Know Yourself: Identity Through Folk Songs in the Beginning Band Classroom

Location

Sydnor Performance Hall, Schewel Hall

Access Type

Open Access

Entry Number

62

Start Date

4-5-2023 1:45 PM

End Date

4-5-2023 2:00 PM

College

College of Education, Leadership Studies, and Counseling

Department

Education

Keywords

culturally representative education, folk music, Bessie Jones, Ruth Crawford Seeger, American folk tradition, beginning band, instrumental education, elementary education, multimodal learning, Kodaly method

Abstract

Numerous music pedagogues have sought out folk songs as an educational tool for building a cultural connection with students, yet the folk songs often used in class lack the same diversity that our classes are full of. Ruth Crawford Seeger, a pedagogue who gathered folk music from the Appalachian region, had a large impact on the field of music education during her lifetime, but her work did not include as much diversity as today’s classroom possesses. The practice of using folk songs in the beginning band room can be improved by using a more culturally responsive approach. The particular problems of this study were to 1) construct a biographical sketch of Ruth Crawford Seeger; 2) examine Ruth Crawford Seeger’s impact on the field of music education and with folk songs; 3) Create a beginning band arrangement of a folk song from African American culture.

Ruth Crawford Seeger, an American composer and music pedagogue, traveled the Appalachian region and recorded folk music that she heard during her travels. Seeger used the folk music she found to create a collection of songs to teach in class for students as young as preschoolers. In order to increase the representation of African American culture in the beginning band classroom I created an arrangement of “Possum-La,” an African American folk song adapted from a recording of the gospel and folk singer Bessie Jones (Locke, 1987).

Faculty Mentor(s)

Dr. Cynthia Ramsey
Dr. Kara Eaton Dean
Dr. Chris Sharp

Comments

This presentation has been given in the form of a poster session at the 2022 Virginia Music Educator's Association Conference.

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Apr 5th, 1:45 PM Apr 5th, 2:00 PM

Know Yourself: Identity Through Folk Songs in the Beginning Band Classroom

Sydnor Performance Hall, Schewel Hall

Numerous music pedagogues have sought out folk songs as an educational tool for building a cultural connection with students, yet the folk songs often used in class lack the same diversity that our classes are full of. Ruth Crawford Seeger, a pedagogue who gathered folk music from the Appalachian region, had a large impact on the field of music education during her lifetime, but her work did not include as much diversity as today’s classroom possesses. The practice of using folk songs in the beginning band room can be improved by using a more culturally responsive approach. The particular problems of this study were to 1) construct a biographical sketch of Ruth Crawford Seeger; 2) examine Ruth Crawford Seeger’s impact on the field of music education and with folk songs; 3) Create a beginning band arrangement of a folk song from African American culture.

Ruth Crawford Seeger, an American composer and music pedagogue, traveled the Appalachian region and recorded folk music that she heard during her travels. Seeger used the folk music she found to create a collection of songs to teach in class for students as young as preschoolers. In order to increase the representation of African American culture in the beginning band classroom I created an arrangement of “Possum-La,” an African American folk song adapted from a recording of the gospel and folk singer Bessie Jones (Locke, 1987).