by Jordan Smith
Throughout my teaching career, I have learned that I can have two reactions when met with change: say “it’s my way or the highway,” or reach my students by listening to their interests and life experiences. Throughout my first year of teaching, I struggled to connect my lessons to my students. I felt they were struggling to learn the material because of how it was presented. Upon reflection, I realized that I didn’t really connect to these lessons either. I decided to ditch the traditional aspect of some music pedagogies and begin searching for ways to use them in a contemporary setting.
I started gathering feedback from my students by observing their reactions with different lessons. I discovered my students’ hidden talents, ranging from drum set to piano, stringed instruments, and vocals. They could play more complex rhythms than what is “typically”presented at their grade level. Once I altered my approach, the main takeaway was: they loved
playing music that had a “good beat” and they liked music they heard on the radio. Their playing improved dramatically when they played along with a backing track or drumset.
I realized that I could teach them traditional songs in a more modern way (techno-rock-rap “Hot Cross Buns”… is there anything better?). If students preferred music with a “good beat” then why not incorporate a drumset? When I played drumset along with my students, they LOVED it. It didn’t matter what song they were playing, because playing along with the drums got them coming into my classroom pumped to “jam.” I started small by having my Orff ensemble play simple chord progressions, and the kids couldn’t get enough of it. Students helped come up with melodies to play over the chords, and improvised on percussion instruments. Teaching my students how to find the chords themselves was a game changer.
This lead to me to begin writing my own backing tracks that mimicked the genres kids enjoyed, and for me, that was the key to success! I began to write out the notation to my backing tracks and I would tweak what I needed depending on the grade level. This allowed me to teach specific concepts by presenting them in a way that was easy for students to follow and interesting for them to play.
I also put a lot of effort into finding free or cheap resources to use in my classroom. I now utilize Garageband, which is included on my school iPad. I loop tracks through the speakers in my classroom, which gives me the ability to walk around the room, helping students as the track progressively adds more parts. I also utilize a feature called “live drummer,” which allows you to loop drum beats of different genres. Lastly, I regularly use Smart instruments. Smart Instruments offers the ability to play chords from a piano or a stringed instrument laid out in a user friendly way that loops chord progressions by simply clicking on the chord you want. For low-cost instruments, I found ukuleles, buckets, recorders, and more recently steel drums (Jumbie pans are very reasonably priced, easy to store, and perfect for K-5 students) to be great options.
The result? My students are learning, they are playing, they are composing, and most of all…having fun! If I could offer one piece of advice for branching out, it is to trust yourself, because ultimately you know more about your students’ abilities and your teaching methods than anyone else could. Never forget that you are a musician, and you are one of the most
influential people in your students’ lives. If my students are learning, I am learning. If my students are happy, I am happy. There is no better feeling than that.
Jordan Smith teaches preschool through 8th grade music at Saint James School and founded and directs Etown Beats, a K-5 lesson based community percussion ensemble in Elizabethtown, Kentucky. If you have any further questions please contact Jordan at jordan.stickell@gmail.com