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Building blocks bring various pictures to mind. My thoughts immediately go to the wooden building blocks young toddlers love to place on top of one another and then watch them come tumbling down again. We think of Lego blocks for building a myriad of different things and, last but not least, the building blocks grown-ups use to build houses, bridges, skyscrapers… So what are the building blocks in music education? 

All these examples start with a bottom row or foundation. We then build upon that foundation until all the building blocks fit together to give us the complete whole. 

In Education, including music education, we also start with a foundation on which we continue to build year after year. So what are the building blocks in music and therefore music education? These will include beat or pulse, rhythm,  melody, harmony, dynamics, speed, timbre and texture. (Did I leave any out?) We experience these elements through listening, creating and performing. 

As music teachers, we will probably agree that these building blocks cannot all be learnt at once. So it helps to have a step by step process of introducing them.

When we teach a child to play an instrument we also need to introduce them to the techniques needed to play their particular instrument. There are so many things to consider; so many things to introduce them to! Where do we start? Which building block comes first and which one comes second?  

I remember, when I started teaching Music, that I tried to introduce the student to the instrument, note values, clefs and pitch, all in the first lesson. Why?  Well, usually the beginner piano or recorder tutoring book started with a  piece already written in the music staff. It already had the necessary clefs and maybe two different note values. So there were usually several building blocks on the first page that needed explaining! It was a  very pleasant change when beginner music tutoring books became much more gradual in their approach. Musicians from previous generations seemed to have coped just fine though. 

BUILDING BLOCKS APPLIED TO THE  BEGINNER RECORDER LESSONS 

And that brings me to the very gradual approach that I have used in the  Beginner Recorder Lesson videos especially produced and made for my recorder groups during the Covid19 pandemic and lock-down. I believe that in online teaching, where the music student can’t get immediate clarity by asking questions, the content of the lessons needs to be less than in a  normal lesson where the teacher is present. The new concepts also need to be more clearly or carefully explained. So I have tried to apply this idea of keeping it simple and introducing a little bit at a time in these beginner recorder lessons. 

A VERY GRADUAL BUILD UP OF THE RECORDER SYLLABUS 

LESSON 1: 

• We introduce the instrument, in this case, the recorder.  

• We teach technique, that is, how to play on the instrument is discussed.  

• Music notation is not introduced yet! 

(You can watch the lesson here.)

LESSON 2: 

• We revise the concepts introduced in the previous lesson.  

• Introduce the first note values: whole note, half note and quarter note, using words to help with the duration of the notes. 

• Show the pitch with numbers for fingering under the notes. No music staff yet! 

(You can watch the lesson here.) 

LESSON 3: 

• We revise the concepts introduced in the previous lesson.  

• I introduce the first breathing exercise. 

• The eighth notes are introduced as “Run-ning” notes.  

• We build rhythms with the learnt note values. 

• We do some basic composing by choosing in which order to stick the discussed rhythms. (No music staff yet!) 

(You can watch the lesson here.)

LESSON 4: 

• We revise the concepts introduced in the previous lesson.  

• Compare the duration of the learnt note values:  whole note with half note, half note with quarter note,  quarter note with eighth notes, using movement, rhythmic percussion instruments and the recorders.  

• Still no music staff! 

(You can watch the lesson here.) 

LESSON 5: 

• We revise the concepts introduced in the previous lesson.  

• Introduce the concepts of HIGH and LOW and how the size of the instrument influences whether it is  HIGH or LOW. 

• Introduce the recorder family. 

• Discuss how length influences the HIGH and LOW notes on the recorder. 

(You can watch the lesson here.) 

LESSON 6: 

• Revise and compare note values with a cake.  

• Introduce a new note and the first letter name for a note: C. 

(You can watch the lesson here.) 

LESSON 7:

• Introduce the music alphabet. 

• We discover that the notes 1, 2 and 3 are actually called  B, A and G. 

• So now, instead of writing the number of fingers under the notes, we write the letter names under the music notes. 

(You can watch the lesson here.) 

LESSON 8: 

• We revise the concepts introduced in the previous lesson.  

• A new note D is introduced on the recorder. 

• We build words with the letter names of the notes we already know and play them on the recorder. 

• Introduce the quarter rest. 

(You can watch the lesson here.)

LESSON 9: 

• We revise the techniques for playing the recorder.  

• Revise the note names learnt so far.  

• Double bar lines and the repeat sign are introduced. 

(You can watch the lesson here.) 

LESSON 10: 

• We revise all the notes learnt on the recorder so far.  

• A new breathing exercise is introduced. 

• We introduce bar lines. 

(You can watch the lesson here.) 

LESSON 11: 

• Introduce the beat or pulse and compare it to the note values already learnt, that is, the rhythm of a song. 

(You can watch the lesson here.) 

LESSON 12: 

• We revise beat versus rhythm with a clapping game.  

• The music staff is introduced with the history of music notation and Guido d’Arezzo.  

(You can watch the lesson here.) 

So here we have 12 lessons already and still no notes in the music staff?  Yes, I prefer a gradual introduction to all the building blocks in music education,  especially for very young kids. We need to take one step at a time, and sometimes 2 steps,  with a lot of repetition in between. In LESSON 14 the recorder students finally get their first piece with the notes written in the music staff. For fast learners, we have the option of introducing them to two lessons a week or to include extra pieces to practise on the recorder. 

IN CONCLUSION

I hope that you found this very gradual approach interesting. What are your ideas are on the topic? We can always learn from each other so please leave your comments in the comments section below.

You can find more information related to music education in my other posts here, here and here. 

PS. I am planning on making a music theory worksheet for each lesson in the not so distant future, so watch this space. Please subscribe to our e-mail newsletter if you would like to be kept up to date with the developments.