Elementary Music/Music Technology Blog

Continuing with my posts on how the nine national standards from The National Association for Music Education (MENC) can be enhanced by technology in the elementary general music classroom, today I approach standard #2.

Content standard#2: Performing on instruments, alone and with others, a varied repertoire of music.

Achievement standard 2e: Students perform in groups, blending instrumental timbres, matching dynamic levels, and responding to the cues of a conductor.

My first instinct when writing this post is to write about a lesson that can occur in a keyboard lab. There are elementary schools that have keyboard labs, however, after careful thought, I wanted to take a different approach and use technology to enhance this achievement standard by utilizing Orff instruments and one electronic keyboard. When I teach a lesson that involves my classroom instruments, I like to add one electronic keyboard to enhance the sound, especially the bass sound in an Orff ensemble. To purchase a bass xylophone, you might pay up to $925. If you decide to purchase bass bars, you could be paying $500+ for one bass bar. If you use an electronic keyboard to supplement for bass bars or a bass xylophone, you could pay as low as $129 for a Yamaha keyboard. An electronic keyboard could be a more economical solution for a music classroom with a limited budget.

When I want to achieve this standard, I will use a lesson from one of my favorite Orff resources, “Strike it Rich” by Jeff Kriske and Randy DeLelles. Due to copyright legalities, I cannot go into the details of the lesson. However, when I want to utilize a lesson from their book that contains an ensemble working together to achieve balance, I will add an electronic keyboard to enhance the bass xylophone and/or bass metallophone part. I like to do this for two reasons:

1. It increases the bass sound in the ensemble.
2. The student who plays the electronic keyboard must listen to be able to blend with Orff instruments. This is a great skill to teach and reinforce. The student must play in a way that does not overpower the other instruments and also find the right volume so that the timbre of the keyboard’s xylophone sound (or vibes, which is the sound that I will use) blends in with the Orff instruments.

If you are trying to increase your classroom instruments and your budget limits you, then I suggest looking into an electronic keyboard. It is another way to teach listening and blending in an ensemble atmosphere and successfully achieve standard #2e.