Music Program
Vision
Friends School of Minnesota believes that being a full human being includes understanding and enjoying music. We seek to develop students who are able to:
- Sing, alone and with others, a varied repertoire of music.
- Perform on instruments, alone and with others, a varied repertoire of music.
- Improvise melodies, variations, and accompaniments.
- Introduce to reading and notating music.
- Enhance music appreciation and support the school’s multicultural curriculum by listening, making and dancing to diverse music and by building awareness of different classical and folk music styles and the role music plays in history and human culture.
- Build community
- Support the school’s multicultural curriculum
Linkages
Friends School understands that music is an integral part of humanity and cultural history. Therefore we strive to make music an integral part of our school’s culture and our students’ personal and social development. We seek integration with social studies, dance, physical education, language arts and theater. The music program embraces the school wide commitment to cooperative learning.
FSM chooses to perform music which celebrates the value and spirit of the school’s distinctive Quaker mission. Public performance is viewed as community service, an activity which supports and strengthens the relationships with the school community and the broader community.
Strategies
Educational methods include sequential instruction in singing, percussion, Irish tin whistle, and music notation. Kodály developmental theory and practices are incorporated in lesson plans. Tin whistle practice develops instrumental dexterity and pitch. Percussion practice and dance motivate students and develop rhythm skills essential to most music forms. Workbooks and classroom study introduce students to music notation and enable them to improve their skills at their own pace. Both percussion and tin whistle practice support the study of musical notation. Appreciation of the diversity of world music is encouraged through listening, learning, and performing.
Performance opportunities in school programs, parades and community events motivate students to develop self expression, confidence, and performance skills. Music is taught with it’s cultural and historical context. Collaboration with either the Social Studies curriculum, a visiting artist, or other school activities greatly enhance experiential learning. Dance, theater, and music residencies support our goals in music education and enrich us with valuable educational materials.
Six Guiding Principals of Music Education at FSM
- Experiential: Active, hands-on, concrete experience is the most effective method of music education. Students are immersed in the most direct possible experience.
- Holistic: Children learn best when they encounter whole ideas, events, and materials in purposeful contexts, not by studying sub-parts, isolated from actual use. Music is integral to people and communities. Understanding the important role music has both in history and human culture enhances music appreciation.
- Authentic: Real, rich, complex ideas and materials are at the heart of the curriculum. Lessons that water down, control, or oversimplify content would ultimately disempower students.
- Expressive: To develop expressiveness students must be involved in performing exciting and passionate music. To fully engage ideas, construct meaning, and remember information, students must be self motivated. Whenever possible students’ interests should be incorporated into classroom activities, sometimes leading to spontaneous changes in studies and influencing long term planning.
- Collaborative: Cooperative learning through singing and playing music together, is more affective then competitive and individualistic approaches. While playing and singing parts they will develop a deeper understanding of the interaction between rhythm, melody, and harmony.
- Challenging: Students learn best when faced with genuine challenges, choices and responsibilities in their own learning.
Students are encouraged to exceed standard music goals through provided opportunities for further study in sight reading, research, composition, practice and performance. They may choose to pass with honors through proposing and completing extra curricular work in these areas. Private music lessons are encouraged.