MUSIC EDUCATION
Singing for Life



One of the most important areas of education is that of ARTs education. There has been a resurgence of interest in the ARTs in the last decade. It has been proven that children who are educated in music, dance, theater and visual arts perform higher on standardized testing than their counterparts who did not have this ARTs background.

Recently, schools have been charged with having their students meet National Standards for Music Education.CLICK HERE FOR MENC. Some of these standards include singing as a means of achieving a certain level of competency in music education.

Standard 1: Singing, alone and with others, a varied repertoire of music.
Standard 2: Performing on instruments, alone and with others, a varied repertoire of music.
Standard 3: Improvising melodies, variations and accompaniments.
Standard 4: Composing and arranging music within specified guidelines.
Standard 5: Reading and notating music.
Standard 6: Listening to, analyzing and describing music.
Standard 7: Evaluating music and music performances.
Standard 8: Understanding the relationship between music, the other arts, and disciplines outside the arts.
Standard 9: Understanding music in relation to history and culture.
CLICK HERE FOR INFORMATION ON NATIONAL STANDARDS
CLICK HERE FOR USING STANDARDS IN THE CLASSROOM

Singing is an activity that all enjoy, whether one can sing well or not. It is important to enourage our children to sing as a means of expression, even if it means that they sing in a shower, in a performance chorus, at a party or by themselves. The question then becomes, what kind of songs can we sing in school that will promote this.



 


The National Association for Music Education has begun a new campaign to Get America Singing.....Again! CLICK HERE FOR MENC - GET AMERICA SINGING AGAIN. There are two objectives for this campaign. The first is to collect a set of songs that is commom to all who live in America. These are songs that people, no matter what their age, can sing. A look at the list of songs in this collection include some that should be familiar to all and others that are not. The second objective of this campaign is to get communities to sing together once again. This includes singing at concerts, meetings, public gatherings, clubs and in private homes. Singing should cross those in all walks of life.

Some of these songs may include:
1. All Through the Night
2. Amazing Grace
3. America (My Country Tis of Thee)
4. America the Beautiful
5. Auld Lang Syne
6. Battle Hymn of the Republic
7. Blue Skies
8. Both Sides Now
9. Camptown Races
10.Clementine
11. Danny Boy
12. De Colores
13. Do-Re-Mi
14. Down in the Valley
15. Down by the Riverside
16. Edelweiss
17. Erie Canal
18. Frere Jacques
19. Getting to Know You
20. Give My Regards to Broadway
21. God Bless America
22. He's Got The Whole World in His Hands
23. Home on the Range
24. I've Been Working on the Railroad
25.. I've Got Rhythm
26. It's a Small World
27. Jamaica Farewell
28. Kum Ba Yah
29. Let There Be Peace on Earth
30. Let Me Call You Sweetheart
31. Music Alone Shall Live
32. My Favorite Things
33. Oh! What a Beautiful Morning
34. Old MacDonald Had a Farm
35. Puff the Magic Dragon
36. Red River Valley
37. Rock-A-My-Soul
38. Rock Around the Clock
39. She'll Be Comin' Round the Mountain
40. Shenandoah
41. Swing Low, Sweet Chariot
42. Take Me Out to the Ball Game
43. The Water is Wide
44. This Land is Your Land
45. The Star Spangled Banner
46. We Shall Overcome
47. When Johnny Comes Marching Home
48. Where Have All the Flowers Gone
49. Yesterday
50. Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah
CLICK HERE FOR SING AMERICA! - HAL LEONARD

Introduction to "I Hear America Singing" by Thomas Hampson

A glance at the titles listed above indicates a clear relationship between singing and our own American history. There is a direct link between teaching these two subject areas as so much of our history can be told through song. National Standard 9 calls for an understanding of music in relation to history and culture. In education circles, it is desirable to teach across the curriculum. What better way to teach history than to sing about it. CLICK HERE FOR "I HEAR AMERICA SINGING".




One may say that they are too shy to sing in public. This feeling of shyness would disappear if the adult had singing as part of their education in school. It would in fact become second nature to sing in a group, in public, or by oneself.



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The power of music and singing in particular is awesome. It is something that should perpetuate from generation to generation. It is a means of expressing tragedy, honor, patriotism, unity, understanding, love, respect,  and hope for all. It is a means of spanning cultural differences throughout the world. There is no age barrier when it comes to singing, although styles of music are vastly different for different generations. In a world filled with so much violence and uncertainty, let us remember the words of a famous musician, Leonard Bernstein: "This will be our reply to violence: to make music more intensely, more beautifully, more devotedly than ever before".