Middle School Music: How do you get started?

What does a middle school music program look like? I've often gotten that question in workshops and teacher training courses, so I've begun to add some of this information to this blog. I hope this can become a source of information and discussion about music in middle school. Please feel free to share your own ideas by adding comments to the blog. If you'd like to contribute and entry, please email it to me and I'll put you on as a guest blogger. Let's talk!

Let's just start with some equipment ideas for 6th grade exploratory music:

In 6th grade, you'll want to give them a variety of experiences. Your list of materials should reflect YOUR interests in music and your school system's curriculum. I emphasize the word YOUR because you have training and ideas that you want to pass along to the students and that is the most important thing! I will list some suggestions that I've found useful and we can talk specifics and in as much detail as you want about any of the them.

A class set of Hand Drums:

Hand drums are relatively cheap, and provide a wealth of activities that get them up and moving. One of the classic orff style means of making music, hand drumming can teach music literacy, beat training, ensemble work, reading skills (in language) and is great for getting the kids moving. Two outstanding resources are Chris Judah-Lauder's two books: Hand Drums on the Move and to drum. There are several other good books on drumming at West Music Company. They'll have a good selection of hand drums and a great discussion board on technique, maintenance, and repair.

A great listening station:

Start with a good Stereo Amp and speaker set. Spend as much money as you can on this. A high quality sound IS what you are teaching. Add a CD player for your collection of CD's that you've been using for years. :) This is basic. If you don't have a collection of CD's for listening you soon will! If you add Folk Dancing to your 6th grade activities, you'll want a nice sounding system to support it.

If your school system loves new technology, add a Mac Laptop and an AirPort Express to create an in-classroom wireless network. You'll be able to use iTunes on your computer to play music through your new stereo set. An even more portable option would be to use your iPhone, or iTouch with the new "Remote" software to control your listening activities from where ever you are in the classroom. You'll also be able to use your Laptop with your whiteboard or your overhead projector.

A good acoustic and/or electronic piano:

This staple of every music class has changed in style and function over the years, especially in the general music class. If you go with the electronic keyboard, you'll be able to access all the midi functions that will help you compose music both with the children and for them. Combined with your Mac Laptop and some good sequencing software, you'll have a wonderful tool for your own creativity as well as a tool for stirring the kid's interest in creating music. An acoustic piano is still the best choice for choirs. It's tone and timbre support singing in an acoustic environment much better than a keyboard and speaker... I found this to be very true after a year or so of mixed results with an electronic keyboard.... Surprisingly the kids finally just came out and told me that the keyboard was just "annoying." When I switched back to the acoustic piano, the kids were very happy! Strange but true

A varied and interesting set of unpitched percussion instruments:

Consider this option very carefully. There is nothing that interests and excites kids in the middle more than learning about instruments! One of my favorite 6th grade activities was to learn about all the small percussion that I could round up and collect. For your collection, get a nice representation of each group:

Woods: claves, temple blocks, piccolo blocks, etc.

Rattles: Shakere, maracas, cabasa, vibraslap, etc.

Metals: triangle, finger cymbals, gong, hanging cymbal, cowbell, gankoqui, etc.

Drums: in addition to your class set of hand drums, get some tubanos of various sizes, a conga or two, and a djembe.

You can adapt most of the activities found in the drum circle books that are out there for this grouping of instruments. One resource that looks very useful is Kalani's The Amazing Jamnasium. I've never used this book, but I have been in several Kalani sessions and he's a dynamic teacher and very good at explaining how to adapt his techniques to schools.

A basic set of Orff instruments:

You'll want to get a basic set with enough instrument stations for at LEAST half of your students to play at once. An ideal classroom would have a station for every student. With some creative use of the drums and small percussion listed above you may be able to accomplish this remarkably soon. An Orff instrumentarium can be expanded gradually over time until you get as many instruments as you need.

For middle school, I recommend chromatic instruments. They are more expensive of course, but middle schoolers are ready to leave the world of pentatonic and enter the mainstream, especially with regards to jazz and classical music. Chromatic instruments can introduce the kids to a whole new spectrum of musical sounds which will be a welcome new sound for them especially if they've come from a strong Orff background in elementary school.

I also recommend chromatic instruments on stands. The days of sitting on the floor to play are starting to get old for these kids. They'll do it for a while yet, but they'll more and more ask you for a chair to sit in anyway, so stands for the instruments becomes a better choice. There are stands and tables for most of the Orff instrument brands out there.

You can start with a basic set that looks something like this: a Bass Xylophone, 2 Alto Xylophones, 2 Soprano Xylophones, an Alto Metallophone, 2 soprano and 2 alto glockenspiels. Get some contra bass bars starting with the basic 3, C, F, G. Add a D and an A as soon as you can, then add the rest of the diatonic scale. Add the F# and B flat as soon as you can, then add other chromatics as becomes necessary. This basic set has 10 stations for players. You could use this for a class size of 20. Later you'll want to add another BX, a couple of AX's, a Soprano Metallophone, and a couple more SX. You'll be fine with 4 glocks for a long time.

I recommend any of the following: Peripole, Sonor, Studio 49. The Peripole chromatic instruments are tube resonated and each instrument has a built-in stand. I've used Peripole since 1988 and have found that they are perfect for this age group. Sonor and Studio 49 each make box resonated instruments that can sit on a separate table-stand. They also feature add-on chromatic sections.

A class set of Recorders:

I finally broke down and bought a class set of recorders for my middle school students. Kids had their own from elementary school, but many were lost or broken and sometimes they weren't the same brand which led to tuning problems. I found that an inexpensive set of Yamaha or Angel recorders available in the class solved all my problems. I had to invest in a storage system and a quick easy way to sanitize the instruments between uses. Using the recorder in your 6th grade class adds another tool for sight reading and adds a melody instrument to your ensemble. It also builds on skills learned in elementary school. You may have to start at the beginning, but you'll move through material much faster in 6th grade.

We'll talk about 7th and 8th grade classes in the next installment. Please ask questions and inquire about more details about any of the above topics.