Putting Music in ”Music Fundamentals” with Melissa Hoag

Dr. Melissa Hoag joins us to talk about ways we can make the teaching of music fundamentals musical, fun and effective. She shares tips from her chapter in The Routledge Companion to Music Theory Pedagogy, and takes us through her list of six best practices for teaching music theory fundamentals.

Links

• Melissa Hoag's faculty page at Oakland University
• The Routledge Companion to Music Theory Pedagogy, ed. Leigh VanHandel: https://www.routledge.com/The-Routledge-Companion-to-Music-Theory-Pedagogy/VanHandel/p/book/9781032174136
• Lana Lubany "Sold" (Harmonic minor scale at beginning): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIGxMtWXjS0
• Renaissance Composer Maddalena Casulana: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maddalena_Casulana
• Bruce Haynes: Performing Pitch: The History of "A": https://rowman.com/ISBN/9780810841857/A-History-of-Performing-Pitch-The-Story-of-A
• uTheory: Online Music Theory and Ear Training

Show Notes

00:01:04 - Guest Introduction: Dr. Melissa Hoag, Oakland University

 

00:02:01 - Why is teaching music fundamentals hard?

 

00:03:18 - Can you talk about your own experience teaching music theory fundamentals?

 

00:05:14 - What topics do you include in music fundamentals?

 

00:06:37 - What do we get wrong about teaching fundamentals?

 

00:09:18 - How do you put actual music in your music fundamentals classes?

 

00:14:31 - Do you still have time for drill & practice if you're spending so much time with real music?

 

00:15:35 - Importance of letting yourself be fallible in front of students

 

00:17:21 - What are ways you connect fundamentals to sound?

 

00:18:30 - Composition exercises in fundamentals & engaging students creatively

 

00:23:47 - How do you approach teaching a topic that you know so well, that you can't remember what it was like to know the topic?

 

00:27:06 - The value of the piano keyboard in teaching & learning music fundamentals

 

00:30:10 - Six Best Practices for teaching music fundamentals

 

00:30:30 - #1: Repetition Counts

 

00:35:20 - #2: Consistency and Rigor Matter

 

00:38:20 - #3: More Assessment Opportunities are Better than Fewer

 

00:39:27 - #4: Prompt Feedback and Specific Grading Are Import for Learning

 

00:41:02 - #5: Involve Students in Finding Examples

 

00:43:31 - #6: Have Fun!

 

00:45:36 - Final thoughts? We should acknowledge that we're talking about Western, tonal music fundamentals, and that there is much more to the world, and we value that and are curious about that.

 

00:46:58 - Wrap-up

Transcript

0:00:21.2 David Newman: 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.

 

0:00:34.3 Greg Ristow: Hi, I'm Greg Ristow, founder of uTheory and associate professor of conducting at the Oberlin Conservatory.

 

0:00:40.7 DN: Hi, I'm David Newman and I teach voice and music theory at James Madison University and write code and create content for uTheory.

 

0:00:48.4 GR: Welcome to our second season of Notes from the Staff, and a quick thanks to all of our listeners for your comments and episode suggestions. We love to read them, so send them our way by email at [e-mail], and remember to like us and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

 

0:01:04.3 DN: Our guest today for the first episode of our second season is Dr. Melissa Hoag who is Associate Professor and Coordinator of music theory at Oakland University. Dr. Hoag's writings have appeared in the Journal of Music Theory Pedagogy, Music Theory Online, Music Theory Pedagogy Online, College Music Symposium Notes and others. She is a scholar who thinks deeply both about music theory and how to teach it in relevant ways, from her 2013 article on strategies for success in the first year music theory classroom to her 2018 article on relevance and repertoire in the 18th century counterpoint classroom, to her recent chapter in the Routledge Companion to Music Theory Pedagogy, which we'll be discussing today on Putting the Music in Music Fundamentals. Melissa, welcome.

 

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