-
Step-by-step tips for getting better at rhythmic dictation.
A question I often get asked by students – especially in the lead up to exams! – is how to do dictations. Here at DSMusic, we’re big on really knowing these concepts, whether it’s scales or intervals, or chords or rhythm. It’s important to remember that everything you’re doing in a music language space is […]
-
Ways to gamify rhythm in your music classroom.
When exams are looming it can be tempting to take what’s needed for test-time and build your music classes around that. Here at DSMusic though, we’re fans of fostering music literacy and as keen on finding a variety of ways to scaffold really knowing these musicianship concepts in your spaces. You can’t always address these […]
-
Top 10 Tips for Tackling Music Performance Analysis
Here at DSMusic, we’re pretty heavily focused on the music language side of things, and the really knowing. However, we’re also big fans of music performance analysis — understanding what other performers are doing musically to make us feel a certain way. We really get lost listening to music and decoding the mysteries behind mood, […]
-
A Few of my Favourite ….. Interval Activities
A Few of my Favourite ….. Interval Activities I was recently struck by how many activities we need to keep our students interested and engaged in our music classes. If we teach something to our 4 year old students (e.g. “beat”) then we need to have sufficient practice activities to challenge our students enough […]
-
Solfa, sailing & slow, mindful practice
Check out some resources and content you might have missed around the DSMusic space recently. Resource Round-Up It’s never too late to learn Solfa! Are you always stuck finding ways to get your students better at the musicianship stuff? The Music Language Online Course – Musicianship Module offers daily practice activities across a variety of concepts […]
-
Teaching Music: Tips, Tools & Why We Do It
Check out some resources and content you might have missed around the DSMusic space recently. Resource Round-Up The Importance of Music Education Although all things music literacy and language of music are key here at DSMusic, we’re also big fans of terrific advocacy material. While we as music teachers and students understand the importance of […]
-
The what, how and why of handsigns
Why use handsigns? Each Solfa note (do, re, mi etc.) has a certain shape you make with your hand whenever you sing it – a handsign. As you sing the notes, you also move your hand up and down in a way that matches how the pitches are moving. It’s this approach that means you […]
-
How Eilish & Holst can help you Decode Sound!
Check out some resources and content you might have missed around the DSMusic space recently. Resource Round-Up Build Better Performers! DSMusic has everything you need to digitally decode character, comparison, tempo, articulation, tone colour and more! Decoding Sound: Analysis for the Secondary School is a fully interactive way for students to build word lists and […]
-
Intervals, Analysis and Access — Music Is Transformative
Check out some resources and content you might have missed around the DSMusic space recently. Resource Round-Up Seeking some Analysis Aid? Get yourself a step-by-step look at expressive outcome (feeling, character or mood), the elements of music (including the expressive ones!) and how all of this contributes to interpretation in performance. Plus, build your analysis […]
-
Canons, Creativity & Communities
Check out a few DSMusic free resources and a discover a round-up of our favourite finds this month.
-
Beethoven & Bingo
Check out a few DSMusic free resources and a discover a round-up of our favourite finds this month.
-
Practice, Performance Anxiety & Lifting Literacy
Plus dynamics, quaver rests, quotes and more – check out a few DSMusic free resources and a discover a round-up of our favourite finds this month.
-
Melody, Models & a bit of Bill Bailey
Tackle tonality with Bill Bailey, check out a few DSMusic free resources and a discover a round-up of our favourite finds this month.
-
Never miss out on DSMusic Updates!
News Feed Preferences on Facebook How to make sure you never miss out on any DS Music updates! I love what I do! Creating resources and content built upon sequential and rigorous music literacy and then, getting to share it with all of you. Sometimes I will churn out a bunch of exciting worksheets, videos […]
-
DSMusic – Remote Learning for All!
Are you looking for material that is ready-made for remote-learning? Do you need some stuff to stash away to leave as extras or send off to students who are home sick from school? Perhaps what you’re after is some go-to revision, extension or support material for students across their learning pathway? For all of you […]
-
Universal Music Education
Universal Music Education Welcome to 2020 and our first post for the year. This article has been kindly shared by Walter Bitner: a multi-instrumentalist, singer, conductor, and teacher, and serves as Director of Education & Community Engagement for the Richmond Symphony in Richmond, Virginia, USA. He writes about music and education on his website Off The Podium at walterbitner.com, and his […]
-
An Informed Performance
An Informed Performance Lies in the Historical Context of a Musical Composition Welcome to our third guest post, kindly written and shared by Drew Schweppe. Drew (IES Abroad Vienna, Fall 2010 | Ithaca College), is the Founder and Managing Director of Informusic, the first all-in-one music history resource for smart phones and tablets. Thanks so much Drew! A […]
-
Clever Echo???
Clever Echo in the Secondary School Music Classroom The Oxford English dictionary gives the definition of the word echo as “a sound or sounds caused by the reflection of sound waves from a surface back to the listener”. [1] In the classroom, echoing is an activity in which something is performed firstly by the teacher […]
-
Lean Forward!
Just a quick post from me today (am in the middle of writing the 2nd Edition of the Level 3 books, CDs etc ready for 2017!) I came across this action song when my daughter sang it ALL the way home in the car (it’s an hour drive!!!) I can’t find the source of the […]
-
Practicing Transcriptions
It’s not as easy as you think! When we do transcriptions with our students in class that is exactly what we are practicing – the process of TRANSCRIPTION! Yes of course we do have to learn and practice that process but it is learning and practicing the content of the transcriptions that will actually help […]
-
My Tasmanian Adventure
A couple of weeks ago I was one of the key note presenters at the ASME (Tasmanian branch or “TASME” as it’s affectionately known) conference, held at Scotch College Oakburn in Launceston. Having never been a key note speaker before and having never visited Launceston either I was VERY excited (and just a tad nervous). […]
-
Tone Ladders (What are they & how do I use them?)
What are Tone Ladders? Tone Ladders are a great way ofvisually representing pitch in anintervallically accurate way –that is so long as the intervalsbetween the notes are representedaccurately on the tone ladder. For example, if a tone ladder looks like this: or this: it is NOT representative of the different intervals between the notes e.g. of […]
-
The Three “Ps” (Preparation, Present, Practice) Kodály Fundamentals
What ARE the Three “Ps” One of the first things an aspiring Kodály teacher is taught when embarking upon any Kodály course are the Three Ps – Prepare, Present and Practice. These three things form the basis of the process we use to teach ANY and EVERY element of music. Our belief is that students […]
-
FAVOURITE QUOTES ABOUT MUSIC and MUSIC EDUCATION
Often, when asked to speak at various conferences or workshops on a particular topic, I like to find a quote that reinforces what I am talking about. Over the years I have put together quite a list which I thought I would share with you. Of course there are many more great quotes out […]
-
What is DSMusic?
Deborah Smith has taught music in many classrooms, ran Music Departments in schools and now helps students and educators to keep making wonderful music through DSMusic. She is active in the Kodály space – lecturing, advocating and creating content that supports this comprehensive music literacy approach. DSMusic is built from understanding the realities of the classroom […]