Middle schoolers are notoriously hard to reach in General Music — and traditional curriculum often makes it worse. This article shares the classroom-tested tactics one teacher uses to build community, honor student culture, and keep energy high, so that even the kids who would never join choir or band start to see themselves as musicians.
by Jessica Lawdan
I’ve worked in the General Music space for ten years now—ten years of teaching the basics of rhythm reading, pitch identification, genres, dynamics, and all of the rest. Though I first set out in my career to be a choir teacher, I quickly fell in love with the general education curriculum and culture. I realized that ‘this was the place’ where it all began for so many students, where they realized that music was something that not only lived in every aspect of the world around them, but that it was something they could actively participate in as performers, composers, and listeners. There was just one problem. The middle schoolers weren’t having any of it when I first started teaching them about traditional folk songs, composers, and other things that I would consider ‘standard curriculum.’ And I couldn’t even say I was surprised—because I was one of those middle schoolers back in the day, who couldn’t stand their general music class. And I remember a day, very clearly, that explained why: I loved singing but didn’t want to join our choir, and I had an iPod filled with songs, so I thought I might suggest that one day we learned about one of the bands I was obsessing with at the time. I went to our general music teacher and asked if we could learn one of their songs. She scoffed and said, “That’s not real music. We only learn real music here.”
And that was it. I decided that must mean I didn’t really like music, if that was all real music was. Thank goodness for a friend who, years later, convinced me to join the high school choir and change the trajectory of my life. But I believe the moral of the story still lives on in general music classes everywhere—we tell students that only certain musicians, musical skills, or eras/genres of music matter, and even the most ‘musical’ students disengage, because middle schoolers are already in a battle of hormones, social circles, and most of all, identity. So if you want middle schoolers to find themselves looking forward to general music class instead of dreading it, here is what I have found over the years to be the most important pieces to incorporate.
Think about it—students who join choir become ‘choir kids.’ Likewise for students who join band or orchestra. And while that is great for those students, not every student is going to join the choir, band, or orchestra programs at your school—that’s just an unrealistic goal. So how do those students still identify themselves as ‘musicians’? First and foremost, I believe every human being is born inherently musical. And my students will hear me say that, even if they come to my class and couldn’t find a pitch in a paper bag. “You are musicians.” The way we enforce this is by doing a lot of varied activities that sometimes aren’t even truly musical (gasp!), but that allows each student to participate, get excited, and get involved. Sometimes we start class with a good ol’ fashioned camp game (Human Knot, anyone? Or Sneaky Statues?). Students create agreements in my classroom about what we can do to bring our best selves to class every day, what they can do to make up broken agreements, and overall how to carry themselves as ‘musicians’—or, just good people. For those 45 minutes, we play games and play instruments, and listen deeply and when they walk out the door, I strive to make every student feel seen and important so that they truly do look forward to our time together.
I think this is probably the biggest influence on whether or not students enjoy their music class in middle school. I’ve heard it so many times—“Pop music is like candy, and the classics/other music are like vegetables. We do a pop unit at the end of the year once they’ve ‘earned it.’” And I’m here with a wild new idea: Give them the candy at the start of the year! Give them the candy all throughout the year, in fact! At the start of the year, I ask my students what is one song they would love to learn this year in Music. I have them write it on a post-it note (I’ve tried having them raise their hand to create a list, but it’s crazy how much middle schoolers clam up when you try to get them to talk in front of their peers!). I then take all of those post-it notes, and I make a list of songs. This used to just be a simple checklist, but over time I’ve developed a spreadsheet where I track the genre of the song, the key, certain pitches used in the main hook, and meter. It’s amazing that you can teach sixteenth notes just as well with “Bidi Bidi Bom Bom” by Selena as you can with “Paw Paw Patch.” Now, with almost all of these songs I use the instrumental version as I’ve noticed the lyrics are more of a distraction than a help. But instead of using a metronome or a simple backing track, try using one of the songs suggested by your students and just wait to see the look on their face when they realize they asked and you listened. Additionally, it’s amazing how much more willing students are to learn other genres of music when they have already felt like they know you’re paying attention to their interests. It reminds me of one of my all-time favorite quotes—“They don’t know how much you know until they know how much you care.” And caring enough to listen to them when they ask to hear the music they love in class goes a long way.
In this day and age, the average attention span of a human is, I estimate, about .7 seconds. But in all seriousness, we are in a crisis of instant gratification and students want to get to whatever the next ‘fun’ thing is as soon as possible. Therefore, I make it a point to keep visual timers on all of my activities. Not only has this been scientifically proven to support neurodivergent students, but I find it keeps all of my students on task better, which improves behavior and overall lesson success. In a typical lesson, I’ll start with a short warm up that usually involves getting the students out of their chairs (no matter what age, I believe physical activity is necessary for kids to ‘get their wiggles out’), followed by a 5-minute mini-lesson, then a 5–7 minute activity related to that lesson, then another lesson, etc. This is better known as the catch-and-release/workshop lesson model, which I remember rejecting immediately the first time I heard about it. “This is meant for core subjects, not music! We need rehearsal time, and much longer periods to complete what we’re doing.” And then I tried it, and was proven wrong. I actually find the shorter work periods and smaller chunking of activities to be incredibly helpful so long as students can faithfully work during those periods (see point 1—building a strong community first where students feel responsible for what they bring to the space). The variety stretches on across lessons as well—for example, if I’m doing a rhythmic unit, we would try to use a different rhythmic instrument each week. Tubanos, rhythm sticks, we’ve even done pencil drumming. Whatever you can do to keep them on their toes and keep their attention!
Don’t get me wrong—using these three tactics will never change the fact that 6th–8th graders are still raging bundles of hormones who, on some days, will just be behaviorally-challenging and darn-near-impossible to motivate. Those days will still happen, but being able to lean back on a strong community, agreements, and a sense of purpose as to why you all spend that time together each week will make things a whole lot easier. I still remember one of the most meaningful middle-school interactions I had once I started to change the way I taught middle school using what you see above. An 8th grade girl e-mailed me and thanked me for helping her connect with her love of drumming—we didn’t have a drum corps at the high school level, so she was just pursuing it personally, but sometimes that’s the best we can hope for as music teachers. The way she worded her thanks was that, “Every time I go to practice you teach me something new and help me grow.” I’ve sadly lost touch with this student over the years and I don’t know if she continues to drum on her own. But this e-mail still reaches me because I know that, as music teachers, we can be a place where ‘those students’ (the ones who don’t opt to join choir, band, or orchestra, but who still have a love for music) feel at home. Let us do all we can to welcome them in.
AI Wilderness Camp. (n.d.). Wax museum a.k.a. sneaky statues. https://www.aiwcamp.com/wax-museum-a-k-a-sneaky-statues/
Basic Beat. (n.d.). BBSL12 12 maple lummi sticks, 12 pairs. West Music. https://www.westmusic.com/basic-beat-bbsl12-12-maple-lummi-sticks-12-pairs-540327
Instructables. (n.d.). How to do a basic pen tapping beat. https://www.instructables.com/How-to-Do-a-Basic-Pen-Tapping-Beat/
University of Washington Disability Resources for Students. (n.d.). Improving time awareness. https://www.washington.edu/drs/improving-time-awareness/
West Music. (n.d.). RT-WEST12 Remo tubano package, 12 piece. https://www.westmusic.com/west-music-rt-west12-remo-tubano-package-12-piece-204087
Contributor
Hi! My name is Jessica Lawdan, and I’ve worked in the General Music world for 10 years now. I’ve built programs from scratch numerous times and often enter a school where the ‘musical culture’ leaves much to be desired…
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