Thread: How do you teach music appreciation to beginners?

OK so we all know just how important truly listening to, immersing oneself in and understanding the music is for becoming a good dancer.

Over the years I've come to thank my lucky stars that even, if I'm not a natural dancer physically, I at least have the benefit of a fair, if not outstanding, ear for music and also that my deeply middle-class upbringing put me in the way of opportunities to develop my music skills.

The majority of teachers that I've met, talked to, or learned from myself spend some time in class doing music appreciation exercises but it has struck me over the years just how hard it its to teach this kind of thing, especially to adults who have absolutely no musical background whatsoever.

These kinds of issues are becoming increasingly important to me as I've recently started doing teacher support in my class.

I've noticed that its easiest to get people to identify or to discuss the mood of a piece but anything much beyond that is often a huge challenge. For example, I've been in classes where music exercises have fallen flat because with other students who have said that they 'don't know what a drum sounds like', that they 'can't hear a beat unless its techno', that anything with real instruments is 'intimidating and posh'.

How do you get beginner students to overcome fear of the music and to start really listening?

Yikes, sounds like some cloth ears in your class!

I like just playing music a lot, and using the same music a lot, so people get used to hearing certain pieces. Cooldown with a taqsim or similar is actually a nice time to do it - people are stretching out and I might say "the instrument you're hearing now is called the nay, and it's like the Arabic flute, and you can recognise it from its lovely breathy quality" or something like that.

Rhythm study is really good if you can get a drum out, go OK here is this rhythm, get them to clap it, then put some music on with the same rhythm and get them to clap it. Ideally I get people to do something incredibly simple footworkwise as well - step touch or a pendulum - so they get to feel the beat as well. If the whole class is doing it they are more likely to get in step and start to feel it if they just relax.

You teach them some musical basics.

I would begin with helping them find the beat. Just counting and clapping 1-2-3-4 (provided it's 4/4!) in time to the music can *really* help the penny drop for some people. I think it's important to get them to do something physical at the same time so it's not a purely intellectual exercise. You can use this approach with familiar AND unfamiliar music (a piece of techno and a piece of Arabic music for example). Then get them to walk to it, stepping on the beat.

If you want to start teaching bellydance related rhythms get them to clap them out whilst speaking them - thigh slap for dums, clap for teks. Then 'stamping' out the rhythm - R foot dums, L foot teks then swap over. Then walking in time to the rhythm (different from *stamping* the rhythm) whilst speaking it.

Instrument recognition - perhaps start with some taqsims...this is a qanoun, this is a mizmar, etc. This means that it is more likely that people will recognise them when all mixed together (qanoun & mizmar? you know what I mean) in another piece of music. In a fully orhcestrated piece you could ask dancers to dance to *just* one instrument at a time, to see whether they're improving at picking out the sound.

Try and develop and use choreographies (especially for beginners!) that work with the music rather than are 4 of this and 4 of that.

Of course people will think that orchestrated music is intimidating and posh because, frankly, it is. Not a lot you can do about musical education and the British class system ...or perhaps there is, but that's another thread

Ultimately - you will only be able to help people a certain amount, and you will find the odd person that just doesn't have any musicality (there is a medical term for this - amusia - Amusia - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia) but depending on what level they're aiming for this shouldn't be a reason for putting them off or holding them back.

ETA: why didn't I read Zumarrad's post before responding? WHat she said!

Ditto the both of you.

Lots of things you can try. Dancing (walking, stomping or even sticking to one movement like a circle)to the beat, the rhythm, melody.

Introduce 1 rhythm eg saidi in a modern piece and in a more traditional song. So they can hear it in very different moods and accompaniment

I would begin with helping them find the beat. Just counting and clapping 1-2-3-4 (provided it's 4/4!) in time to the music can *really* help the penny drop for some people. I think it's important to get them to do something physical at the same time so it's not a purely intellectual exercise. You can use this approach with familiar AND unfamiliar music (a piece of techno and a piece of Arabic music for example). Then get them to walk to it, stepping on the beat.

If you want to start teaching bellydance related rhythms get them to clap them out whilst speaking them - thigh slap for dums, clap for teks. Then 'stamping' out the rhythm - R foot dums, L foot teks then swap over. Then walking in time to the rhythm (different from *stamping* the rhythm) whilst speaking it.

Instrument recognition - perhaps start with some taqsims...this is a qanoun, this is a mizmar, etc. This means that it is more likely that people will recognise them when all mixed together (qanoun & mizmar? you know what I mean) in another piece of music. In a fully orhcestrated piece you could ask dancers to dance to *just* one instrument at a time, to see whether they're improving at picking out the sound.

Try and develop and use choreographies (especially for beginners!) that work with the music rather than are 4 of this and 4 of that.

Of course people will think that orchestrated music is intimidating and posh because, frankly, it is. Not a lot you can do about musical education and the British class system ...or perhaps there is, but that's another thread

Yes, I remember your exercises which are some of the best I've ever come accross. Other things that have worked for me in other classes, but which I think that many might find a bit too intellectual, are spending time working specifically with the music of one of the 'greats'. Its also been my experience that if a teacher is enthusiastic about all varieties of music, that enthusiasm does rub off to a fair extent.

Something that I have encountered only recently is students who started learning the dance from the point of view of belly-robics or belly-fit classes. From what I have gathered, just chatting to people, some of these classes do not use ME music (unless you count Shakira) so when/if students move on to a bellydance class they struggle to 'fit' or to understand how the moves they have learned work with arabic music.

one exercise I sometimes do is make everyone sit down, close their eyes, and listen. Then, I paint the picture for them. I point out different things. I usually play a very slow and emotion filled song. I have had some students leave in tears because the music moved them so much. Some are confused. Such is life.

all of our new students are given a cd of traditional, standard songs for M E dance

Excellent topic!

I say the following:

"Dancers make music visible; we are the physical expression of the music."

By their expressions, I know some folks get that idea right away. I repeat it often over the course of a session, so it's fun to see those folks that might not have "gotten it" the first time experiencing their own moment later on!

While we're drilling movements, I take the opportunity to talk about mood, movement choice and instrumentation.

I clap out the beat (I use only 4/4 in beginning-beginner classes) and folks follow along. It's actually more of way to get them to find the tempo than it is to find the meter, but that's okay! I also show them the differences between full- half- and double-time, and then we use those concepts; we use them very simply, but we do use them.

Repetition is not a bad thing. Sure, some people will pick up the musical appreciation info you're imparting pretty quickly, but most people might only really hear what you mean after they've heard the words many times.

Deborah

Some things that I do:

• In my warm-up, I use Mary Ellen Donald's drum rhythm CD and I teach students to walk in time to the beat. I start with ayyoub and teach them to notice the dooms and the tecs, and then take steps only on the dooms.
• I introduce finger cymbals at the beginner level, usually about the third day of class.
• For my class music, I use Mary Ellen Donald's Gems of the Middle East series. It contains many of the Egyptian classics, but the melody line is played only on kanoun. This enables the students to become familiar with the melodies, but doesn't have the intimidation factor of full orchestra.
• I teach beginner-level choreographies (which contain a lot of repetition) to basic songs such as Nibtidi Mneen al-Hikaya, Al Ataba Ghazzaz, Habena, etc. I do stuff like identifying which part of the song seems to be a "verse", as opposed to a "chorus". I point out to them "Okay, this is the chorus, so every time you hear the music play this particular melody, you do the same move in the choreography to it. On the other hand, this segment is the verse, so each time you hear it repeat you actually have a different step combination to do with it."
• I choreograph finger cymbal combinations to play along with each step combination. This helps students absorb the idea that the song's rhythm shifts, but the combination of dance choreography and zill choreography guides them in understanding how to react to each rhythm shift.
• Throughout class, when I put a particular piece of music on, I tell students the song title, what the song title means, what country the song comes from (Egypt, Turkey, Lebanon), which musician originally made it famous (if known), what the lyrics are about, etc. I do this while we are drilling, which helps make time pass more quickly while drilling and also exposes them to the info. I tend to use the same songs each week, and each week I repeat all of this information. I don't expect anybody to remember it the first time, but by the end of a 7-week session they're starting to recognize one or two favorites from among the songs I use.

So, the above is what I do at the beginner level. I also do it at the intermediate level, but I introduce additional music-related info above and beyond what I did at the beginner level because at the intermediate level I'm teaching them how to create their own response to the music.

Wow, I hope Laura2 chimes in here because as one of her students I have to say she does a nice job.

Originally Posted by KelsNasim

Wow, I hope Laura2 chimes in here because as one of her students I have to say she does a nice job.

Awww...thank you!

I guess I was holding off because I don't really get into music appreciation in my Beginning class format. That class is structured as a dance class, yes, but also as one for people looking primarily for fitness, or just light-hearted fun. I'll throw in a mention of instruments or songs offhand occasionally in that class, but I actually save music appreciation for Level 2, where the students know going in that there's going to be more in-depth material regarding culture, history and music, in addition to more advanced technique. I also hold off on finger cymbals until Level 2. *ducks flying tomatoes*

In Level 2, there's a few methods that I use. The most common one is to take a classic song, like Tamra Henna or Tahtil Shibbak and focus on it. First I show a clip of a dancer performing to the song. We then talk about the history of the song, who composed and/or was famous for singing it, and what the lyrics are along with cultural context for the words. Then I break the song into parts, talk about the instruments and musical concepts used (like taqsim or call-and-response) and show where the different parts repeat so they get an idea of the song structure. Finally we do a combination to one of the parts of the song.

A couple of weeks ago I did a class on what I called "advanced rhythms" - that is, rhythms that I think are more complex sounding to the western ear than say, saidi or beladi. I used Chiftitelli (slow and fast versions), Khaleegy and Karshlima as examples. I talked about the regions each one came from, and in the case of Khaleegy and Karshlima, what type of folk movements are sometimes used when dancing to them. We listened to the rhythms in a song, where I both clapped and verbally doum-and-teked out the rhythms so they could hear it. Then I showed them how to play each one on zills. Finally, we closed with a short combination to part of each song.

I think that if you as a teacher are really jazzed and excited about the topic, it'll rub off on your students. Sometimes they look at me like I'm nuts when I'm waxing poetic, but I see a lot of smiling and nodding too. And it's always exciting for me when they recognize a famous song at a hafla or show, or can clap happily along to someone dancing a 9/8.