Dr. Mark E. Turner: Music Projects

Dr. Mark E. Turner
meturner@sfasu.edu

Music Projects

Boomwhacker Extravaganza

Goal – The overall goal of this project was to help students understand the importance of meeting children’s developmental level. All too often, novice professionals fail to recognize how difficult seemingly “easy” things can be for children to perform.
Synopsis of Project – Students were to create a piece for their instrument or voice and Boomwhacker accompaniment to be performed by children. Once completed, they taught their accompaniment to children and soon discovered that they had to revise their work to meet the developmental needs of children or to find a way of providing scaffolding so that the children could be successful.
Click here for sample 1 of the project.
Click here for sample 2 of the project.
Click here for sample 3 of the project.

Heckedy Peg: A Children’s Opera

Goal – My major objective with this project was to help students understand how to employ child-centered learning in the music classroom. A second goal was to help them realize that many times there is no “right answer,” and in child-centered learning the “right answer” is one that the children create. As western art musicians, we are uncomfortable when we do not have a score to follow. A musical score is a roadmap. In the real world of elementary and secondary general music attending to the needs of students creates its own roadmap, and, most often, one that cannot be found in a book. A roadmap that emerges from the context of classroom interactions requires that professionals can easily apply their knowledge of music in many different contexts. These contexts are not necessarily of a western art music idiom.
Synopsis of Project – Students were to help children create an opera based on a picture book that the children selected. The students assisted the children in creating lyrics and melodies. They were then asked to create an accompaniment that used the musical resources of the students in the music methods course. They were to create an overture to complete the opera. Costumes, set design, and blocking were completed by the adults.
Click here for a sample of the project.

Children’s Choral Project

Overall Goal – Every human has musical talent. As western art musicians we are often trained to believe that performance of the masters is the pinnacle of musical success. For children to get the most out of there music class, regardless of age level, they must have a professional who believes in his/her own musical ability and can model/communicate that ability on a daily basis. Performing music for children simply because you love to make music is but one way we can nurture children’s love of music, vicariously. The goal of the project was to help my students see themselves as talented trained musical professionals.
Synopsis of Project – Students were to compose a piece of music for their instrument or voice, children’s choir, and instrumental accompaniment. The piece was to be of sufficient difficulty for them, not the children, so that it could be presented on their senior recital. The text of their selection was taken from poetry written by children at the NISD/SFA Charter Campus. This, again, was my way of including child-centered learning. This particular project was not so much about the children as it was about the adults. As a culminating activity, the students performed their selections for the parents of the children performing. The college students wrote all the music, performed all the accompaniments, and conducted all the selections.
Click here for sample 1 of the project.
Click here for sample 2 of the project.
Click here for sample 3 of the project.

School of Music
Stephen F. Austin State University
Box 13043, SFA Station
Nacogdoches, TX 75962-3043
Phone: 936-468-4602 | Fax: 936-468-5810
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