GET TO KNOW THE ABC WEBSITE:
A 6min 18 sec video about the new website design.
Teacher Training Videos - The ABC Core 6:
All the knowledge you need is contained in the ABC Core 6:
2 Core Concepts
2 Teacher Skills
2 Troubleshooting Techniques
2 Core Concepts:
AVOID BOIP :
- music is great but can leave some people behind. Understand why and
learn to recognise that if your children are overloading you just need to slow down and simplify.
Brain Overload in Public is recognisable because the student or class’s ability to complete the task breaks down. We tell educators you do not need to deal with this on your own. Our resources are designed to prevent BOIP from happening - but as a concept it may explain why some educators ended up feeling they are ‘not musical’ during their own music education experience or lacking confidence around teaching music. The answer to BOIP is to slow down, simplify, give visual support, and - if using one - remove any backing groove.
5 ways to get the beat :
some children may not react too much to music - but they may have never heard much music before or been around people dancing or having fun with music! So don't label any child as unmusical , tone deaf or having no rhythm. We just don’t know that.
Here's 5 ways to help them get with the programme!
FEEL ( let music make your students’ bodies move, your students’ bodies will help them learn)
LISTEN ( help students learn to actively listen into music and hear the pulse, and other different sounds)
SEE ( give students things to look at that correspond to what is happening in the music or creative process. It helps them to understand what is happening)
THINK (simple concepts like counting with the music helps students to understand when to do thighs together and what is happening)
DO (students need plenty of practice to work things out and make some of these skills embodied/unconscious - especially if they haven’t been exposed to much music at home)
We can remeMber this as : FUZZY LEMONS STICK TO DOGS
2 Teacher Skills:
Instrument Management :
- hand out instruments in groups and return to quiet. Use it and lose it!
Lose the cloud! - instruments are a great behaviour management tool!
Ask students to come and choose an instrument from the instrument box or trolley in groups of 4-6 and then return to their place and place the instrument on the table or the floor in front of them and DON’T TOUCH IT UNTIL ASKED. Once the room has returned to calm and quiet, ask the next group to come up and do the same. Repeat until the whole class is sitting calmly with instruments in front of them. Have fun picking up the instruments without making a sound ready to play our first note together - which is very exciting. If anyone plays their instrument when not asked to, and especially whilst the teacher is talking, remove the instrument from that child for a few minutes (shorter for younger children and older for older ones). Having fewer than one instrument per person is actually useful in one way, because the children need to take turns and if they play when not asked to they will miss their turn and learn to respect the rules. We call this USE IT AND LOSE IT!
Take your time introducing instruments, learning the names and how to play them.
Passing one instrument round the whole class can be magical.
COUNT IN AND CONDUCT :
Children learn best about beats and bars by creating with them and performing what they have created.
Counting in and Conducting is an key skill for performing creative work in groups - and they learn it from you!
What is a Count In?
A count in tells us three things: The speed (aka tempo) of the music,
How many beats are in the bar, and when we are going to start playing.
How to Conduct
Conducting is an important skill. The conductor needs to concentrate on giving a clear count in and then following the AB pattern (say AABA) and pointing to one box per beat. They should not need to worry about what is inside each box/beat - the band’s job is to perform what is inside each box.
For the Count In & Conduct skill it is also useful to understand the concepts of Beats and Bars. These are complex concepts and are best understood by using them in composing using the Shape Composer and Create With Pitch Composers. These two videos are used in the resource to explain the concepts to children.
What is a Beat?
A Beat is “A repeating of unit of time that stays the same size, and by repeating creates a rhythmic pulse also called a beat. It can be filled by one, two, or more sounds or no sound (as a rest)”
What is a Bar?
A bar is a regular cycle of beats. A beat is to a bar as a day is to a week. In ABC we use 3 or 4 beat bars.
2 Troubleshooting Techniques:
These troubleshooting techniques are really easy for non-specialist educators to use and actually do the job in 99% of teaching situations for improving performance.
SAY CLAP PLAY:
Children who speak are great at making rhythms with their voices.
Use that to learn how to clap and play rhythms correctly and accurately, and improve performance.
Split class - listen and play
Big improvements in performance, and a lot of excitement - come from listening more closely.
Develop that focus , and a bit of healthy competition by splitting the class in two and asking one group to listen and feedback on the performance of the other - then swap. The improvement comes mainly from zooming in the listening, and the focus that results.
Revise or Catch Up on the intro to ABC IST/CPD Session
The next series of videos are of a training session introducing staff to ABC Online.
Next - watch a movie on - What is a Beat?