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