{"id":5182,"date":"2016-01-11T17:07:52","date_gmt":"2016-01-11T17:07:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/fctl\/?p=5182"},"modified":"2023-02-10T23:21:31","modified_gmt":"2023-02-10T23:21:31","slug":"using-music-in-the-classroom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/instruction.austincc.edu\/tledupdates\/2016\/01\/11\/using-music-in-the-classroom\/","title":{"rendered":"Using Music in the Classroom"},"content":{"rendered":"

by David Lydic<\/strong><\/p>\n

I have long used music in the classroom when the subject warrants it. For example, in American Literature we discuss traditional western ballads and spirituals. Both inform the subjects and structure of modern American literature.<\/p>\n

For actual western ballads\u2014anonymous songs from Britain and western Europe\u2013 think \u201cBarbara Allen,\u201d \u201cThe Trees They Do Grow High,\u201d \u201cDeath of Queen Jane.\u201d Many modern songs are written on those models, songs of protest\u2014 Phil Och\u2019s \u201cThere But for Fortune,\u201d Pete Seeger\u2019s \u201cWaist Deep in the Big Muddy\u201d ; songs of commemoration\u2014Woody Guthrie\u2019s \u201cRoll on Columbia\u201d; songs of lamentation\u2014Guthrie\u2019s \u201cPlane Wreck at Los Gatos Canyon\u201d; songs of conflict and family\u2014 Springsteen\u2019s \u201cHighway Patrolman.\u201d These are a few I\u2019ve used recently. There are hundreds more.<\/p>\n

Spirituals, what W E B Dubois called \u201csorrow songs,\u201d are songs of African slaves brought to America. These are uniquely American and originate an entire thread of American music, moving from gospel to ragtime to R & B to blues to rock and roll to soul to rap to hip hop. Some pure original spirituals include \u201cWading in the Water,\u201d \u201cSwing Low Sweet Chariot,\u201d \u201cFollow the Drinking Gourd,\u201d and \u201cSometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child.\u201d Modern gospel music is that of northern black churches after the civil war, and some examples of those I use are \u201cShall We Gather at the River,\u201d \u201cWhat a Friend We Have in Jesus,\u201d and \u201cHow Great Thou Art.\u201d Hundreds more are possible. I end the spiritual\/gospel segment listening to Tupac\u2019s \u201cBallad of a Dead Soulja.\u201d The students love it.<\/p>\n

\u201cAmazing Grace\u201d is neither a spiritual nor a gospel song, but students know it and it fits in with the subject of slavery and some of the works we read. Check out the story of who wrote that song and why.<\/p>\n

Another category of songs is those about war. I use a number of civil war songs, including \u201cBonnie Blue Flag,\u201d \u201cDixie,\u201d \u201cNorthern Dixie,\u201d \u201cLorena,\u201d \u201cSomebody\u2019s Darling,\u201d and \u201cVacant Chair.\u201d Many could be applied to the tragedy of any war. And, of course, each of the wars this country has fought has produced its own songs.<\/p>\n

In other courses, if music is mentioned you can bet we\u2019ll hear it. In Composition I songs are sometimes referenced in essays. In Composition II, music is often mentioned in the stories (Baldwin\u2019s \u201cSonny\u2019s Blues\u201d refers to several spiritual and jazz tunes). Elizabeth Tallent\u2019s \u201cNo One\u2019s a Mystery\u201d IS the title of a Rosanne Cash song.<\/p>\n

I used to carry a boom box with CDs and tapes to class. Now YouTube provides plenty of easily accessible choices in our wired classrooms.<\/p>\n

Music changes the pace and the mood of the class. It opens up new discussions as students hear songs for the first time, listen to those that sound vaguely familiar, or clearly remember their mother or grandmother singing one. I find it great fun.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have long used music in the classroom when the subject warrants it. For example, in American Literature we discuss traditional western ballads and spirituals. Both inform the subjects and structure of modern American literature.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":5183,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[146],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5182","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-written-by-faculty"],"acf":{"carousel_content":false},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/instruction.austincc.edu\/tledupdates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5182","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/instruction.austincc.edu\/tledupdates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/instruction.austincc.edu\/tledupdates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/instruction.austincc.edu\/tledupdates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/instruction.austincc.edu\/tledupdates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5182"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/instruction.austincc.edu\/tledupdates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5182\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/instruction.austincc.edu\/tledupdates\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/instruction.austincc.edu\/tledupdates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5182"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/instruction.austincc.edu\/tledupdates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5182"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/instruction.austincc.edu\/tledupdates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}