Someone recently asked me what methodology I used to teach music. I’m pretty sure they awaited a definitive response to support and ‘validate’ their own methodological worldview… “The best bits of each”, I replied. There are a variety of methodologies out there, and I’ve met some hardcore advocates who maintain that their way is the…
Author: Cade Bonar
Head of Music at an independent school in Queensland, Australia; interested in action research in and for music education.
Learning an instrument is hard… but that’s why it’s so good!
Learning an instrument is hard work. When we learn an instrument, we can also learn a lot about our character. My school has adopted the VIA Character Strengths[1] from the positive education movement as a frame for educative interactions on academic, co-curricular, social and pastoral levels. Learning an instrument speaks to and allows us to…
Instrument learning with more than just the instrument…?
In my experience, the best instrumental teachers I’ve worked with have taught much more than the instrument – they taught music; the instrument was the vehicle. The development of technique was central to what they did, but it was approached in musical ways. Conveying a musical idea was paramount and their approaches were robust. Pieces…
Five Minds and Music
I will often search for a memorable, ‘accessible’ and somewhat ‘inspiring’ quote to act as an epigraph for my end-of-year school magazine article (yes, it’s that time of year again already!). The theme I went with to encapsulate 2015 was, basically, that ‘musicking’ activates many facets of our ‘mind’ – that when we ‘music’, we…
Some Brief Thoughts on Characterising Effective Pedagogies in Music Education
For some time now I have been wrestling with some considerations that I feel need to underpin our educative interactions as music teachers. My thoughts have been continually prompted by classroom action and reflection, and I will now think these considerations ‘out loud’ and position them as pedagogical (educative) conditions that I feel need to…
Encouraging ‘deeper listening’ and own thinking about and of music
In Year 11 and 12 Music in Queensland, Australia, students work from the Queensland Curriculum and Assessment Authority (QCAA) Music: Senior Syllabus[i]. From the learning experiences devised from this document, students are assessed across three dimensions of musical study – Composition, Musicology, and Performance. In my experience, the dimensions of Performance and Composition often draw…
Sunshine Coast Music Education Conference 2015
In the July holidays, St Andrew’s Anglican College is hosting the inaugural Sunshine Coast Music Education Conference – a conference for Primary and Secondary Music teachers from across the State. We are welcoming the inspirational Richard Gill, OAM, to present alongside specialists Maree Henessey and Russell Bauer, on the conference theme of ‘Engaged Teachers, Engaged…
It’s All About the Verb…
It has been quite a number of years now since I became acquainted with the work of Christopher Small. His works Music, Society and Education (1977), Music of the Common Tongue (1987) and Musicking (1998) were intelligently combative to the institution of music education in Australia at the time – in fact, they still are……
Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue…
Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue… I am sure we have all encountered this saying before… perhaps even enacted it on that ‘special day’? I heard someone quote this last week and my mind immediately associated it with the way I approach teaching music. Later that day I looked up the saying to discover that it…
Some Thoughts on Developing Aural Awareness
Aural training – or ‘aural skills’ – formed a significant part of my own formal music education throughout secondary school. Aural skills exercises typically demanded that we identify short rhythmic, melodic and two-part melodic/harmonic phrases, and then realise them through staff notation. We would have limited hearings and no external points of reference (other than…
Dr Cade Bonar 