The general approach that music teachers should take in preparing their lesson as if they are a performer. If they teach a song, they should know the lyrics by heart, if they teach a dance, they should be able to teach the choreography without reference, and if they are playing an instrument in class, it should be at a high level.
I’m not there right now.
After a year and a half of not teaching singing, my voice is not at its best, and my guitar playing is rusty. Songs that I taught for years are taking an extra second to come back to since I didn’t teach many of them last year.
This is a feature of this school year that I’m okay with. It’s getting better. But it doesn’t help that I decided to add some things to my curriculum that I’m not very good at.
With the challenges of this school year, I decided that creating routines would be really good for my students. I wanted these routines to teach foundational skills and also help them bond.
The answer: solfège.
Solfège is a way of teaching music that attaches syllables to certain notes (e.g., Do, Re, Mi). This educational method teaches aural skills, notation, and sight-reading. It can be an empowering tool that can help people better understand and learn music.
I’ve never formally taught solfège. In the past, I’ve played some solfège games and introduced the syllables and hand signs through rounds, but I never systematically taught solfège. I’m not sure why after teaching for sixteen years, I felt a need to teach something new, something that I have not mastered and very little experience with as a teacher and a student. I do know feels right to try to teach it now, and I kind of enjoyed the challenge of doing something new.
Every day as part of the opening of my class, we work on tonal patterns using solfège. I don’t have these patterns memorized, and currently, there are two out of about sixteen that I have trouble singing in tune. When I first started the year, I would play the piano along to know what notes to sing. Now I only use the piano for the two patterns I still struggle with.
It’s going really well. The students don’t complain or point it out when I make a mistake. They enjoy the routine, and I’m really excited about the musical growth I’ve seen.
It’s easy for teachers to fall into habits and routines, but it can be fun and rewarding for teachers to take a chance and teach something that they have not entirely mastered. I didn’t like this feeling when I was an inexperienced teacher, but doing something new is rewarding right now.
It’s humbling, and a great reminder that I am a learner and sometimes that teaching can be imperfect and effective.
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