Modern Band in Two Ohio Music Programs

MODERN BAND IN TWO OHIO MUSIC PROGRAMS

JAY DORFMAN, KENT STATE UNIVERSITY

LESLIEANNE BIRD, NORTH OLMSTED CITY SCHOOLS

Modern Band has emerged over the last decade or so as a new approach to teaching music in the classroom. Attributed largely to the organization Little Kids Rock, Modern Band is a flexible pedagogical process for performing, improvising, and composing. The approach uses voices and virtually any instrument you have in your classroom and is focused on the use of popular music. Modern Band relies heavily on replicating or covering existing songs, and it is a student-centered approach that emphasizes students selecting repertoire. It also includes improvising and songwriting as forms of musical engagement. One of the appealing parts of Modern Band is that it encourages quality musical experiences for children who might not participate in traditional music ensembles. In this article, we will describe two implementations of Modern Band in Ohio—one in an elementary program and one in a university setting.

Modern Band: LeslieAnne Bird, North Olmsted City Schools

As a kindergarten through fifth-grade music educator, I use the Modern Band approach in general music classes and in a club setting in the North Olmsted City Schools. Two years ago, I was fortunate to receive a scholarship to acquire instruments and training from Little Kids Rock through the generosity of Moe’s restaurants. At first, I was skeptical. I did not have the skill and knowledge to play many of the Modern Band instruments, and I was concerned about how the model would fit in with my current program. After exploring the Little Kids Rock website and consulting with trusted colleagues, I recognized the level of quality in the resources, the opportunity for student engagement and empowerment, that Modern Band was a good complement to Orff-inspired teaching, and that we could develop and practice a wide variety of skills and concepts to meet many curricular goals and state standards.

I received the instruments (two electric guitars, three acoustic guitars, two basses, six ukuleles, a drum set, and a few amps) in December of 2017. I used the resources on the Little Kids Rock website to teach one song to my oldest students in general music and to explore possibilities during lunch and recess by jamming with the children who wanted to play. After attending my first Modern Band Summit in the summer of 2018, where I received my training, I was hooked, and so were my students.

I allow the children to assist in the selection of repertoire to use with our Modern Band lessons. I provide a list of pre-approved, school appropriate songs. To create this list, I usually begin with Dr. Jill Reese’s YouTube channel and the Little Kids Rock “Teacher Zone” section of the website. I scroll through and ask for suggestions from the children. I do not play the songs at this time—I just take their suggestions. Next, I check the level of difficulty and the appropriateness of lyrics. After I have made those cuts, I have a list of songs they can choose from. What is appropriate will depend on your age group, the school culture, and your preferences. To be absolutely sure, I provide my principal with a list of songs we are planning to perform.

I do not use Modern Band exclusively; rather, I use it as a portion of our music experience. I focused on using Modern Band mostly with fifthgrade general music classes during the 2018-19 school year, as I am still new to working with the approach. We chose a song to perform and began by replicating the selection as a class. The children learned to play the melody on Orff xylophones and then worked in groups to learn to play guitar, bass, ukulele, recorder, keyboard, and to sing. I only have one classroom, so they worked in groups around the room. I had headphones for our keyboards, and I was able to have xylophone players in the hallway. Everyone else chose a corner of the room to practice. Having the amps face the wall helped contain the sound, but we were still a bit noisy with everyone on task. I did not add the drum set until late in the process. I have drum set mutes, so we could hear all of the instruments when the band played together.

I allow the children to decide which instruments they want to play and ask them to develop solutions when there are limited resources. In one class, we had two students play kazoos! We took the approach one step further, and not only replicated the songs, but arranged them to personalize the experience for each class. For the coming year, I will be adding more of the components of Modern Band in our fourth-grade lessons such as teaching the children to play the ukulele, guitar, bass, and drum set in mini-lessons, and adding a few popular tunes to our classes throughout the year.

As an Orff practitioner, I find the philosophy of Modern Band partners well with the Orff approach. I can use the Modern Band instruments not only with popular music but with folk songs as well, adding a new twist to familiar songs. Two of our favorites are “Green Sally Up” and “Step Back Baby, Step Back.” Adding electric bass and drum set is a great way to encourage the children to try out new instruments and makes these traditional songs even more exciting to perform in class. I find that the children enjoy figuring out the melodies of favorite songs by ear on the xylophones and keyboards and teaching motives and phrases to each other. To accomplish this, we sing the first motive of the song and determine the starting pitch. The children work with a partner using xylophones and/or keyboards to sound out the motive. When they have it figured out, they raise their hand and teach it to the rest of the class, then we move on to the second motive. The children then work to perform the first phrase by combining the motives. We continue until the class can play the melody.

Last year, we had a before-school Modern Band Club for fourth- and fifth-grade students. The children chose the songs they wanted to perform from our pre-approved list of songs. I offered them six songs to choose from, and the club performed four songs. We performed at the ice cream social event at school. Families, teachers, and friends enjoyed listening while eating ice cream in the cafeteria, and a good time was had by all (including me)!

Our fifth-grade students were so excited about the Modern Band program that a few garage bands have popped up outside of school, and requests for recommendations for instrument purchases and lessons are frequent. Next year, my colleague and I will be establishing an after-school club for middle school students who want to continue to play, and we will also be expanding our performance opportunities for all children who choose to perform.

Modern Band: Jay Dorfman, Kent State University

At Kent State University, we prioritize preparing new and experienced teachers to excel in varied music teaching contexts including Modern Band. To that end, we have implemented Modern Band in two of our courses. At the undergraduate level, we have a new course in our curriculum called Progressive & Vernacular Music Methods. We did so by removing some older requirements from outside of the School of Music that my faculty colleagues and I deemed no longer relevant to successful music teaching, and thus did not expand the credit requirements of our program. Students typically take the course in their junior year at the same time as their traditional Instrumental Methods or Choral Methods classes. All students, regardless of their concentrations, are required to take the class. Modern Band is a significant part of the content. Students learn to play and teach guitar, bass, drum set, ukulele, keyboard, and voice in the styles associated with Modern Band. Importantly, just as they do in traditional methods classes, students focus on developing pedagogical techniques and materials for their future teaching at the K-12 level. They learn to analyze Modern Band songs and guide students in song selection. Lessons in this class also include improvisation on Modern Band instruments and engagement in other creative activities such as songwriting. We also discuss important areas of teaching philosophy such as student-centeredness and culturally responsive pedagogy.

We have also begun offering a class called Methods in Rock Band Performance & Pedagogy. This class is typically offered as a week-long summer workshop, so it is available to music teachers who are not enrolled in our graduate programs, but it is a credit-bearing elective for both master’s and doctoral students. There are no prerequisites or expectations of rock band experience associated with the course, which we intend to offer next in the summer of 2020. We spend as much time as possible in this class performing, and we address topics closely related to running a Modern

Band program in schools. Some of these topics include using live sound equipment, organizing a program, song selection, and gear selection (instruments, amps, etc.). In this graduate class, we also replicate the student-centered environment of Modern Band. While I sometimes provide guidance and support, the people in this class usually form their own bands and select their own songs to perform. As the instructor, my job is to facilitate these processes by doing things such as assigning rehearsal rooms, helping to distribute equipment, setting time limits for rehearsals, and providing assistance as needed. The students typically rehearse about eight to ten songs over the course of the week, and the class ends with a performance of as many of the songs as they feel comfortable playing. This performance is open to the public.

LeslieAnne Bird, North Olmsted City Schools

In both the elementary and the university setting, Modern Band has been a valuable approach to music teaching and learning. It promotes flexible musicianship, learning and playing by ear, and using music that students listen to and enjoy outside of school. In the K-12 environment, students who participate in Modern Band take ownership of their learning, and it keeps students who do not elect the traditional ensembles participating in musical experiences. Students who do participate in ensembles are inspired to expand and refine their musical skills to play multiple instruments or to perform with the Modern Band groups on their primary instruments. At the university level, it is imperative to prepare future teachers to function well in the Modern Band atmosphere because it is a form of music making that students seek and enjoy.

We encourage Ohio music teachers to look for opportunities to learn about Modern Band at the OMEA Professional Development Conference and at other professional learning events. You and your students will certainly have fun exploring popular music and learning to rock out!

LeslieAnne Bird is a music and movement educator in North Olmsted, Ohio. She teaches general music for grades K to five as well as fifth-grade band, orchestra, and choir. She has served as vice president and membership chair for the Greater Cleveland Orff Chapter and is currently serving as the content curator for the Teaching With Orff community. She earned Orff Certification from Baldwin Wallace University in 2014, has completed Music Learning Theory General Music Level One, Level One World Music Drumming training, and has earned the Ohio Master Teacher designation.

Jay Dorfman is Associate Professor and Coordinator of Music Education at Kent State University. His research interests include the uses of technology in music teaching and learning, instrumental music, popular music, and music teacher education. Dr. Dorfman is the author of Theory and Practice of Technology-Based Music Instruction (Oxford University Press, 2013) and the co-editor of Pluralism in American Music Education Research: A Collection of Essays and Narratives (Springer, 2018). He holds BM and MM degrees from the University of Miami (Florida) and the PhD in music education from Northwestern University.

Jay Dorfman, Kent State University