Dr. Stefanie Dickinson joins us to share some of the music fundamentals games that she uses in her music theory classroom.
Links
Routledge Companion to Music Theory Pedagogy
Dr. Stefanie Dickinson’s page at UCA
The Power of Play with Jed Dearybury (Notes from the Staff Episode)
Dalcroze Solfege Games with Greg Ristow (Notes from the Staff Episode)
Show Notes
0:00:21.2 Introductions
0:02:27.1 Value of play in teaching and learning
0:06:02.4 Key Words - for key signatures
0:08:47.0 360 Degrees - for scale degrees
0:10:30.4 Balance Beam - for rhythmic values and notation conventions
0:13:38.2 Meter Cards - for identifying time signatures
0:16:44.8 Notation Bloopers
0:20:15.0 Triad Bingo (can be extended to other topics)
0:23:01.6 How do you help students who are struggling to get beyond the despair factor?
0:25:18.0 Interval Train
0:26:57.5 Value of competitive games in teaching fundamentals
0:32:43.1 Phone Numbers Game (aural skills, scale degrees/solfege)
0:38:32.1 Extending games for other topics
0:40:04.6 Wrap-up
Transcript
[music] - These are the notes from the staff where we talk about our point of view, and we share the things we're going to do, `cause the path to mastering theory begins with you.
0:00:21.2 Greg Ristow: Welcome to Notes from the Staff, a podcast from the creators of uTheory, where we dive into conversations about music theory, ear training, and music technology with members of the uTheory staff and thought leaders from the world of music education.
0:00:33.4 David Newman: Hi, I'm David Newman, and I teach voice and music theory at James Madison University, and write code and create content for uTheory.
0:00:42.9 GR: Hi, I'm Greg Ristow, I conduct the choirs at the Oberlin Conservatory, and I'm the founder of uTheory.
0:00:49.0 DN: Thank you listeners for your comments and episode suggestions. We love to read them. Send them our way by email at notes@utheory.com, and remember to like us and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.
0:01:01.6 GR: Our topic for today is music fundamentals games, and joining us to share some of her favorite games is Dr. Stefanie Dickinson. Dr. Dickinson is associate professor of music theory at the University of Central Arkansas. Her primary areas of research include the music of Liszt's late experimental period, issues in analysis and performance, and music theory pedagogy. She has presented her work at regional and national meetings of the Society for Music Theory and College Music Society, the International Conference on Music and Gesture, and others. And her articles can be found in Gamut, College Music Symposium, the Festschrift Liszt 2000, and most recently in the Rutledge Companion to Music Theory Pedagogy, where she's written about games for teaching music fundamentals, which is what we're going to talk about today. Stefanie, welcome.
0:01:49.4 Stefanie Dickinson: Thank you so much. It's a pleasure and honor to be here, and I appreciate the opportunity.
0:01:54.4 GR: We're thrilled to have you. So you're teaching at University of Central Arkansas. What all do you teach there?
0:02:00.0 SD: I teach only music theory. I have two sophomore theory and two sophomore aural skills classes in the fall, and then spring I go on to teach some upper level electives. I teach the form class. We have an introduction to linear analysis, and then in the summer I teach music theory pedagogy class.
0:02:19.5 GR: Well, I loved your chapter, so I'm so excited to talk about games, and especially music fundamentals games.
0:02:27.1 DN: So a theme we've come back to several times on this podcast is the value of play in teaching and learning. Listeners may remember our episode with Jed Dearybury, author of The Playful Classroom, or the episodes where Greg and I talked about Dalcroze solfege games and about music theory songs. So we've talked a lot about this, but before we dive into specific games, I wonder if you could talk about the value of games in teaching and how you came to use them in your own pedagogy.
0:02:52.5 SD: Sure. I think that games are very, very valuable, potentially at every level of i
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