MUED 376: Choral Music, Materials & Techniques (M2 & T)

A. 1a. WORKSHEET: Madsen- Research-A Personal Perspective

What are the influences of family or lack of family participation in our music programs? When do children begin to come to know
music, and when do they start to make meaningful connections between music and their separate experiences? What are the changing
social and familial contingencies that make a child want to participate or not participate in our music programs or to change their
participation? When is the best time to start various music activities? When and how do we get every child involved in music and,
much more important, how do we ensure keeping each child with us? How might we best use technology to capture and hold student
interest and to teach students? How do we get them through the difficult years? Is it appropriate for fast fingering and loud notes to
prevail, if but for a short time? What are the relationships between a child's needs at different times? Why do children accept or reject
"our" music as opposed to theirs? How do we equip them so that as adults they have their own personal relationship with music and a
firmly developed desire for lifelong involvement?

“Developing a research perspective starts from our own experience.” C. Madsen

1. Early Childhood Experiences: What were some of your pivotal early childhood
music experiences and what research questions stem from them?

When I was around 3-4 years old, my mother would go to live performances of a local artist,
Susan Greenbaum and bring me along. Susan Greenbaum is a singer-songwriter and extremely
kind and giving woman. She would write and perform songs of healing. At this tender age, I was
surrounded by live music.

Another early childhood experience I have is singing music in the children’s choir at my church.
The specific song is “Kumbaya My Lord.”

The last childhood experience I have is listening to the blues artist, Keb’mo. My mother had
family from Indiana,. When we would roadtrip, she would play his album on a loop the entire
way there.

What is the impact on a person growing up with live music vs. recorded music vs.
partaking in the music making?

2. Elementary School Experiences: What research questions do you have that stem from
early elementary school experiences in music?

General music in elementary school never truly had my heart when I was a child. I don’t really
remember much from it aside from playing the recorders in 4th grade.

In around 2nd-4th grade, I began writing songs with my friends. It was group songwriting that we
would do just for fun. This wasn’t occurring at school, but at a friend’s house.

Lastly, I remember trying to teach myself how to play the piano. I could listed to songs by ear and
teach myself what I heard, but I was given a piano book to follow and play. I remember looking
at the piano book and skipping all of the pages that were explaining how to do different things on
the piano and instead trying to jump right into the songs. I got about halfway through the book
until I hit a point where I was getting really frustrated with the level of difficulty. I stopped
playing because of my frustration in reading the treble and bass clef. From then on, I ended up
putting myself in a box. I just wasn’t meant to play the piano. In reality, I didn’t have a teacher to
help guide me through the piano book. I also wanted to just play the music and skip the beginner
activities.

How can we find the passions of our students in music and mold the classroom around
what the students want as well as maintain a solid curriculum?
3. Middle School Experiences: What were some of your pivotal middle school
music experiences and what research questions stem from them?

I started playing the guitar in 7th grade. I would play it all of the time. My inspiration was
actually Taylor Swift. Her songs were in my singing range and the chords were pretty simple to
play on the guitar (very good beginner chords). I would play the songs I like most on repeat on
the guitar and slowly improve my speed of playing the guitar as well as gain calluses on my
fingers. This helped to progress my songwriting in many different ways. Taylor Swift was a
singer-songwriter and hearing her story, I was able to relate to her as an artist. The guitar gave my
songs more of a foundation.

How can we find the passions of our students in music and mold the classroom around
what the students want as well as maintain a solid curriculum?

4. High School Experiences: What research questions do you have that stem from
high school experiences in music?

My choir director and the theater director in high school did not get along. They didn’t
compromise with each other, so I had to choose between choir and theater. I ended up choosing
choir, but I never got to fulfill that theater girl in me! The closest thing I had was show choir.

How does the unity between teachers impact the students?

5. Undergraduate Experiences: What research questions do you have that stem from
your undergraduate music experiences?

When applying for JMU I auditioned for the JMU School for Musical Theater and Dance, the
Dukettes, JMU’s Madison Dance and the JMU a cappella groups. Unfortunately, I wasn’t
accepted into any. After being immersed in a dance team, a cappella group, chamber choir, and
show choir in high school, compared to what I used to have, I was at a bare minimum with solely
me and my guitar performing at TDU’s open mic night. I didn’t know about the JMU School of
Music having a choir, and to be honest my confidence wasn’t at its best. All of my general music
education classes and choir classes and whatnot hadn’t prepared me for this. I had taught myself
guitar and did the songwriting on my own. I can’t imagine what I would have done if I didn’t
have these two things up my sleeve. Performing for others at times has been fun but it also made
me anxious. I truly loved performing with others as a unit.

How can we help our students to continue on playing music when they graduate high
school?

6. Music Job Experiences: What research questions do you have that stem jobs you
may have already had in music?

This past summer I worked with the same program I did last year. I worked at a performing arts
camp with 4 other people my age. I was the music specialist, and there was also a dance specialist
and the other three were acting specialists. We worked for a duration of two months. For the last
session of kids we did a showcase. This showcase was centered around the participants and their
talents and capabilities. One camper took fencing classes, so they did a sword fighting scene from
Princess Bride. There were a few campers who showed an interest in songwriting, so I taught a
songwriting class. This ended up being very successful and the students were very passionate
about what they experienced.

How can we create programs that are student centered?

7. Pre-teaching Experiences: What research questions do you have that stem from pre-
teaching experiences (camps, practica, etc.) in music?

Last year, I completed a practicum with high school students. I had the opportunity to teach them
how to make sample-based music on garageband. Many of the students were on different levels
and I was jumping back and forth between these levels.

With a ratio of one teacher to an entire classroom, how do we fully ensure that individual
students are learning to their full potential?