Original curriculum · by Leeann Dearing
SOUNDS OF HOME
A practical companion for teaching musical language through listening, imagination, repetition and song.
Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth. Serve the Lord with gladness!Psalm 100 : 1–2
The principle
Experience before vocabulary.
Children hear it, imitate it, sing it, move to it, wonder about it, recognise it and play with it, before anyone attaches a technical word to what just happened.
The child is not being taught to reproduce notes. The child is being taught to hear music. Courage is rewarded as faithfully as accuracy, and an activity is only worth doing if it helps a child notice something real about music, rather than complete a task.
Tonality, taught as places
The four musical worlds.
Every world has a tonal centre, a place where the music comes to rest. Feeling leads the child into the world; the structure teaches the ear why the world feels the way it does. Home is the reference. The other three change the weather around Do.
Bright, settled, confident, complete. The first world, and the one every other world is measured against. Welcome home.
The same Home, seen in a colder light. Children learn that rest can sound quiet and grey and still be rest.
Minor with a lifted step. Something is about to happen, and the ear leans forward to meet it.
Major with a lowered leading tone. Warm, communal, a little bit folk. The world children sing around.
The language
Abstract ideas, memorable pictures.
The curriculum turns musical concepts into images a child can hold. This is much of what makes it distinctive.
- Tonepaint palette · musical colour
- Beatheart · the heartbeat of the song
- Rhythmdrum
- Sound wavewater ripple
- Pitchballoon
- Tonalityglobe · a musical world
- Melodysongbird
- Scaleladder
- Harmonytwo joined notes
- Listeningear
- Blendbraided rope
- Ensembleone team, one voice
How it is taught
Nine principles.
- Experience before vocabulary.
Hear it before naming it.
- Discovery before mastery.
Children encounter musical ideas before they are expected to own them.
- Listening stays fresh.
Recognition from memory is not the same thing as a new musical observation.
- Courage matters.
Participation and musical courage are celebrated alongside correctness.
- Adapt to the children in the room.
A developing choir needs more repetition and less theory. A stronger group can travel faster.
- Destination over checklist.
The musical destination matters more than completing every activity.
- Confidence is protected on purpose.
Students leave knowing they are becoming musicians, not feeling tested.
- Choir creates belonging.
The ensemble is not a collection of soloists. One team. One voice.
- The choir carries the music.
In one exercise the conductor stops conducting and the choir keeps going. The conductor helps the choir; the choir carries the music. Ownership, not dependence.
Performance
Ready for the room.
Entrances and exits. Adapting to live accompaniment. Performing through a technical problem and recovering from a mistake. Sustaining the music without watching the conductor. One-take performance, confidence under pressure, and how to receive applause.
Children are taught to own the performance, which is the same thing the studio has taught actors for nineteen years.
Why choir
The wounds of Babel.
Voice, then music, then belonging, then faith, then community. A room of people making one sound together is a small repair of something old. Leeann writes about this at length; it is the heart of why the curriculum exists.
For teachers, choirs and schools
A sixteen-week curriculum. More coming.
Sounds of Home is the first of a family of poetic, non-technical music curricula. To teach it, pilot it, or ask about the next one, write to Leeann.