A Year of Music Discovery

Ms Trisha Matthias, Prep Music Master

YEAR 4 is a wonderful year of new music activities for our boys. All boys are presented the opportunity to learn a music instrument that forms part of the band program. They are firstly able to trial instruments from the woodwind, brass and percussion families, and then put forward their preferences on which instrument they would like to learn. Some consideration must be given to the boy’s height, arm length, and mouth shape, and staff take all of this into consideration before allocating an instrument.

Once the boys have been allocated an instrument, they are involved in a music rotation which includes; a 45 minute group instrument lesson, 45 minute band learning/ rehearsing and 45 minute classroom music lesson.

The Year 4 classroom focus is learning about the instruments of the band and orchestra. This is achieved through hands on learning, with boys bringing in their instruments and then exploring how the sound is produced and what makes an instrument belong to a family. Following on from this, the boys are then given the task of making their own musical instrument from materials found in the home.

This year with COVID-19, the boys made these instruments at home and then presented their project in the form of a written report which included their instrument design, working out the materials they needed to collect, making the instrument and then preparing a visual presentation outlining their project. This extended to classifying their instrument into a family and explaining why they made this decision. They then demonstrated how to produce a sound on their instrument. The video presentation was uploaded to Seesaw, the app used to create a visual portfolio of student work and where the teacher can provide feedback.

The boys really love sharing their instrument making with each other. The unit gives the boys great insight into learning about sound and how to produce it, as well as understanding what classifies an instrument into a music family. We know that boys learn best when learning is active, and they engage in units such as this one which offers practice in problem solving and critical thinking, and results in a physical instrument creation. The links with science, maths, design technology and music ultimately make this STEM learning experience popular in class music.