Top 40 Playlist
Found in: Practicing & Playlists
Kristin I.
I have several students in Levels 4 and 5 whose playlist number is high – in the 60-80 song range. They have now outgrown the Playlist Management 1-4 book, and are struggling to adapt to not only keeping all these songs alive but also writing them all in by hand every month.
As this is my first group to take through the Simply Music program, I don’t have any perspective except what others and the Teacher Training materials say, which is that we are not to drop any songs until we have been through the Reading Rhythm program, and so I’m hesitant to let them drop any songs since they are not through that yet.
I found a post from Robin Keehn that talked about requiring that students maintain a “Top 40″ list, but she didn’t implement that until they were in Foundation 9. Does anyone have any advice to offer on this subject? Do you require that your students keep all variations and arrangements alive? (This seems to be where the number really jumps, since many Foundation songs are add ons to previously learned songs, and therefore, still the same song.)
Laurie Richards, Nebraska
Hello Kristin,
I believe Neil somewhere along the line talks about students always maintaining a playlist of 30-40 songs. That can include several streams, not just foundation songs.
I start dropping a few songs in Level 4. Only songs that have served their purposes, however. For example, Amazing Grace is played over and over in Acc 1, so why keep it on the foundation playlist? Some songs serve to teach a concept, and once the concept is there and can be applied to other songs, the original song is unnecessary. A few examples:
Jackson Blues – basically teaches students the 12-bar blues. Once they have learned several other blues songs, I don’t think it serves a purpose any longer.
Honey Dew – once students have a grasp of basic accompaniment skills and are using the accomp. program, it has fulfilled its purpose.
Once students are reading comfortably, Neil says they should be able to choose their own playlists of 30-40 songs. Starting in Level 7 or 8, I have a core of recent songs I require on the playlist, and they get to choose the remaining songs.
Robin Keehn, Washington
Hi Kristin,
After students complete Time For More Music, I let them drop some pieces from their playlists. They usually let particular songs go (like “Dog” and “Chester” and several others).
I don’t require them to keep any accompaniments, ever. They learn the tools and then constantly apply them to new music. As for arrangements, there are some that students really love and want to keep and others that they let go. I don’t mind – for me the important point is learning how to apply learning tools and strategies while learning the pieces. Once they’ve done that (it is more about the process), I don’t require that they keep every arrangement. It would be completely counterproductive emotionally to require students to keep every piece. I want to inspire them, not expire them
I would be happy to talk about this more so if anyone wants a bigger conversation, let me know and I’ll keep going!!!
Joan H., Canada
Thanks for raising this topic, and for the posts so far. Since Robin offered to “keep going”, I’d love to hear more, although I don’t have a lot of specific further questions. Can you remind us when Time for Music is to be offered? I love the idea of inspiring, and not expiring students! Once students reach F3, the approach I have taken is to suggest they can play F1 songs on alternate days. Then after F3 is completed, they can play F2 songs every 2nd day as well – so they would be doing F1 songs one day, F2 days on the other day. That seems to work well. Mark Merritt has an insightful post on his website, with an approach to keeping the playlist alive without playing everything every day.
Kristen also mentioned outgrowing the F1-4 playlist book in her opening post above. I am just starting F5 with my most advanced class, and wondering if anybody has created a playlist tool for F5 and beyond that they would like to share?
Shelly E., Utah
Robin,
Do you keep the arrangements alive as source material for the reading process? If so, is this done before you start TFMM? What if the student is not yet through ARR’s 3 at the point when they just finish RR and RN and are ready for TFMM.
I know that students go back through the foundation songs and “reverse engineer” them onto the page – that is, read the music to the pieces they already know. How much of this do they do by the way? I’ve just been picking and choosing ones from each book starting at level 1. I’ve been assigning about 1-3 to do each week and have them first read while saying the streams in the RH and then the LH and then just carefully “reading” BH together. AM I doing this right?
Then do we go to TFMM or just do along side or ?
Robin Keehn, Washington
Hi Shelly,
I don’t use the arrangements as reading projects. I like to keep the arrangements purely as playing-based pieces. I keep teaching Arrangements until we are done–well after students have completed the Reading Program and Time for More Music.
As to the question of having students reinterpret their playlist pieces as intervals, I do this with several, primarily early into Reading Notes. We always do Dreams, Night Storm, Ode to Joy, Fur Elise, Dog and Fluff Pie. I don’t put hands together. I am only concerned with them seeing the RH intervals.
I go through RN quickly–no longer than six weeks but that requires that they spend a minimum of five minutes on it each day at home. Usually I wait until RN is complete to start TFMM but you may have students who are chomping at the bit (those who have prior reading experience) and I don’t mind jumping in mid-RN.