curriculum as a Big Band. I can only shake my head. Certainly they accompanied the amazing clarinetist P.J. Perry, but if my high school Concert Band were to accompany Katy Perry, they would not suddenly be called pop artists. This just demonstrates beligerance on the part of the feedback collectors. Mart Kenney is going into this curriculum, come hell, high water, misattribution or Symphony Orchestra Big Band buffoonery. Organizing Idea: Creating and PresentingIdeas can be represented musically through artworks that draw upon foundational knowledge. Kindergarten Guiding Question: How does an idea in music develop? A musical idea can be created by combining sounds that are ... loud and soft. Overlooked Error: Once again, the terms "loud" and "soft" are used as though they are antonyms of one another, and this is not true. An acceptable verbage would be "loud" vs. "quiet" at this age level. In later age levels, "strong" vs. "soft" is more appropriate. Grade 3 Guiding Question: How can a message in music reflect what we value and understand? The circle is a symbol that can communicate a message in music, including connection. Unchanged: It still remains disambiguated. A circle is a geometric shape that, without any context, bears no relevance to musical messages. The Alberta Government claimed that the new curriculum was to be plain-language and clear to understand, but this disambiguated statement runs the risk of even being confusing for the generalist elementary teachers who have to deliver the curriculum. Organizing Idea: AppreciationRecognizing beauty, goodness, and truth in music can be developed by understanding the complexity and richness of great works of music, the artists who create and perform them, and the historical and cultural contexts from which they originate. Grade 2 Guiding Question: How might cultures from the past and present contribute to an appreciation of music? The strings for stringed instruments were made from the muscles of various animals. Unchanged: While this statement is true, it is not commonly true. The most common material used for stringed instruments was not muscle from various animals, but rather the intestines of animals, preferably sheep and lamb. This is why such strings are called “gut strings”. To characterize animal muscle as the preferred material is inappropriate. Grade 5 Guiding Question: How was societal change reflected in music during colonial Canada, the renaissance, and the protestant reformation? The English version of O Canada that was the most accepted version was written in 1927. Fixed: In my original article, I am sad to say I missed this one. O Canada was recently updated in 2018, and to not make mention of that change suggests a beligerance with regards to the older patriarchal version of the anthem. We have evolved, and we cannot deny that so too has our anthem. Religious music common during this time (the Renaissance) included the mass, motet, and laude. Unchanged: Motets were not exclusively sacred, and in actual fact the Renaissance tradition of motets grew out of the secular traditions of motets in the Medieval era. The draft curriculum has separated religious from secular music explicitly, so it therefore implies the motet was strictly a religious musical form, when in fact it was not. Grade 6 Guiding Question: How did societal change influence how music was appreciated during the Enlightenment, the French Revolution, and throughout the history of the United States of America? The classical period is considered the height of operatic composition, and works from this period can include Overlooked Error: Largely editorial in nature, this error includes two issues. The first, the word "can" should be removed from this sentence, because it makes these works sound optional, when they are in fact proper examples. The second is that none of these works have been attributed to their composers. Rossini, Beethoven and Mozart should be credited with creating these works, just like all other compositions that have been included have been properly attributed (save for the Chattanooga Choochoo example mentioned earlier). The Harlem Renaissance (1917–1930s) was a period in time where Black musicians felt free to express Black lives and identity through their music. Unchanged: This racist statement remains in the curriculum. People of African American descent in the United States of America have never felt free to express Black lives and identity in any way, including through their music. Their music may have become more mainstream, but they have always had to fight to be treated as equal to their white counterparts. This Draft Belongs in File 13.
1 Comment
Esther Eckert
3/5/2022 04:36:14 pm
As a former music specialist, now retired, I despaired for the students who were going to be exposed to this disaster and the teachers required to teach it. Leave a Reply. |
Archives
October 2021
Categories
All
|
RSS Feed