Listening: Teaching with “Hallelujah”

I recently taught a class for a few minutes on the concept of “Harmony,” and I used Jeff Buckley’s version of “Hallelujah” to do so.  It has a simple harmony that is easy to follow, and the song’s presentation is uncomplicated (just a voice and a guitar).  In any case, while working on it, I actually paid attention to the lyrics for once (besides “Hallelujah, etc.”).  The first verse would be perfect for teaching the relationship between music and lyrics:

When David played before the Lord
I heard he had a special chord
But you don’t really care for music do ya?
Well, it goes like this: the fourth, the fifth
The minor fall and the major lift
The baffled king composed his hallelujah.
Hallelujah, etc.

Oddly enough, when Jeff sings “the fourth, the fifth,” the chords he plays are, in fact, the fourth and the fifth (in C major, that would be F and G).  When he sings “minor fall,” he plays an A minor chord, and when he sings “major lift,” he plays an F major chord. Leonard Cohen, who originally wrote and performed this song, was enjoying himself a little when he wrote this.

To be fair, text painting can be exercised on many levels besides just harmonic structure, but this explanation would be a simple and literal introduction to the idea for a basic Music Appreciation class.

 

Teaching Music Appreciation: Using Hip Hop

(or some other popular musical genre)

I was walking this afternoon from the graduate library to a meeting I had with a professor of mine in the bell tower, when I passed a huge DJ setup on the lawn. I’m not sure what the gathering was about, but they were playing some loud and bass-y hip hop in an attempt to gather some attention.

I thought, while I was passing, “Hmmm. That bass line is really pleasing. Loud is good.” (I actually did think this…I had heard it inside the library and was being rebellious.)

And then I thought, “How could I use a piece like this in teaching music to students?” (Because I’m a geek.)

I’m hugely in favor of teaching people in a manner that starts with what they already know. It’s hard to teach someone how to drive down the street when they don’t yet know how to distinguish red from green. The same goes with asking them to clap out a rhythm when they don’t know how to pick out the musical line from which they’re supposed to copy said rhythm. But most everyone nowadays listens to hip hop, at least sometimes, and its highly repetitive nature can be useful in teaching students–students who have yet to really learn to listen to music and articulate what they hear.

Using a hip hop piece (or for that matter, any contemporary popular genre) could be useful in teaching new students to identify melodies, countermelodies, bass lines and rhythms. The right choice of musical example could provide a simple exercise for identifying each of these musical elements in a manner that is familiar and non-threatening. Most young people can, at least, pick out the bass line and the most prominent driving rhythm.

I imagine that this would leave a better taste in students’ mouths than if I asked them to do the same for, say, Stravinsky.

On a related note, I ran into a blog post that discussed using podcasts in teaching music to high schoolers. It’s a great idea–it at least encourages them to comment intelligently and creatively on the music they hear.