179 | The Benefits of a “Silent Rehearsal” - HD 1080p
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[00:00:00] Bryson Tarbet: At least once a year, I would have a class where I didn't use my voice at all. Here's why. You're listening to That Music Podcast with Bryson Tarbin, the curriculum designer and educational consultant behind That Music Teacher and the Elementary Music Summit. Each week, Bryson and his guests will dive into the reality of being an elementary music teacher and how music can truly be transformative in the lives of the students you serve.
[00:00:30] Bryson Tarbet: Show notes and resources mentioned in this episode can be found at thatmusicteacher. com
[00:00:41] Bryson Tarbet: Hello everyone. And welcome back to that music podcast today. We're going to talk about a silent rehearsal or a silent class or whatever you want to call it. Um, and I think there's a couple of different reasons why you might use this. Um, I've used it maybe once or twice a year. Um, But I think that they can be really [00:01:00] helpful to have in your back pocket for a couple of things.
[00:01:01] Bryson Tarbet: One, if you have a, if you're having a vocal health day, if you just, you're just getting, you know, getting, um, if you just had COVID or whatever, and you have no voice, well, obviously you're going to have to come up with some different things. Um, so there are different ways you could do that. Maybe you're going to use more tech lean a little bit more heavily on technology.
[00:01:18] Bryson Tarbet: Maybe you're going to lean a little bit heavily on your student models. Um, but I think something I want, I want to share the example that I'm going to share today is, It isn't necessarily because I couldn't use my voice. It was more because I didn't want to. And I wanted to get the students used to, I kind of wanted to shake things up a little bit.
[00:01:35] Bryson Tarbet: So while this is a really good strategy, if you're having a bad vocal health day, um, or if you just need a minute to not use your voice, this can also be a really good way to just get your students. To try something new and to, to pay more attention and to stop talking so much. This is really where this kind of came out of is, you know, those classes, you know, I have 28 fourth graders and they are just nonstop.
[00:01:58] Bryson Tarbet: And no matter what I say, they're always [00:02:00] talking over me. And to that, I say, all right, so expect to get less done in the next class. But expect to say very little so what might this look like so for instance I did this I did this a lot with my students with recorders So I would literally walk them in the door.
[00:02:14] Bryson Tarbet: I'd you know, I'd meet them at the door I'd kind of give them a little a gentle nod and a smile And I would just for gesture for them to come to the room at this point They knew that when they come into the room, they're supposed to sit on their dot and I would literally just model Every single thing I wanted them to do.
[00:02:29] Bryson Tarbet: So if I wanted them to sit on the floor with their recorder in front of them, I would, I would take my recorder. I put it on the floor and I would just gesture to it. Eventually students will start doing the same thing and it kind of becomes this like, Oh, okay, let's do it. And then I might, I literally just kind of model, all right, hold the recorder up.
[00:02:45] Bryson Tarbet: So I don't say anything. I just pick it up. I show the note I want to play. I point to me, I play, you know, I might go beep, beep, beep, beep. Then I point to them and they play beep beep beep and [00:03:00] literally just give them as much feedback make it funny if you need to But you know if they're playing really really loud kind of cut maybe cover your ears go like oh That's too much or you know, if they're playing really quiet You could be like hello, you know put your hand here and really kind of lean into your inner mime What I love about this way is is it really gets the students thinking more about?
[00:03:20] Bryson Tarbet: What they're doing. They're not going on autopilot because they can't. Because there's a new way of interacting with the teacher that isn't the normal way. They have to really pay attention and what I've noticed is, you know, there will be some students that are like really really into like, why isn't he talking?
[00:03:37] Bryson Tarbet: Is he sick? Is he sick? And you know, they might have to say, Mr. Tarver, are you sick? And you can kind of shake your head like, No, Nope, not sick. Um, and you know, like, why are you doing this? You might just shrug your shoulders. Um, but really what I've, what I've done with this, and what, what I've seen work with this is that it allows your students to pay attention in a different way.
[00:03:58] Bryson Tarbet: So in this case, with my, with my [00:04:00] fourth graders quarter, we did a little bit of a warmup. Again, all we're, all I'm doing is, um, essentially miming. And then giving feedback non verbally and then having them try to respond to that feedback. Uh, so again, if they play, if, you know, if they were over blowing, I might, you know, cover my ears, um, and then model it again, or I might even model it the wrong way, right?
[00:04:19] Bryson Tarbet: Where I play it really, really loud and then I kind of shake my hands like, no, no, no, we don't want that, you know, and go through and then have them, you know, say, you know, I might model say, right? Yeah. Five minutes. Can I look at my watch? Then holding a five, I might point to hot cross buns. And then I, you know, give them a, give them a thumbs up and eventually they'll start going.
[00:04:39] Bryson Tarbet: Um, or if they don't, so you're going to start, you know, giving them more opportunities. You just say, all right, turn to, you know, use the, all of this is non verbally. It's just because it's a podcast. It doesn't work very well if I just only model. Um, so there might be something that would be worthwhile watching on YouTube rather than, um, iTunes if that's typically where you listen.
[00:04:55] Bryson Tarbet: Um, but this might sound a little bit far fetched, but I think it's a really [00:05:00] good way to break a pattern. Uh, for instance, I, I usually see. Like I said, this is normally where recorder is normally where this would come out because I typically see this very similar, um, turn of events when we do record it, they're really excited when we first get started and then the attention to detail, the excitement just kind of.
[00:05:22] Bryson Tarbet: And at that point we have two options, right? We can abandon ship or I can't, we can try something new. Um, and I don't want to be done yet. So we're going to try something new and use that as an opportunity to shake it up a little bit. So it's not just the same old, same old, we're really trying something new.
[00:05:39] Bryson Tarbet: So I know this is a really short episode because really it all can become down to. You know, talk less, smile more, right? You know, bringing it back to Hamilton, but really just like see what happens. And it doesn't, you don't necessarily need to do the entire class. Uh, maybe you just do the first 10 minutes or maybe you just do in the middle when you have some sort of activity that they already [00:06:00] typically know how to do.
[00:06:01] Bryson Tarbet: Um, but really show that. Um, you know, when you, when you really give it your all, I, I think you'll be interested to see just how the energy in the room is different. The students, even the students who aren't necessarily super into it, usually they'll be really locked in because they're like, what is Mr.
[00:06:19] Bryson Tarbet: Tarbit doing? Why is he doing this? What, what is going on? Um, and there'll be really, really locked in and they'll have a little bit different light of engagement. Now, a couple of things about this. First of all, be wary of how long you do this and for what grades. I, you know, I've done an entire fourth grade recorded rehearsal where I didn't say a single word.
[00:06:39] Bryson Tarbet: Um, which is funny because at the end I'll be like, Alright, great! And they're like, they're like gasp, like I scared them. Um, I would not do a, you know, the whole thing for kindergarten. If I'm doing something for kindergarten, it might be like one activity. Like if I wanted them to, you know, if we were practicing, um, using an instrument or something and I just wanted to be a little bit silly, um, that's, that's something I might do doing kindergarten.
[00:06:59] Bryson Tarbet: Um, but [00:07:00] also be aware of the, how often you do it. Um, if you do this a lot, the novelty wears off. Um, like I said, I might do this once or twice a year. Um, not necessarily for every grade, but like once or twice a year. Period. Um, all over all of the grades. Um, having it in your back pocket is really good. I didn't necessarily, I wouldn't, most of the time I wouldn't really plan for it to be a silent rehearsal unless it was like, all right, that lesson just completely crashed and burned.
[00:07:28] Bryson Tarbet: So did the last five lessons. We're going to do a silent rehearsal next week and just see if we can change things up. Um, there's no right or wrong way to do this. There's no specific length to do it. Um, I think that there's just a good, there's just, You got to give it a shot. And I think it's fully to be fully transparent.
[00:07:46] Bryson Tarbet: There are likely some teachers who are wonderful teachers who will find no success on this because, you know, everything is so unique to us as teachers, right? If you don't, or even not necessarily just our teachers, but the students we have, right? Or the combination of the [00:08:00] two. Um, sometimes we, they're just not going to work.
[00:08:03] Bryson Tarbet: Uh, so be ready, be ready to abandon ship. Um, you know, if, if students are being unsafe or being unkind or really, really just like going off, off the rails. It's time to kill it. You know, be like, all right, we're done. We're going to move off. I guess we can't handle that and just kind of move on to something else.
[00:08:17] Bryson Tarbet: I hope you enjoyed this short and sweet episode of that music podcast. If you have not listened to us over on iTunes or wherever you listen to us, please do so because it helps us not only get in front of new educators just like you, but it helps us understand what types of episodes you want more of less of and what conversations you want to go a little bit deeper on.
[00:08:35] Bryson Tarbet: With that being said, I hope you have a wonderful rest of your week, and in case nobody has told you lately, thank you so much for making a difference in the lives of the students at [00:09:00] UT.
