Exploring Rote Song Teaching

Written by Erin Chang, Class of 2022

When most of us think of teaching music to a group, we usually think of teaching the students to read notes and sheet music, to count different combinations of rhythms, and to practice matching pitch with a nearby piano, helping the students build all the aural and musical literacy skills that we spent several years training in. And by all means, these are extremely important skills for building a strong foundation in the next generation of young musicians. But oftentimes, we forget that teaching by rote is also a fun and effective teaching tool, especially for younger students.

Here are some tips and tricks for rote teaching in a classroom:

1. First and foremost, pick a piece of music that is appropriate for the age group/grade level that you are teaching AND make sure it is suitable for rote teaching in the classroom, taking into consideration the students’ abilities, the amount of time they have in the classroom, and assuming that this piece of music will be performed, the amount of time there is before the performance.

2. After the right music is chosen, plan out how you are going to teach it to the students. In my experience, it is a good idea to sing and/or play the entire piece once for the students then break it up into manageable chunks to teach, and only after the students can sing each chunk accurately can you then begin to piece the song back together. With any grade, patience and repetition are key to helping students succeed; younger students especially need a lot of repetition in order to retain the melody and lyrics. The gradual release of responsibility model, which is built upon the idea of I sing, we sing, then you sing alone, will also help the students feel comfortable learning it in a group setting and then through practice, build confidence and eventually achieve independence to sing by themselves and sing it correctly.

3. For some songs and/or grade levels, it may be helpful to create some hand motions that correspond with the song to help the lyrics from verse to verse. If you decide to do that, just be sure that the hand motions serve as cues for the lyrics and not as distractions for the students. Also, it is important that the number of hand motions used is not overwhelming for the students or takes away the focus from the song itself. When used correctly, hand motions can be a very helpful visual cue as well as give students a more complete feel of the full performance.

4. If the text of the song is a bit complicated for the students, it may be helpful to lead the students in reciting them first. It is important, for the students to know exactly what they are singing and how each word is pronounced (especially if the song is in a different language other than English) before trying to sing it in rhythm. After the students have a strong grasp on the text, then you can begin to lead them in speaking the text in rhythm and finally, adding pitched notes to the rhythm.

5. It is extremely important to correct mistakes as they happen, rather than initially dismissing them or saying that you will fix them later. It is a lot easier for you as the teacher and for the students to correct mistakes right from the get-go before it turns into a habit that is impossible for you to get rid of days before the final performance.

6. Lastly, remember to be patient with both the students and yourself, to give the students time to process and learn, and that repetition is key! Teaching a song by rote demonstrates to your students there is more than one way to effectively learn music and to never forget to have fun in the process of doing so.

I hope that these tips and tricks were helpful and perhaps gave you some new insight into the rote teaching method that you haven’t thought of before. Thanks for reading!