Music is universal. Every culture expresses themselves through a distinct language oral and most times written. Every culture expresses themselves musically with distinct instruments, tonally and rhythmically. We learn music the same way we learn language. Children listen to their mother's voice and learn language from their interacting with family through listening and speaking. Children begin with their own babble stage, imitating the language heard.
They begin to move from their babble communication to understanding the syntax of language by speaking in sentences with correct noun verb order. Children learn listening and speaking vocabularies and eventually further their reading and writing vocabularies in school. Children learn in a socialized setting learning not only language but the nuances of language inferred and emotional contexts.
The same parallel happens in music where children listen to music, learning rhythmic and tonal vocabularies. They begin with a music babble stage too and develop their music understanding as they interact with different rhythms and tonalities, whereby increasing their music vocabulary. All along, movement, small and gross movement involving all body parts, is crucial in this development. Music theorists all agree on this. Music, language and brain development are inextricably linked.
Audiation & mnemonics, particularly poetry and rhythm are effective ways to remember. Rhyming is one of the most effective ways to remember anything, which is why it is still used as a memory strategy. Also, rhyming, a mnemonic technique, is a way to help us encode, retrieve or recall important information. Music is a symbolic system, like the alphabet, written letters…..
Movement, Language and music are interconnected. Better readers are more coordinated and can keep a steady beat. How can we maximize the potency of music in our classroom teaching and learning?
Read/view one article below (Reading Choices) considering:
the connections and interrelatedness among Music, Movement, Language & Learning?
Then show a visual representation (Sketch to Stretch) of what you learned from your reading/viewing. Post visual on Canvas Discussions.
Refer to Sketch to Stretch as background reading about visual imagery.
READING CHOICES
5 Reasons why Music is important in early childhood Development
Why Making Music Matters: Music and Early Childhood Development
Music is an Important Ingredient for Child development and Parent Child Relationships
The Universal Power of Music: Connecting it to Child Development
Developing Literacy Through Play (Mielonen & Paterson, 2009)
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
Music Theorist Videos (Gordon, Dalcroze, Orff, Kodaly', Suzuki)
Laban -weight, time, space and flow
Dalcroze - eurythmics
Kodaly’ - solfege
Suzuki