Gordon

=The Gordon Approach: Music Learning Theory = ==
 * Edwin E. Gordon **
 * Noted lecturer, author, teacher, and researcher in music education & psychology of music **

====//"Music is unique to humans," Gordon said. "Like the other arts, music is as basic as language to human development and existence. Through music a child gains insights into herself, into others, and into life itself. Perhaps most important, she is better able to develop and sustain her imagination. Without music, life would be bleak." -E. Gordon (2008) //====

** Objectives **
By the end of this presentation, you should:
 * Be able to Identify the background of the Music Learning Theory concepts
 * Understand and be able to explain the main concepts of Gordon's Music Learning Theory
 * Determine if this approach is one that can be incorporated, partially or fully, into your method of teaching

**Introduction**
Gordon’s primary focus is on the phenomenon of “audiation.”

 What is **audiation**?  Audiation is the concept of hearing and comprehension of music in the mind. One may audiate when listening to music, performing from written notation, playing by ear, improvising, composing or notating music. Per Dr Gordon, audiation is the foundation of musicianship, and developing children’s inner hearing is a valuable part of teaching music literacy. Simply put, audiation is to think music in the mind.

 What is "**Music Learning Theory**?"  Music Learning Theory tells music teachers the best way to develop students' tonal and rhythm audiation. It is an explanation of how we learn when we learn music.  Gordon’s field is known today as “Music Learning Theory."

 What is the **objective** of Music Learning Theory?  The objective of Music Learning Theory is to help students become independent musicians and musical thinkers. Music Learning Theory develops the ability to audiate music's tonal and rhythmic content.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;"> What is the **philosophy** of Music Learning Theory? <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;"> Dr. Gordon bases his Music Learning Theory on his extensive research in music aptitude, which is the potential each human has for music achievement. While they are closely intertwined, music aptitude and music achievement are quite different. Music aptitude is the possibility for music achievement, while music achievement is the realization of that possibility. Dr. Gordon states that all humans are born with music aptitude, however, it is the audiation and music thinking that determines aptitude and achievement.

**<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">Audiation **
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">Although musicians audiate all facets of musical sound, including timbre, volume, and style, Music Learning Theory is focused specifically with the tonal and rhythm scope of music. Teaching methods are designed to facilitate students develop their ability to audiate tonal content, including tonality, resting tone, tonal function, as well as rhythm content, including meter, macro beats, micro beats, and melodic rhythm. Through development of audiation students learn to understand music. Understanding is the foundation of music appreciation, the definitive goal of teaching music.

**<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">Music Aptitude **
====<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">Musical ability is often seen in all-or-none terms. Some are blessed with "talent," others are not. However, recent research reveals that music aptitude, like all human characteristics, is generally dispersed in the population. Everyone has the potential to achieve in music, with the majority of the population falling somewhere in the middle with average aptitude. ==== ====<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">Music Learning Theory is distinctive among teaching methods in that it is geared directly towards students' differing potentials to achieve in music. Students of average aptitude are taught more tonal and rhythm content than low aptitude students, and high aptitude students learn more content than average aptitude students. By teaching according to students' individual differences, teachers lessen the risk of boring students with high potential and frustrating students with lower potential. ====

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">Measuring Music Aptitude
====<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">Dr Gordon is the author of six highly-regarded music aptitude tests. These tests are not intended to be used as a measure of inclusion or exclusion from any form of music education, as all children have the right to a comprehensive music education. The tests are intended to help the teacher focus on the individual needs of each student. The music aptitude tests can be used on the very young child through college-age students. ====

**<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">Method & Sequence **
====<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">Method is the order in which sequential objectives are introduced in a curriculum in order to accomplish a goal. An effective method will guide the instructor what to teach, and when and why to teach it. ====

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">Music teaching methods are usually categorized as either rote first or note first. Music Learning Theory has many characteristics in common with such rote-first methods as Orff, Kodaly, Suzuki and Dalcroze. Per Music Learning Theory, students build a solid music foundation through use of singing, rhythmic movement, and tonal/rhythm pattern instruction prior to notation and music theory.

**<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">Other Fundamental Principles **

 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">**Focus on Patterns**- Tonal and rhythmic patterns (not single notes)
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">**Contrast**- Comparison of patterns, tonalities, etc
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">**Context**- establish rhythmic and tonal context (repeating chordal progressions, such as tonic-dominant-tonic; or, reinforce meter)
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">**Rhythmic Movement**- develop inner awareness of rhythm through body movement

**Music and Language: Compare and Contrast**
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">The way children learn music is quite similar to the way they learn a language.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">Learning Language:
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;"> Exposure to sounds of his native language for months
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;"> Language babble: experimentation with speech sounds that do not make sense to adult listeners
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;"> Child’s speech sounds evolve to a point where they are able to first imitate words
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">Child can eventually use these words meaningfully in phrases and sentences

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">Learning Music:
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;"> Exposure to sounds of their native music (or any music) for several months
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">Music babble: experimentation with sounds that do not make musical sense to adults;
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">With playful interaction from adults to guide musical sounds, the child begins to approximate musical tones and rhythmic movement (tonal babble & rhythm babble)
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">Child can gradually find a steady beat and establish more recognizable tonality

From birth to age 2-4, each child engages with little consciousness of the environment. ||  || **1. ABSORPTION** - Each child hears and aurally collects the sounds of music in the environment.
 * **ACCULTURATION**
 * 2. RANDOM RESPONSE** - Each child moves andbabbles in response to, but without relation to, the sounds of music in the environment.
 * 3. PURPOSEFUL RESPONSE** - Each child tries to relate movement and babble to the sounds of music in the environment. ||

From ages 2-4, each child engages with conscious thought focused primarily on the environment. ||  || **4. SHEDDING EGOCENTRICITY** - Each child recognizes that his or her movements and babbling do not match the sounds of music inthe environment.
 * **IMITATION**
 * 5. BREAKING THE CODE** - Each child imitates tonal patterns and rhythm patterns and other sounds in the environment with some precision. ||

From ages 3-5 to ages 4-6, each child engages with conscious thought focused primarily on himself or herself. ||  || **6. INTROSPECTION** - Each child recognizes his or her lack of coordination between singing and breathing and between chanting and movement, including breathing.
 * **ASSIMILATION**
 * 7. COORDINATION** - Each child coordinates his singing and chanting with breathing and moving. ||


 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">Skill Learning Sequence **

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">There are two categories of skill learning sequences in the Music Theory Learning.
>
 * 1) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">Discrimination Learning - The student learns by rote, building their vocabulary of patterns (tonal and rhythmic). Much of this is learn by call and response.
 * 2) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">Inference Learning - Not taught by rote, the students make their own discoveries. This is where experience with familiar patterns comes into play. Students are able to identify and create with unfamiliar patterns in inference learning. Because the teacher has taught the student how to learn, the student essentially teaches himself what he learns.

**Whole/Part/Whole Curriculum**
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;"> The "Whole/Part/Whole" (also known as "Synthesis/Analysis/Synthesis") approach is commonly used in education as a way to organize the way a student experiences content.


 * = // **WHOLE** // ||= // **PART** // ||= // **WHOLE** // ||
 * = **Experience the Whole** ||= **Study the Parts** ||= **Understand and Comprehend the Whole** ||
 * = // **CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES** // ||= // **LEARNING SEQUENCE ACTIVITIES** // ||= // **ALL MUSIC** // ||
 * = **Sing** ||= ** DISCRIMINATION ---INFERENCE ** ||= ** ﻿ Sing ** ||
 * = **Chant** ||= **Verbal Association Generalization Verbal** ||= **Chant** ||
 * = **Move** ||= ** Partial Synthesis--- Creativity-Improvisation ** ||= **Move** ||
 * = **Dance** ||= ** Symbolic Association-- Generalization-Symbolic ** ||= **Dance** ||
 * = **Create** ||= ** Composite Synthesis ---Theoretical-Understanding ** ||= **Create** ||
 * = **Improvise** ||=  ||= **Improvise** ||
 * = **Perform** ||=  ||= **Perform** ||
 * = **Play** ||=  ||= **Play** ||
 * = **Read** ||  ||= **Read** ||
 * = **Write** ||=  ||= ** Write ** ||

**<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">Videos **
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">//Toddlers & Music// (pt.3) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">This video incorporates ideas from Gordon's approach concerning (among other things) music and movement, establishing predictability in music, and then altering the music to make it less predictable. It is interesting to see how the toddlers react.

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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">Dr. Edwin E. Gordon presents an //Overview of Music Learning Theory// to students, faculty, & guests at Rhode Island College. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;"> This is only part of a very interesting series of videos, so I encourage you to check out the rest of Dr Gordon's presentation.

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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;"> Dr. Edwin E. Gordon is presenting on the //Practical Applications of Music Learning Theory// at Rhode Island College. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;"> This is the first installment of a very interesting series, so again I encourage you to check out the rest of Dr Gordon's presentation.

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**<span style="color: #008000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">Assessment **
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">Please write 2-3 paragraphs reflecting what you have learned about the Gordon Music Learning Theory. Please include any positives or negatives you determine in this method, as well as an example of how you might incorporate any aspects of this concept into your classroom.


 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">Selected books by Dr. Edwin E. Gordon: **

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">Am I Musical? Discover Your Musical Potential: Musical Audiation Games (2003) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">The Aural/Visual Experience of Music Literacy (2004) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">Improvisation in the Music Classroom (2003) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">Introduction to Research and the Psychology of Music (1998) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">Learning Sequences in Music (2003) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">A Music Learning Theory for Newborn and Young Children (2003) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">Music Learning Theory: Resolutions and Beyond (2006) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">The Psychology of Music Teaching(1971) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">Rhythm: Contrasting the Implications of Audiation and Notation (2009)


 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">References: **

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">Abeles, Harold F, Charles R. Hoffer, and Robert H. Klotman. (1994). Foundations of Music Education. New York: Schirmer Books.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">Bruner, Jerome. (1983). A Child's Talk: Learning to Use Language. New York: Horton.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;"> Dalby, Bruce. (1999, May). Teaching Audiation in Instrumental Classes. Music Educators Journal, Vol. 85, No. 6, 22-25, 46.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;"> Gordon, Edwin. (2011). MENC. In Music and Language Learning (MENC). Retrieved March 10, 2011, from http://www.menc.org/v/general_music/music-language-learning/.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;"> The Gordon Institute for Music Learning []

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;"> Pinzino, Mary Ellen. (1998). A Conversation with Edwin Gordon. [].

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">