my teaching situation as of 2023-24

what am I doing with these two chord songs this year?

In the "about me" section, you'll read that I've been obsessed with two-chord songs for a long time and have used them in a variety of teaching situations. I'm going to write here about my current (2023-24 school year) teaching situation. I started this gig last year: I have six middle school classes whom I see once a week for 45 minutes; I have two high school classes I see every other week for 90 minutes. 

With the middle school classes, I feel less-talk-more-rock is always a good policy, so we are focusing on playing and composing two-chord songs. This year, we'll start some three-chord songs (gasp!) with the chords we know and adding new chords in a two-chord context. 

With the high school classes, they alternate with art as part of "aesthetics education." We are doing a little more talk, but also some composing and improvising. The focus here is listening and responding (L&R, for short), which I will give my thoughts on over several posts. It's a big topic. And has nothing to do with songs having two chords. But here we are.

What I was working on just before taking this job was trying to reimagine the band method book to include more ear-based learning, more composing, more improvising, and more L&R. Most band methods are songbooks, really. Nothing wrong with a songbook, but there is not a lot of method in the method books. At first, I thought oh man, if I take this job then I won't have much time to work on the method book. Then I realized I could simply work out my ideas in a different context and that was a good thing.

Now that I've done this gig for a year, it's more clear what is and is not possible. I tend to get over-enthused about things — it has its pros and cons, the pro mainly being motivation to obsessively gather and structure information, the con mainly being it's just too much. We meet once a week for 45 minutes, they are middle school kids, and this year we miss the last week of almost every month due to holidays (= I see them for three classes and then there's a long weekend — not that I'm complaining, but just trying to see things as they are, which is discontinuous)… there's only so much one is going to get done. 

The focus is mainly on gaining the skills to function in a jam or sing-a-long. I'm using musical nomenclature as a way to a) communicate about what we are doing and b) to help direct their ears to certain musical phenomena, namely harmonic function and beat function. I wanted to do a million other things, but I realized it's enough. It's plenty, even. I don't do tests and memorizing, because this course should not be a thorn in their side. If it were a music school or if we had more time, then maybe I would. But I feel strongly the best way to remember things is to simply use it. We go at a slow pace and we use the same vocabulary and corresponding materials and concepts over and over. And honestly, if all they remember is how to keep a beat and how to read a chord diagram, that's not bad. 

Next up, we'll have a few posts featuring actual two-chord songs, then some more philosophical/pedagogical stuff, and we'll alternate like that.