This is a guest post written by one of our teacher-authors, Katherine (Katie) Miller.
Introduction
I am always looking for engaging ways to get students to listen to classical music with the same excitement as I see when they listen to popular musical examples in the classroom! Thanks to the folks at the NYU Music Experience Lab (MusEDLab) there is a website called Variation Playground that can help to create that authentic engagement with classical music with the help of a little technology.
MusEDLab researches and designs new technologies and experiences for music-making, creative learning, and engagement together with students, educators, non-profit, and industry partners. If you haven’t heard of this group before, maybe you have heard of another project they created called Groove Pizza. You can see more ideas on how to use this free tech tool by viewing this previous blog post.
MusEDLab’s Variation Playground is an interactive platform designed to coordinate with The New York Philharmonic Young People’s Concerts. Each playground provides an opportunity for students to interact with different elements and explore their own musical ideas based on 3 well-known artists and pieces:
- Benjamin Britten’s The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra
- Felix Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream: Music of Two Worlds
- Antonín Dvořák’s New World Symphony
Once you navigate to the site, time seems to disappear. There are so many options and so many things to try! Of course, all of them are free!
I also love that each playground can be shared back with the teacher once students are done creating. Student composers can share their creations locked, which means anyone they give the link to would get a new copy or unlocked, which means the link can be updated. They can also add a description that will appear when the link is opened by someone else explaining their choices, thinking, or any other information you might want to have them include.
Three Ways to Use Variation Playgrounds in Your Music Classroom
Variation Playgrounds can intentionally be added to your lesson plans, not only to engage students in classical music but to support the objectives you are already teaching in your music classroom too! Here are three natural connections and places that this website would be a perfect fit to incorporate into your lesson plans.
- Composer Studies
Variation Playgrounds would be a great addition to any work you do to learn about and meet new composers in your classroom. For instance, the life and travels of Czech composer Antonín Dvořák. Once students learn about him, they can use the website to create their own “journey” by sequencing the themes from his most famous work including the 2nd movement-Largo, better known as Goin’ Home, inspired by his journey to America.
Need more ideas about how to incorporate Dvořák’s New World Symphony in your classroom? Check out the New York Philharmonic’s Curriculum Guide.
- Teaching Musical Elements
All three playgrounds would also fit into any work you do with students to learn about the elements of music particularly form, tempo, dynamics, and texture. For example, when you move the puck around the screen, students can control the elements of the melody Mendelssohn wrote by where they move it.
Students can create and explore just using their ears to experience the elements or they can click the “?” on the top toolbar to get visual cues as you see above. They can even explore tonality by switching between day and night!
The NY Philharmonic has more ideas for including A Midsummer Night’s Dream: Music of Two Worlds in your classroom too!
- Composition
This website is also an amazing resource for simple composing projects in the style of a master! Imagine your students using the same variation techniques as Benjamin Britten himself by being able to manipulate the sound of the famous theme from The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra.
To get your students started, you can steal the worksheets I use to teach my students about the Theme and Variation form.
Once students understand the form, they can navigate to the website to create their own variations. They can begin by choosing an instrument and then have 100s of options to choose from including the part of the theme they want to use, tempo, mode, and dynamics that they can move to the timeline on the bottom to create their own composition.
Add even more Britten to your music room with the help of The New York Philharmonic!
Want even more from Variation Playground? Good news! There are already two additional Variation Playgrounds available:
- Jean Sibelius’ tone poems Lemminkäinen, En Saga, and Finlandia
- Happy, Sad, Silly, Scary commissioned by the Detroit Symphony Orchestra
Final Thoughts
How would you intentionally incorporate this website into your music classroom to engage students with classical music? What other ways do you encourage more classical music listening in your classroom?
We would love to hear your thoughts!
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About Katherine Miller
Katherine (Katie) Miller holds a Bachelor of Music in Education degree from Otterbein University (Westerville, OH) and a Masters of Educational Leadership from Antioch McGregor Midwest (Yellow Springs, OH). She has 15 years of professional musical experience as a music educator and performer.
She resides in the Milwaukee, Wisconsin area where she teaches K-5 General Music and serves as a district model tech classroom. She was recognized in 2018 as a WPT Education Innovator by the Wisconsin Public Television Education team. Twitter: K8TMiller
Looking for More Resources for Music Teachers?
Hello! I’m Katie Argyle – an Australian music technology trainer and consultant with a passion for helping music teachers through my business Midnight Music.
I’m a qualified teacher but no, I don’t currently teach in a school. I help teachers through my online professional development space – theMidnight Music Community– where there are tutorial videos, courses, links and downloadable resources.
I like to focus on easy ways to incorporate technology into what you are already doing in your music curriculum through a range of creative projects. I also run live workshops and have presented at countless conferences and other music education events.
If you want simple, effective ideas for using technology in music education, I would LOVE to help you inside the Midnight Music Community.
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[…] created with the help of NYU MusEdLab (the same people who designed Groove Pizza, aQWERTYon, and Variation Playgrounds). The TechTools help students experience hands-on learning of music technology and recording […]