The first video I’d like to share related to my content area is one that a student introduced me to several months ago. If you have never listened to the vocal group Pentatonix, start with this YouTube video of their “Evolution of Music”. Besides the obvious musical history lesson embedded in this medley this video also gives students an opportunity to hear a cappella singing, harmony, and vocal percussion. The second video related to my content area portrays a rather unconventional flash mob. The reactions of the people in the crowd to this wonderful live performance of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony are almost as moving as the performance itself.
While there are how-to videos on YouTube for just about anything, I decided to share one that I found related to music theory. This video which has been shared as a piano lesson is a clear and easy to follow explanation of how to build a major scale. This video, along with many others I found during this assignment, would be a great supplement to the music theory I teach during chorus and could be used in a flipped classroom for any type of music performance course. I also found much more advanced music theory how-to videos that I could use to help differentiate instruction for my students who already know the basics.
The final video I would like to share was shared with me by a colleague. As an educator, this video will either make you laugh or make you cry. It is called “I Choose C”.
As I searched YouTube for this assignment I found many great examples of videos that have been produced to enhance learning in music. Some were as simple as a teacher standing at a dry erase board and explaining a musical concept. Others were more elaborate and contained actual music performance demonstrations. Producing YouTube videos can be a great way for you to enhance your students’ learning while they are outside of your classroom. This could mean you creating videos to share with them or your students creating videos to share with you and with their classmates. This last video was created by two of my students. Micailah taught herself to play the ukulele and wanted to share this song. Her sister Kendall provides the harmony parts.
Classrooms. (3rd ed.). Thousand Oak, California: Corwin.
YouTube. Retrieved on March 2, 2014 from http://www.youtube.com/