Tiny Desk Modern Band: Incorporating Student Culture and Choice into your General Music Classroom

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Julia Turner

Brandon Johnson

The personal viewpoints expressed in this session are solely those of the presenter and do not necessarily reflect the beliefs or views of Music Will.

Welcome! Let’s Jam!

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Find a classroom instrument, found sound, or modern band instrument you know the least about…

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What did we just do?

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• Bass line singing and body percussion
• Transfer to found sounds or instruments​
• How could you do this same activity in your classroom?

What is a Tiny Desk Concert?

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• “Tiny Desk Concerts” is a video series of live concerts hosted by NPR Music at the desk of former All Songs Considered host Bob Boilen in Washington, D.C.
• Tiny Desk Concerts are typically more acoustic in nature, in a more intimate performance venue, and emphasize diversity in genre across music
• Tiny Desk Concerts are never a perfect match to the recorded song because they must accommodate for the performance space they are given

Tiny Desk Concert Discussion Questions

Elementary/Middle Questions:

What genre(s)?

What was the instrumentation?

What was the mood?

What was the tempo?

What were the dynamics?

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Middle/High Questions:

What is the artist trying to tell the listener with this song?

In what ways do the performers communicate to each other?

What is something that stuck out to you about this performance?

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Fred again… Tiny Desk

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How did we get to a “Tiny Desk” style in Elementary classes?

• Each of my homeroom classes submit song suggestions for our “March Music Madness” brackets
• We spend four weeks in the month of March engaging with 16 student-selected songs and voting until we crown a winner!
• The first round is listening and analysis, then each round going forward the students learn instrumental parts of the song and perform them
• Our winner is their Spring Jam Fest performance song!

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Example March Music Madness Bracket

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How Do We Prepare for our Tiny Desk Performance?

• Students learn the song form and instrumental parts through movement, singing, and play-alongs as a full group
• Students choose which part they want to perform - vocals, percussion, bass line
• Students choose their instrument and approximate based on their ability level!
• Students engage in informal music learning to practice their parts and rehearse as a group
• Green’s (2008) Informal Music Learning includes:
• Students choose their own music
• Students [aurally] copy recordings by ear
• Students can learn alone and with friends
• Students engage in personal, often [seemingly] haphazard learning without structured guidance
• Students incorporate listening, performing, composing and improvising throughout the process

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From Classroom…to Jamfest!

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In Secondary Modern Band-Centric Classes/Spaces

• Modern Band Club and Modern Band Class
• Entirely student selected programming for performances (with vetting), instrumental versions if they really want that song
• Variety of skill levels, formed different groups or learned a variety of instruments to provide appropriately challenging material
• Students could learn a challenging part and bring it to the band, and it was our responsibility as their bandmates to fill out the rest of the song around them.
• In this space, my job was to provide resources as needed, provide feedback when asked, and provide space for them to rehearse. Even when I played with the groups, I had them to tell me what to play or filled in a difficult part as needed to enable students to be the star of the song.

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Skills we focused on developing:

• Aural skills (playing by ear)
• Alternative notation
• Multi-instrumentality and ensemble communication to accommodate that
• Rehearsal communication through singing

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In classes that are NOT Modern Band Centric

• Student suggestions in “Formal Music Ensembles” like Steel Band, my students came to me with the idea and I made it happen as the expert in the room.
• Converting piano lab into MIDI lab w/ printer cables, SoundTrap or similar program enables students to interact with music production in a user friendly way. Your IT Department might be able to help you out!
• Students were tasked with either recreating/covering a song that they liked, creating a brand new track utilizing the provided loops as the skeleton of the project, or create a metronome to play along with in a live setting (like a pop band click track)

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Examples of the SoundTrap project

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Let’s Create our OWN Tiny Desk Concert!

• Choose your instrument
• Choose your band (Cool names encouraged!)
• Choose your song
• If you need inspiration or chord charts, scan the QR code!
• Put your own spin on the song and approximate as needed!

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Performance Time!

• After the group performs, provide:
• One GLOW - Something they did well
• One GROW - Something they could improve on for the next performance
• Reflect on how they put their “Tiny Desk” spin on it!

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Takeaways

• YOUR students are the culture bearers! They bring their cultures to your classroom and your environment is better for it
• Use their song suggestions and learn from them!
• Be a facilitator and don’t be afraid to release some control
• Be prepared to work hard to meet student needs: arrange a song for them, learn a part they may not feel comfortable playing, etc.
• Be creative!
• Lean into flexibility, give your students space to make choices, and work with what you have

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Thank you for coming today!

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Contact us:

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Julia Turner - julia.turner725@gmail.com

Brandon Johnson - bmj20102@gmail.com

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Music Will will make all presentations available after the conference.

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The personal viewpoints expressed in this session are solely those of the presenter and do not necessarily reflect the beliefs or views of Music Will.