Color, shape, and sound: A proposed system of music notation

Semiotica ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 2015 (204) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mitchell Wong ◽  
Marcel Danesi
Keyword(s):  
Elementary School ◽  
Music Education ◽  
Music Performance ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Music Students ◽  
Music Notation ◽  
Music Literacy ◽  
Traditional System ◽  
School Music ◽  
Elementary School Music

AbstractThis article presents a system of music notation that uses a combination of colors and shapes to represent sound. This system may present advantages over the traditional system of music notation, as its symbols are inherently related to the musical information that they communicate. The present article explains the basic workings of the system. It then describes an ethnographic study in which the system was used to teach music literacy to a group of elementary school music students. It concludes with the implications that such a system might have in the spheres of music performance and music education.

scholarly journals Task-Dependent Mechanisms in the Perception of Music and Speech: Domain-Specific Transfer Effects of Elementary School Music Education

2019 ◽  
Vol 67 (2) ◽  
pp. 153-170
Author(s):  
Borbála Lukács ◽  
Ferenc Honbolygó
Keyword(s):  
Elementary School ◽  
Music Education ◽  
Cognitive Processing ◽  
Second Grade ◽  
Music Curriculum ◽  
Cognitive Mechanisms ◽  
Domain Specific ◽  
Regular Class ◽  
School Music ◽  
Elementary School Music

Previous studies have demonstrated that active engagement in musical activities benefits auditory and cognitive processing. However, it is still unclear whether musical experience improves domain-general mechanisms reflected in superior functioning in language or the enhancement is selective and limited to musical abilities. In the present study, we evaluated the transfer effect of general elementary school music education on the development of linguistic abilities. The relationship between specific musical auditory skills, phonological awareness, and reading was investigated in 30 second-grade children who attended either a class with an intensive music curriculum or a class with a regular curriculum. Results indicated no significant differences between the music and the regular class, suggesting that 1 year of Kodály-based classroom music education is not enough to yield relevant improvement in musical and linguistic abilities. Although there was no considerable relationship between reading and musical abilities, phoneme deletion accuracy was specifically associated with tonal memory. These findings suggest that similar cognitive mechanisms may be required to process melodic and phonological sequences. Therefore, we assume that task-dependent mechanisms may exist in melody and speech perception, which might account for the presence of inconsistent findings in the music transfer literature.

scholarly journals Integrating Parent’s Contribution into Music Class to Achieve Learning Purpose of Musical Expression

2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 28-38
Author(s):  
Slamet Haryono ◽  
Victorius Ganap ◽  
Totok Sumaryanto ◽  
Tjetjep Rohendi Rohidi
Keyword(s):  
Elementary School ◽  
Music Education ◽  
Urban Area ◽  
Learning Material ◽  
Musical Expression ◽  
Central Java ◽  
School Music ◽  
Major Attention ◽  
Music Class ◽  
Elementary School Music

Qualitative research has been carried out with the aim of exploring synergy between parents and school in elementary school music education in an urban area. The focus of the research is the synergy pattern of parents and school related to students’ music education. In order to derive the findings, one major attention of the research is parent’s contribution integrated into music class to gain a successful learning goal of musical expression. This paper discusses characteristic of the contribution processes in supporting the successful of music learning related to education components of learning material, facility and supporting the budget, with the topic of playing an ensemble of a particular music instrument. The school’s samples chosen were those which are located in a particular urban area in Central Java. The data were gathered using observation, interview and documentation methods and analyzed descriptively. Based on the data analysis, it was concluded that parent’s contribution is an important element for attaining a qualified students’ achievement of musical expression. It is integrated into learning sessions fulfilling the criteria stated in the used curriculum implemented by the teacher, by three major ways, those are communication, collaboration and cooperation. This becomes a significant reason for its integration into elementary school music instruction to achieve the expected students’ competence.

scholarly journals Variations in Music Education Curriculum and the Organization of Listening

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph Klett
Keyword(s):  
Elementary School ◽  
Music Education ◽  
Practical Knowledge ◽  
Teacher Performance ◽  
Education Curriculum ◽  
Musical Sound ◽  
Four Dimensions ◽  
School Music ◽  
Music Classrooms ◽  
Elementary School Music

Sociologists argue that we learn evaluative skills, such as those to distinguish qualities of music, through practical knowledge. Yet sociologists have not asked how we understand those sonic events as musical in the first place. Through nine months of semi-structured observations in six elementary school music classrooms, I examine how music education draws symbolic boundaries around musical sound. I find that variations in curriculum produce different organizational practices in the classroom. These practices develop what is a basic sensory skill – listening – in very different ways. I identify four dimensions of teacher performance that support these differences: authorized sound-makers, constrained movement, enforced perspectives, and selected attention. These variations in music education produce contrasting performances for recognizing musical sound.

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