Week 1 – Finding My Way Back Into Music Through the Body

Coming into Week 1, I honestly didn’t expect to feel such a strong personal reconnection with music. But the moment we began singing, moving, and clapping together using Kodály-inspired processes, something shifted. It felt like I was being reminded—almost gently—that music learning doesn’t start with a worksheet or a score. It starts with the body. With feeling. With breath. With play. The Kodály idea of preparing and internalising sound before symbol suddenly made so much sense in practice, not just as a theory we read about.

Experiencing Orff-Schulwerk this week was equally grounding. Creating rhythmic patterns from simple speech—“Dirt Dirt Garbage Trash”—and turning them into layered textures showed me how accessible and creative music-making can be when we strip away the pressure of “getting it right.”  I felt myself relaxing into it, almost like permission had been given to explore. It reminded me why young people respond so well to movement, rhythm, and group energy—they feel safe when learning is embodied and communal.

Reading Heavner (2005) connected everything for me. His argument that comprehensive musicianship develops when students are immersed in listening, performing, improvising, and reflecting made these playful classroom tasks feel purposeful. They weren’t “warm-ups”—they were actual musicianship.

This week reminded me why I want to teach: to create environments where students can “feel” music before they define it.

Week 2 – Understanding Learning Through Movement and Practical Music-Making

This week continued to build on the idea that musical understanding grows out of simple, shared experiences. Working through more Kodály-inspired tasks, especially singing in solfa and internalising rhythmic patterns, helped me realise how important sequential learning really is. There is something reassuring about the way Kodály scaffolds musical concepts—sound, then symbol, then application, I found myself thinking about how this structure could support students who often feel overwhelmed by notation. The concept of the whole musician Kodaly refers to needs to embody a well-trained ear, intelligence, heart, and hand resonated with me as to how important this is in education and as music teachers to embody this when we are teaching musical knowledge to students. We also extended our Orff-Schulwerk work.

The combination of speech, movement, and body percussion felt more intuitive this week. I liked that the Orff approach didn’t require anyone to be “good at music” to participate; it simply asked us to try, notice patterns, and build something together.

It made me more conscious of how important entry points are for students who may come into music with mixed experiences or confidence levels.

A key moment for me was recognising how these activities align with McPherson and Williamon’s (2015) ideas about talent development, especially the importance of early experiences that emphasise fluency, enjoyment, and exploration rather than perfection. It made me reflect on my own schooling and how different it might have felt if learning had been more hands-on and less focused on outcomes.

This week left me thinking about how much musical understanding depends on the environment we create—and how small shifts in approach can make learning feel more achievable.

Week 3 – Learning Through Structure, Play, and Collaborative Music-Making

This week pushed me further into understanding how structure and creativity work together in classroom music. Working through the Orff–Keetman session built around “The First Circle” was a useful reminder that students can handle complex musical ideas—odd meters, layered textures, shifting patterns—when those ideas are broken down into manageable, embodied steps.

Starting with simple speech patterns like “pineapple” and “butter,” then gradually moving into body percussion and group composition, made the process feel logical rather than overwhelming.

I appreciated how the lesson modelled a clear sequence: imitation, exploration, creation, and reflection. It was surprisingly effective to experience this as a learner; I could feel how each phase supported the next. It gave me a clearer picture of what “scaffolding” looks like in practice, not just in theory.

Reading McPherson and Williamon’s (2015) ideas about the development of musical expertise made me think about how important these incremental steps are for building confidence. Their emphasis on deliberate practice and supportive learning environments connected well with the way we worked through rhythmic structures and performed in small groups.

One thing I’m noticing is how collaborative music-making naturally encourages participation. Even when parts felt challenging, the group aspect helped carry the learning. This reinforced for me why ensemble-style tasks are so effective in the classroom, especially for Stage 4 students who often respond well to social elements of learning.

Overall, Week 3 reminded me that structure doesn’t limit creativity—if anything, it gives students something solid to build from.

Week 4 – Connecting Pedagogy, Repertoire, and Real Classroom Thinking

Week 4 helped me piece together how different teaching approaches—Kodály, Orff-Schulwerk, and broader pedagogical frameworks—can work together in a real classroom. We spent time looking at how to design learning activities that balance musical skills with student engagement, and this made me think more practically about what I want my own lessons to feel like.

Working through examples of repertoire selection and activity design made me realise how deliberate I need to be with the choices I make. The lecture emphasised linking activities to clear learning intentions and outcomes and I could see how quickly a lesson can slip into “just doing stuff” if the structure isn’t planned. This was a helpful reminder because I sometimes get carried away with creative ideas before thinking about the purpose behind them.

We also revisited models of scaffolded learning, and the focus on gradual release—model, share, guide, independent—felt especially relevant.

Experiencing this sequencing through our practical tasks made it easier to see how students might respond. It also linked well with Heavner’s (2005) emphasis on integrated musicianship, where students move between listening, performing, and creating. We also taught our first song for the 1st assessment. I taught a traditional Macedonian song called Stamena using ostinato and body percussion.

What stood out most this week was the importance of clarity. Not in a rigid way, but in how clarity allows students to take musical risks. When expectations, steps, and musical goals are transparent, the learning feels more achievable.

Overall, Week 4 left me with a clearer sense of how I might approach lesson planning—not just creatively, but purposefully.