Ten Top Tips for Teaching World Music

1. Do your research. There are many great resources available on the web showing the key characteristics of many world-music genres/styles. Try not to make any assumptions about what a world-music style should sound like.

2. Decide what key characteristics are important to share with the class. For example: West African music is full of call & response, the music is lead by rhythmic ‘signals’ played by the Master Drummer on their drum.

3. Keep it practical. Benjamin Franklin said “Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn.”

4. Teach it aurally. Most world-music genres are best learnt aurally – as they are in their culture – the use of conventional music notation is very much a western-classical tradition!

5. Use whatever instrumental resources you’ve already got. For example: Most hand-drums are good substitutes for West African djembes; The school drum kit can be pulled apart and used as the core of a samba band (toms and bass drum for surdos, snare for caixa); Create a classroom gamelan with glockenspiels/xylophones (using pentatonic notes A C D E G to replicate the slendro scale) and suspended cymbals played with soft sticks near the bell to replicate the gongs.

6. Find out why the music is played in that culture. For example: West African music is often dubbed ‘music for purpose’ – every piece is played for a particular reason/occasion. In the Malinke tradition in West Africa (where the djembe originates), any piece titled “Soli” is played at a circumcision – knowing this may determine your repertoire selection!

7. Understand that the culture has defined the music. For example: Respect for instruments and the teacher is paramount to Japanese taiko drumming which is evident in the martial-arts-like movements the drummers perform before and during each piece. Even when using classroom instruments to play gamelan, it’s important the students take their shoes off and understand why the Indonesians show respect to instruments by removing their shoes.

8. Try to immerse them in the culture to better understand the music. Use the web to put it all in context: Make sure the students see videos of the music in its cultural context. Show them pictures of the landscape and people. Show them videos of the music. Let them sample some of the food!

9. Watch the videos before you show them to the class! Behaviours or clothing (or lack of it!) that are acceptable in one culture may not be appropriate to show to children in our culture. The Inspire-works YouTube channel has playlists of videos sourced from across the globe that are appropriate for classes to watch to back up your teaching.

10. Have fun! Caribbean steel pans music is known as the sunniest music on earth, the Rio Carnival is the largest party in the world, dhol drums are played en masse at Punjabi weddings – try to pass on to your students some of the joy celebrated in the music’s home culture!

@mikesimpsontv

@PrimaryMusicMag