Sigma Alpha Iota

Summer 2021 12 12 P A N P I P E S SAI PHILANTHROPIES, INC. Finding Joy and Purposeful Music Making Through Feierabend T hanks to a generous Professional Development Grant awarded by SAI Philanthropies, Inc., I had the opportunity to take a two-week course to learn how to use Conversational Solfege, the method of teaching music literacy developed by Dr. John Feierabend. rough Dr. Feierabend's philosophy, principles, and approach to teaching music, I have newfound joy and purpose in how and why I teach elementary music. Taking this course was critical to understanding and successfully implementing not only this specific program, but music literacy as a whole in my classroom. With such a wide variety of elementary music curricula and methods available, it can be difficult to know which one to use. Just looking through any music teacher supply catalog and seeing the wide selection of curricula and methods can be overwhelming. e number of available resources can provide excellent variety, but many individual resources oen do not serve as foundational curricula. Rather, many can serve as supplements to an established curriculum. Dr. Feierabend's programs can easily serve as that needed foundation. How I Taught Before Using Dr. Feierabend's Methods Prior to this year, I had been using a combination of lesson plans and methods that I took from the books on my classroom bookshelves, the Internet, and presenters at my annual music educators conference. Piecing sources together got me through my first two years of teaching, but in the winter of 2019 (halfway through my third year), I hit a point where I was exhausted by this process and was not as effective or as engaging as my students needed me to be. My classroom management suffered as I fumbled my way through lessons created from concepts that were either too advanced or not challenging enough, and repertoire and processes that were not well sequenced. I wasn't "buying what I was selling" and, as a result, my students weren't either. ere was no joy in what we were doing, and I was not seeing progress in their musicianship. While much of the issue certainly was due to my inexperience, something else was missing. I realized I needed to change my approach to teaching music, and I could not wait until the next school year to change it. It was risky to try out a new curriculum mid-year, but I thought it even riskier to let my students go without receiving the best music education I could offer them. e range of skills learned through a high-quality elementary music education–not just musical but also motor, intellectual, social, and emotional–will benefit children for the rest of their lives. I began researching elementary music curricula and I discovered Dr. Feierabend and his philosophy of teaching music to children. Aer reading numerous articles, watching demonstration videos, and listening to podcasts that discussed and praised his methods, I was aligned with his philosophy and convinced that his First Steps in Music Curriculum for Preschoolers and Beyond was the right curriculum to implement in my classroom. I purchased and began implementing First Steps right away with my students in grades K-3, and it was an instant success with them. e children enjoyed the simple songs and chants, movement and beat motion activities, and the overall "musical workout" process. ey showed rapid progress in their musical skills and I could easily assess where I needed to reinforce certain

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