Private Lessons

I started teaching private music lessons when I was in high school, so I’ve been doing it for about four years now.  This by no means makes me an expert (or anything resembling an expert), but I’d like to think that I’ve learned a few things about teaching since I started.

As an undergraduate music ed major, I approach teaching probably a little different than some other people.  I teach my students facility on their instrument, but I believe it is just as important (if not more important) that they develop overall independent musicianship.  In other words, I try to teach my students to be good, independent musicians by using/playing their particular instrument.  I choose this approach for a few reasons.  Most importantly, I believe that it is my duty as a music educator to create good musical citizens.  It is critical that people are able to listen to music, evaluate and analyze music, sing melodies in tune, and keep a beat in their bodies.  These skills transcend the playing of any particular instrument, and having them makes for a more fulfilling life.

I try to teach independent musicianship to my private students so that they can carry their musical knowledge into the rest of their musical lives.  When I was in fourth grade, my first instrument was the clarinet.  I played it in school for five years.  I am now in my third year as a tuba major in music school.  If I had only learned the technical aspects of pushing the correct buttons on the clarinet, and nothing else, I would have been out of luck when the time came to learn the tuba. Instead, because I knew scales, reading, theory, how to sing in tune, and how to audiate, I had a much easier time transferring my musical knowledge in a relevant and applicable way.

Another reason I try to ‘make good musical citizens’ out of my students is very related to the previous reasons.  Basically, I want my students to be able to appreciate and enjoy music to the best of their ability.  Too often do we see people experiencing truly beautiful musical moments, but they find those moments incredibly boring or unlistenable because they have not been taught how to appreciate them.  That does not mean I try to brainwash all of my students to enjoy classical music; I don’t.  Instead, I try to work with the student to help them ‘open their ears’, and learn how to listen to more than just the surface of whatever particular piece of music they are listening to.  I don’t care if it’s Mozart, Duke Ellington, or Lady Gaga, I want my students to be able to experience, appreciate, and enjoy the music that they play and listen to.

When you get right down to it, I think that is what it is all about, that is why we do what we do: to teach students how to have a genuine and enjoyable musical experience by using their independent musicianship.  This is what I try to accomplish with my students.

The Musical Matrix

What follows is pretty much stream-of-consciousness ramblings.  It’s not nearly as organized, concise, or single-minded as a typical post is.  I wanted to just write and see what happened.

I was sitting in my living room over the weekend watching the film The Matrix.  For those of you who haven’t seen the film, the basic idea is that the world as we see it is actually a giant virtual reality that doesn’t exist.  We are all actually enslaved by robots, but our minds are kept in this Matrix so that we never even realize it.  It got me thinking: if the film were real, and the world as we see it did not actually exist…would I want to know?  I decided eventually that no, I would not want to know.  While my initial reaction was the opposite, in the end, I decided that it is sometimes better to be happy and ignorant of your situation.  In other words, if you don’t realize that there is anything wrong, there is not always a reason to rock the boat.

I then took the process further.  I wanted to think about it in a musical sense.  If, when I get out of school, I end up being a “bad” music teacher, but I am not aware of that fact, would I want to know?  I don’t know.  It’s a murkier question.  If I am the type of band director who only has his bands play music by Kesha and LMFAO, but my students enjoy playing and are inspired to continue playing because they are performing music that they like, I don’t know that I would want to upset that balance.

I am not saying that I will ever aspire to be anything but the very best teacher I can be.  I want my students to learn to enjoy music, and to be independent musicians.  I think that what I am trying to say is that while we certainly need to be very aware and self-reflective, we also can’t live exclusively in the “real world” or the Matrix.  It’s not about living ignorantly of pop music, or of classical music.  It’s not about turning kids into classically-trained musicians, or about ignoring classical music for fear of turning kids off of music.  It’s about finding that balance between the two.  I don’t know.  It’s a thought.

Competitions vs. Festivals

Here at Rowan, we are preparing for our annual Jazz Festival.  Next Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, middle and high school bands from all over the area will come to Glassboro to play and receive critique and tips for improvement.  What they will not receive, however, are trophies.  Nor will they be taking home medals, or plaques, or anything saying that they were better or worse than any of the other bands performing at Rowan.  Rowan offers no competition between the bands whatsoever.  The only thing they receive is instruction on how to play better and individually become better musicians.  This is very unlike most other performance options in the area.  Many, if not most, schools with a competitive band program travel to numerous competitions during the season in preparation for All-States.  So I ask myself, whatever happened to festivals?

This is not to say that all competitions are terrible things that should be avoided at all costs.  I played at dozens of competitions in high school, and some of my best memories from high school are from performances at band competitions.  But we have to ask ourselves what the real reason for this competitive furor is; are we looking for a way to stroke our own egos?  Are we just obsessed with ‘winning’, whatever that means, at all costs?  Are we sacrificing the integrity of our students’ musical educations, just for the sake of a hunk of plastic that says ‘first-place’ on it?  The answers to these questions vary from director to director, but too often we strive for that first-place trophy, and nothing else.  We call the judges idiots after reading their sheets and listening to their tapes, because our bands placed third overall.  We don’t actually try and incorporate their comments.  We immediately disregard their opinion the second they (and it’s always their fault) cause our bands to ‘fail’.

Now what if we took that competitive element out?  I don’t mean take it away from the students; they will still compare themselves to other bands they hear.  Instead, it takes the competition away from the directors.  No longer will overzealous directors be obsessed with winning a competition every weekend.  The focus goes from the performance, from the concert, from the competition, to having the best-sounding group possible.  Some may not see a distinction here, so let me try to explain.  I cannot begin to count how many bands I have heard that sound unbelievable on the marching field, but once they play anything other than the nine minutes of music that is in their show, they forget how to play their instruments.  They have not learned how to have genuine musical experiences, or how to be independent musicians; instead, they have learned how to push the buttons on their instrument in the correct order to play their show so that they can win the trophy.  If we take away the competitive aspect, the only thing that should remain is having the most musical, the best-sounding, and the most knowledgeable group of students you possibly can.

At the end of the day, as a music educator, I believe that my job is to 1) teach students to become independent musicians, 2) allow students an opportunity to have true aesthetic experiences through music, and 3) utilize music to teach students lessons that they can carry with them in life, not just in music.  If my only focus is on winning the next competition, I cannot possibly accomplish any of these things.  Competitions aren’t inherently bad, and can in fact be quite useful.  We just need to make sure we have the proper perspective on things.

Genesis of a Collegiate Chapter

Today, at Rowan University, we had our first meeting of Collegiate TI:ME.  I can’t even begin to express how excited I am that we are starting the first collegiate chapter of TI:ME in the country.  We discussed a lot of things at the meeting, among them advocacy, lesson planning, professional development, and other very important topics.  The common thread, however, was that everyone wanted to learn how to best equip themselves as educators for the future.  Every one of the fifteen or so people in the room was eager and willing to learn about technology in music education, and how to best utilize technology to teach students.  Here’s to the start of an experiment.  Can’t wait to see where it goes!

Where Is Music Education Going?

Recently, I’ve been asking myself, “Where is music education going?”  As someone who is in the process of entering the field, this is obviously a matter of utmost importance to me.  I often find myself thinking in the back of my head that by the time I retire from teaching, music will be on the way out the door in schools.  We have all heard the statistic that we only reach 20% of students in traditional performing ensembles.  As arts funding is cut more and more, the problem increasingly becomes one of reaching the most students for the least amount of money.  We can utilize technology and other emerging resources to help accomplish this, sure, but is that only a stopgap measure, putting off the inevitability of our demise?

 

On the whole, I think not.  I believe that we are on the forefront of a resurgence in music education, a renaissance of sorts.  We may finally have found the solution to a problem faced by literally hundreds of years of music educators: how do I reach my students?  The question is, are we willing to do what needs to done to ensure our continued growth?  I believe we can.  How about you?

2012 TI:ME Leadership Academy

I just got home last night from the 2012 TI:ME Leadership Academy.  Under the guidance of Dr. Rick Dammers, Dr. Dave Williams, and VJ Manzo, my fellow Academy participants and myself learned a lot about how to utilize technology in the music classroom.  Specifically, we learned a great deal about how to reach non-traditional music students (NTM’s).  I can honestly say that this experience completely changed my view of music education and how technology can be used in the classroom.  I’ve always been somewhat skeptical of music technology.  I was unsure of whether or not it was just a “gimmick”, and of how much genuine learning occurred through its use.  However, after the Academy, I can honestly say that I’m a believer.  We as a profession can use music technology to reach the 80% of students who do not participate in traditional performing ensembles.  We are at the forefront of a movement, and I am excited to be a part of it!

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