Leading‏‏‎ Primary Music | An Interview with Sharla Dance

Sharla Dance was finishing her degree in Music Education at Brigham
Young University when she took a children’s music class from Susan
Kenney. The principles and methods used in that class changed the
way she wanted to teach music. When her daughter was diagnosed with
a brain tumor at age seven, Sharla delved into research about how
the brain learns, Howard Gardner's theory of multiple
intelligences, and the body's role in learning as taught by
neurologist Carla Hannaford. Since then, some of her research and
experience has centered around music in a group setting for special
needs children. She also started applying her research to Primary
music and has continued to learn and teach workshops, helping
church music leaders learn principles and brain research that can
make them more effective in teaching children. Sharla has taught
piano and voice lessons, group preschool, and school age music
classes in her studio, Dance Sing and Play, for twenty five years.
She has served as ward or stake Primary music leader in over ten
different wards and stakes, and as a youth choir specialist in her
stake for twenty years. She has served several times as ward choir
director and stake music chair, and is currently first counselor in
her ward Relief Society. Sharla is the mother of five children and
she and her husband live in Washington state where she is also a
full-time caregiver for their daughter who had that brain tumor so
many years ago. Highlights 04:00 Sharla is the Primary music
leader. A Gospel Doctrine teacher for children through music. She
shares her resources with other leaders. 06:10 Sharla shares her
background and how she got into music. 10:00 Resources Sharla
shares for Primary and why she got her website started 12:50 The
overall breakdown of what you should do during music time is to
teach three different songs with three different activities and
bear your testimony in one or two sentences. 15:50 Each child
should be actively involved with a specific song. Help the children
use their senses to learn and practice the songs. 22:00 One thing
that researchers have found that helps the frontal lobe develop is
purposeful movement with a steady beat. 23:30 When children learn
music with props, beats, and movements it creates an experience for
them and brain hooks that help them remember that song. 24:20
Sharla believes that when we teach a child music with these
different hooks that the song will come back to teach the child and
to teach them doctrine when they really need it. 26:00 Drilling the
words of a song and practicing them over and over is what we
commonly see in Primary. However, Sharla teaches that we need to
focus on the beat, rhythm, and the melody while singing the words.
This is way easier for the brain to connect everything. 30:20 The
process of audiation is singing a song in your head. It’s the
strongest way to remember a song. Leave out words and have the kids
fill them in and sing it out loud. 31:00 Sharla explains why
movement while singing and to a steady beat is so important and
useful for children. It activates the whole body and turns it into
a thinking machine. 34:00 Line upon line is a great way for the
brain to learn, especially when we sing the whole song. 37:20
Parents have found that even the children that don’t really
participate in Primary are singing at home all the time. 40:00
Sharla does activities that can involve all the children and the
songs that they are learning, especially because there is only
twenty minutes to do it in. 41:30 Research shows that to keep the
attention span of an adult active and attentive we need to change
the pace every ten minutes. Children need a change of pace every
six to seven minutes. 45:30 The teachers need to be involved in
music time too. 46:40 Each child takes in information in a slightly
different way and the brain craves variety. We need to teach in
different ways to reach different children. 53:40 Bear a short,
sincere testimony every week.