Elaine Browne.pdf - Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University

previously mentioned note values. By grade six, these rhythms should be played on a drum,
using hand techniques such as ‘base slap’, ‘open slap’ and the ‘muffle’ (DoE 2002a, 45). In grade
five, learners need to recognise the letter names of notes on lines and spaces on the treble clef
and in grade six, learners should be able to recognise songs that are written according to the C
major scale.
Grade four learners should also be able to identify musical instruments according to the
appearance, name, how sound is produced, timbre and general pitch classification. In grade
five, learners need to recognise and describe the different timbres of voices in choral music, as
well as identify genres like blues and jazz. These learners should be able to discuss and describe
the message of the lyrical content of certain cultural events in hearing the music. In grade six,
the rituals of cultural events should be researched. Learners should be able to create and
present music that impose the symbolism of rituals such as the ‘snake dance’, ‘rain dance’,
‘wedding dance’, ‘circle dance’, ‘reed dance’ and ‘stick dance’ (DoE 2002a, 63).
It is thus clear that the teacher needs fundamental music content knowledge, not only of note
values, but also of core music concepts and vocabulary, across cultures. These include concepts
like ‘tempo’, ‘dynamics’, ‘note values’ (‘crotchet’, ‘minim’, ‘semibreve’, ‘quaver’, ‘crotchet’,
‘rest’ and so forth) ‘genre’, ‘timbre’, ‘pitch’ and ‘scales’. Appropriate music knowledge of a wide
range of music genres, such as ‘blues’, ‘pop’, ‘kwaito’, ‘classical’, ‘traditional’, free‐kiba, ‘opera’,
‘musical’, ‘malombo’, ‘kwassa‐kwassa’, ‘techno’ and ‘soukous’ is required if the teacher
endeavours to teach music effectively (DoE 2002a, 53). In addition, the teacher needs to have
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