So far we have given an outline of the Irish Primary School Music Curriculum, explained the strands in detail and covered the musical concepts contained within the curriculum.
Rather than continuing to talk about the Irish primary music curriculum, we decided to do a mini-series that gives practical tips that are designed to help you as a primary school teacher teach music. This blog will focus on how to pick suitable material to teach during your music classes.
Selecting suitable content is always a challenge when it comes to music. It’s difficult to determine where the level of comprehension and the skill level is at in a class of children. With this in mind we suggest doing the following:
Assess the class
Rather than covering new material under the various different strands it’s best to cover the material from an earlier level to determine if the children have the musical awareness they should have. Once you have established the standard of the class you can work from there
Get the basics right
The challenge with music is that everybody needs to start at the beginning and develop their skill set. This means that an older class who’ve had minimum exposure to music need to cover the content of a younger class to give them the foundation required to progress with the material for their level. Generally speaking an older class will get through lots of basic activities in a short space of time. If the class you’re teaching haven’t managed the basics, they will struggle with more challenging material that’s suited to their level
Build Confidence
Taking the approach above builds confidence. When it comes to music building confidence is essential for a successful music class
These three points are the pillars of how the Mobile Music School successfully teach in a classroom setting in primary schools throughout Ireland. Our programmes bring music to life in schools. If you’re interested in exploring what the Mobile Music School can do in your school please get in contact and a member of our team will be in touch!
