Sigma Alpha Iota

PAN PIPES • WINTER 2017 • sai-national.org 4 SAI PHILANTHROPIES M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Who said you are ever too old to learn? Not me! e more I know, the more I have to share. Aer 20 plus years of teaching, with the help of a Sigma Alpha Iota Professional Development Grant, I was able to attend Kodaly I this past summer. is is something I should have done years ago. is enabled me to refresh skills, combine old and new ideas, and — the most fulfilling — share my experiences with new teachers in our rewarding field of music education. Ouachita Baptist University (OBU), my alma mater, was a perfect setting for our Kodaly I classes. Spending two weeks together with people helps to grow relationships. My classmates and I laughed, cried, and learned. Our skilled instructors for the two week course were Joy Nelson, Liza Meyers, and Becky Morrison. ey were patient, fun, and very flexible with our various skill levels. Our daily schedule included musicianship, conducting, methodology, choir, folk song literature/analysis, and folk dancing. To complement what we were learning, Orff Instructor Scott Sexton spent a session with us playing instruments and dramatizing stories while singing traditional music from Africa. In musicianship class, we worked daily on singing our scales using solfege. Mrs. Meyers kept us on a disciplined schedule so that we achieved as much daily as we could. is was an important class for me because I needed to work on my ear training in different modes. I didn't learn solfege until my first year at OBU. I have always taught the hand signs and syllables in my classes but needed to be more proficient so I could take my students further. I also found with rhythms that "tika" is easier to say when doing rhythms than "tiri." So, this year, my students are using "tika-tika" instead. My students and I actually experimented with it and decided it rolled off the tongue easier. is helped my students who were used to saying "tiri" make the transition to "tika." Plus, having the students have a say in the decision goes along with our new music frameworks in allowing them to create and respond to musical elements as they sing and play. In our choir and folk song classes, we constantly were analyzing form, meter, keys, mode, range, and pedagogical use. We would write down what we found in particular formats to begin a library for later use. is helped us in learning the song and to know what songs were good for teaching certain concepts. We enjoyed working together on the analysis. e discussions would always be enlightening in coming to a final decision. My classmates and I worked as a team, while Dr. Nelson was a perfect Never Too Old for Music Above, attendees of a Kodaly session perform African music. At right, Paul Graves, Beth Parks, and Jacob Richardson all from Lake Hamilton School with instruments.

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