Welcome to Jenny Gillan’s Music Education Resources.

I am a music teacher at the Victorian College of the Arts Secondary School in Melbourne, Australia and at St Michael’s Grammar School who is passionate about music literacy and music education.

The Hungarian composer and pedagogue Kodály stated that in order to develop as a complete musician a well trained ear, heart, hand and intellect were essential.  In Australian music education there tends to be little focus on a well trained ear, in particular these aspects of music literacy –reading,  writing and thinking music.

I strive to teach my students to hear music in their heads as they would if they were silently reading a book and to enable them to be able to write down and comprehend the function of the music they hear.  I also believe in the importance of musical analysis skills; being able to put into words why the music heard creates a particular effect or uses particular techniques and elements of music.   A student with great aural skills will find this easy to do as they are putting words to what they can already hear and understand.  If a student can’t hear whether a melody goes up or down, for example, how will they be able to describe its contour?

I believe the heart of music education is a well trained teacher.  I believe it is the duty of teachers to continually improve and strive for excellence both in their own musicianship and in pedagogy so that they may be able to teach their students to their highest potential.

I hope these resources enable students and teachers to learn and teach this powerful subject with as many ideas as possible to open the door to knowledge.