General Music Redux

I think my final sample lesson went pretty decently, although I ran out of time, again.

After my first general music lesson ran long, I came up with a few ways of tweaking it, but in the end I decided to pick up where I left off, and continue with the same lesson. Assuming a real class period is approximately 30 minutes, I think both parts of the lesson would flow smoothly, with a few minor changes.

This week, I started with a brief review of my previous lessons, glossing over the five national anthems that we had discussed and their interrelationships. I then taught the class to sing the Israeli national anthem, "Hatikvah." That went rather smoothly. I started with the pronunciations of the Hebrew words, then taught the melody in two-bar segments, and then we sang the whole song through. After that, I tried to ask the class questions about how it felt to sing that anthem, even though it wasn't their own. That was going to be a segue into the last section of the lesson, although I ran out of time. I was going to ask for characteristics of "UB Middle School" that the students felt proud of, or that they felt represented the school well. The answers in that activity would go into their homework assignment, which would be to write an anthem for our school, to the tune of a favorite song.

Teaching "Hatikvah" took about as long as I expected, but I think I spent too much time on review of the previous lesson, which made me lose the time at the end. If the two lessons were presented together, however, I think it would have worked nicely. Of course, I don't think it was perfect; there is always room for improvement. Keeping the students involved is something I will definitely work on in the future.

Building an Audience

Maintaining a dedicated audience is a concern for all music educators. When I attended University of Rochester, our Chamber Singers concerts rarely got more than 25 attendees. Here at the University of Bridgeport, the audience is largely composed of friends of the performers, and they seem to predominantly appreciate the jazz and gospel ensembles, rather than traditional choral music.

The key to audience-building, of course, is publicity. Relying on word-of-mouth is a start, but that is very ineffective, because it can bring about the situation mentioned above: only friends and family will show up. Who do we want to be our audience? To gain outside listeners, we need to reach out beyond the performers' immediate circle of contacts. The standard and most common way, of course, is to post flyers, at school, at cafés, houses of worship, libraries, and so on. To be effective, those flyers must be attention-getting and aesthetically pleasing. Some groups also advertise in local periodicals. More recently, ensembles have started using social media to advertise, which can be an effective way to reach people who would otherwise have no way of hearing about the concert, or even that such an ensemble existed.

It is important to build an audience, not just for the self-esteem of your performers, but so outside listeners are able to enjoy your performance as well.

Love for Performing

There are many ways in which music educators can inspire passion in their students, and encourage more than a passing interest in their performance programs.

The first is to instill music as a core value from a young age. In Chops, we meet two students who have been lucky enough to learn their instrument from an early age. Darren, a saxophonist, has been playing since he was barely big enough to hold the instrument. TJ, a trombonist, had been inspired by his grandfather, who was also a trombonist. TJ's parents helped him follow that inspiration all the way to the top of the Jazz Ensemble at Douglas Anderson School of the Arts, a magnet school for students who excel in the performing and visual arts.

At DASOTA, we meet Ace Martin, a jazz ensemble director who well exemplifies how a music educator can guide young adult instrumentalists. While Mr. Martin's ensemble is a special case, being an auditioned ensemble within an auditioned school, he still faces pressures that all music educators face. For students who have not grown up with music like Darren and TJ, passion must come from the director and from the ensemble as a whole. Additionally, many students are under parental pressure to participate in a musical ensemble just to pad their resumés with an extracurricular activity. For those students, we must provide additional incentive to want to be there.

When a student is in an ensemble, and her friends are excited about performing, it becomes more likely for that student to become excited as well. But how do we foster that excitement?

Set a goal; something to strive for. Mr. Martin's jazz ensemble recorded an audition for the prestigious Essentially Ellington festival in New York, and were accepted into the competition. All year, members of the ensemble worked hard, fundraising for their trip from Florida, and practicing the music they would perform at Lincoln Center. While in New York, the performers met jazz legend Wynton Marsalis, who was the emcee of the festival. This added an additional layer of incentive, showing the students what could be possible if they kept pursuing their art. When the competitive spirit gets involved, each player has a personal stake in the success of the ensemble. For the DASOTA Jazz Ensemble, the hard work paid off. They won the competition, earning recognition and prestige, as well as a grant for their school. The ensemble would then keep that euphoria of winning in their minds, bringing it back to their lives in Florida, and beginning to think about the next challenge.

I highly recommend this documentary as required viewing for any jazz enthusiast or music educator.

Reflecting on General Music

Once again, I was really not sure where to begin when planing a general music lesson. I was a student in general music during elementary school, but that was many years ago, and I only remember bits and pieces. Plus, this was a lesson for 8th grade, not elementary school. But I am interested in national anthems, and musical traditions in different parts of the world. So I did a bit of digging, and I took bits and pieces from various locations.

I think the lesson went decently well, although I think I went over the 10-minute time limit. That problem may have derived from the fact that I played a YouTube clip for each of the five anthems I discussed, which ate up a fair amount of time (including two YouTube ads that couldn't be skipped). And given the topic of national anthems, it seemed to become less of a music lesson and more of a lesson in history and literary analysis. It also was mostly lecture-style, which I know can easily become boring for younger students, even when YouTube is involved. I tried to keep the students involved by providing handouts with the lyrics, and asking them questions throughout. However, only some students responded to those questions, and as the instructor pointed out afterward, the only way I can be sure that the entire class is involved is to ask specific questions to specific students. When repeating this lesson, I will try to draw more parallels among the anthems discussed, and also to keep it more musically oriented. I also may cover less material superficially, in order to dig deeper and more adequately cover the material that is still included (cover less to cover more).

Unrelated to my lesson directly, I very much enjoyed my classmates' lessons. Since I never took general music past fifth grade, I never knew how broad the spectrum of topics could be. It was very interesting to see the different directions everyone took. I especially liked Kurt's demonstrations of how we can observe sound waves, and the overlap of music and physics.

Funding Music

Ideally, every student would grow up in a school district with the resources to fund all every program conceivable. But unfortunately, in today's depressed economy, when companies and schools are constantly cutting costs, music programs, along with other arts and athletics, are the first on the chopping block. Those music departments lucky enough to remain in operation have severely reduced budgets, and struggle to maintain their decades-old programs upon which people have come to rely.

Assuming there is interest to maintain the four band, orchestra, jazz, and chorus ensembles, teachers are faced with the choice of cutting programming or activities, or recycling repertoire. In this case, it may be necessary to raise funds from parents and from the community at large. While administrators may shy away from asking parents for their hard-earned cash, it may be the only way for a music program to survive in its current role, the role to which everyone has become accustomed.

While parents may be resistant at first, fundraising could be a great way to get the entire family involved and invested (emotionally, as well as financially) in your programs. When parents come back inside the school organization they can bring new life to a program. They can provide new ideas, and bring new light to old programs. And when they see their ideas come to fruition, in whatever form, they own a part of that program. And come next budget season, when the Board of Education is looking for cuts, the music department has a new cheering section.

Music Education in the Digital Age

Technology has affected every aspect of our lives, no question. We compulsively check our smartphones at every spare moment, workplaces revolve around email and proprietary computer systems, even our children's toys have microprocessors. It's not unreasonable to realize that music education has not escaped this phenomenon.

There are myriad ways to utilize recent technology in order to enhance our curricula. Now that students have their own mobile devices (iPods, smartphones, tablets, etc), it's clear that they expect those devices to be a part of every part of their lives. They see their parents doing it, so why not? When I was in high school, a music technology class was just beginning, using keyboards with MIDI recording software and Finale. Not that many years later, all that hardware and software is almost unnecessary. All we need is a tablet and $5 on the app store.

Educators like Christopher Russell and Paul Shimmons dedicate entire blogs to mobile apps, specifically for the iPad, and how they are used in music classrooms. I'm particularly intrigued by Brandt Schneider's usage of SoundCloud, enabling his students to record and critique their own performances.

Some may be nervous to bring these newfangled techniques into their classrooms. I, for one, can't wait to take advantage of these technologies, and whatever the next new thing will be.

On Requisite Skills

There are almost too many skills to number that are vitally important for music educators, but the following three traits especially stand out to me:

Perseverance and Work Ethic: It is necessary to maintain a positive, professional attitude toward your ensemble and your music. Regardless of the starting point, there is nowhere to go but up. Each time we rehearse a piece, contribute constructive criticism, and the ensemble will continue to improve. As Peter Boonshaft writes, we often subject our students to lengthy repetition in rehearsal. However, all that repetition is not for nothing. With each cycle through the music comes improvement, and after some time, the performance gets significantly better. Over the course of years, young musicians will learn the value of a job well done. As they polish their craft, they will gain a new appreciation for the intricacies of being a valued member of their ensemble.

Knowledge and Skill: Of course, in order to teach young musicians how to become better musicians, educators must be well versed in the fundamentals of music theory and repertoire, as well as the art of conducting. Frank Battisti discusses the required skills. His requisites range from the painfully obvious, like knowledge of clefs and musical notation, up to varied performance experience and administrative skills. He details how different types of performances contribute to building different skills. Chamber music, for example, helps us learn to listen to our fellow musicians, collaborating to perform as one player, while playing in a larger ensemble allows us to study and analyze the conductor's style to use for the benefit of our own conducting. Battisti also notes that we should observe other aspects of the arts, such as theatre and literature, in order to stimulate our minds.

Passion and Dedication: Battisti also recognizes the importance of a positive attitude toward our music, and the hard work that is required to become successful. He draws parallels between musicians and sport stars, like Michael Jordan, whose name has come to be synonymous with being the best at what you do. When Jordan retired from basketball the first time, he tried his hand at baseball, with not very much success. But instead of quitting on the spot, he kept with it for years, taking baseball lessons even after making a return to the NBA. This persistence shows Jordan's passion for excellence in sports, a passion that musicians should take into their own pursuits. Throughout my own public school career, I was lucky enough to have three of the most passionate orchestra teachers I have ever met. They labored to keep their students involved in the ensemble, making rehearsals fun, and provoking young musicians to want to race home and practice their instrument after school every day. Their dedication was not only useful in keeping me in the music program, but also led me to decide to become a music educator as well, following in their footsteps.

Reflecting on Choral Warmups

I've been participating in formal singing groups since fourth grade, not to mention instruction in general music from kindergarten through fifth grade. So I must admit, when tasked with warming up a choral group, I assumed it would be significantly easier than teaching a mostly unknown-to-me band instrument. I borrowed some of my favorite and most useful warm-up exercises from various choral directors over the past ten years, and I though I had a good variety, warming up the singers' bodies, voices, and minds. But I still ran into problems.

Last week, when teaching clarinet, I was thrown off my the time constraint of a five-minute lesson. I wasn't sure how long or short that was, or how much time had passed. And I ran into that same issue this week. Additionally, all of my choral directors have also been skilled piano players, and accompanied warm-ups with full harmonies. I, however, can only play simple melodies with one hand, and in a limited number of keys, so I had to simply play the first note of each passage. Nonetheless, I don't think that drastically hindered the execution of the exercises, and I did cover all of what I had planned. Another small problem was presenting an exercise using Italian, "bella signora," without confirming the pronunciation beforehand. Now I know to address that first, in the future.

Interacting with the singers while warmups were in progress was one thing that I hadn't thought to address. To correct vowels, pitch, or posture would reinforce correct behavior rather than simple rote recitation of the exercises.

A First Band Lesson

When assigned to present a five-minute lesson on a band instrument, I had no idea where to begin. I've been an "orchestra kid" since fourth grade, and a singer from even earlier, but I have very little experience in a band setting. Luckily, I was assigned to teach clarinet, which I studied (very briefly) at summer camp, many years ago. At the time, I had learned the basics of the instrument, and how to play "Edelweiss," from The Sound of Music, to perform for Parents' Weekend at the end of the session. I had a vague memory of the basics, and I used various websites to refresh my memory.

But what turned out to be my problem was not lack of knowledge but lack of time. I had no idea how long five minutes actually lasted. I wrote a lesson plan detailing parts of the clarinet, how to assemble the instrument and how to hold it, and proper playing posture. However, that lesson could easily run to 90 minutes or longer, without ever making a sound. And that would be no fun for a sixth-grader. So, after seeing how some of my classmates started, I decided instead to focus only on the mouthpiece. My first lesson would start with a small amount of background of the instrument, and then move on to assembling the mouthpiece and trying to make a sound, preferably without squawking.

And despite the fact that I changed a large portion of the lesson at the last minute, and the fact that I have a very limited working knowledge of woodwind instruments, I think the lesson went rather well. Although I would wager that it would have been drastically different with an actual sixth-grader, rather than a role-playing course instructor.

Incidentally, it was quite interesting to see the way my colleagues began their lessons, and what errors they made or what good tips I could take from them. Since I presented in the middle of the group, I think my lesson also benefited from those who went earlier.

How Do We Evaluate Progress?

There is a real problem of students under pressure to earn good grades, rather than actually learning. I agree with Alphie Kohn, who explains that we must improve our methods of grading in order to alleviate this problem. According to Kohn, the way to do this is to acknowledge that learning is subjective rather than a quantifiable objective. While grading rubrics purport to be a step in the right direction because of their level of detail, they, too, are objective in nature. As Kohn writes, "We have to reassess the whole enterprise of assessment."

Still, there must be evaluations of students' progress. There has to be an objective way to group students based on ability, or the more slowly learning kids inhibit the growth of the advanced ones, which is a detriment to everyone involved. What we have to do is find a way to balance the two sides. But without a better alternative, a rubric seems the way to go, for now.

Regarding Jazz in Classical Instruction

Oftentimes, teachers of "classical" music, i.e. band or orchestra, may dismiss jazz and folk genres as irrelevant. However, I believe that they should hold a vital place in our curricula.

I was lucky enough to grow up in a town with an established K-12 music program, starting with general music in Kindergarten, and adding options of orchestra in fourth grade, and band and chorus in fifth. The general music curriculum in elementary school largely consisted of folk songs, because they were easy to remember, and they weren't harmonically difficult.

Jazz band was option starting in middle school, although I, as an orchestra instrumentalist, wouldn't be included in that. Some of us would dread the jazz section of the biannual concert because the director was obligated to give each student a 16-bar solo, lest their parents complain. Of course, now I know that such practice is vital to forming skills that they would use in later life, not to mention building confidence.

But I digress. Folk music is what establishes a child's relationship with music theory. American children should be familiar with patriotic songs, such as "America the Beautiful" and "God Bless America," as well as songs of historical significance like "Follow the Drinking Gourd," and familiar melodies like "Simple Gifts" and "Shenandoah."

While it may not be necessary for music educators to be experts in jazz and folk music, it would certainly help to be somewhat well-versed in the history and repertoires of those genres. After all, folk music led to jazz, and even today's pop and R&B music can find their roots in jazz. Most students today only care about 2 Chainz or Taylor Swift, rather than Mozart or Brahms. But if educators can help them see that link into music history, that can help hold their interests in the classics.

Flexibility in Young Musicians

In his article, "Creating Musical Flexibility Though the Ensemble," Brandt Schneider describes his journey of improving upon the traditional model of music education, which all too often focuses solely on rote performance, at the sacrifice of our students' creativity and musicality. Schneider puts an emphasis on ear training, to the end of teaching his students to be more "flexible musicians." As part of this effort, he also introduces his students to arrangement and composition.

While I agree that a well-rounded musician should be able do all of the things mentioned in the article, including transposition and "Switching Genres," I don't believe that those skills are necessarily useful outside of a band setting. In singing, the accompanist can change keys, and the chorus will follow suit, maybe not even realizing that a change has been made (unless someone has perfect pitch). And in a string orchestra, all instruments are concert pitch, so the example of having a saxophonist playing the flute part would not apply. Several years ago, there was an instance in which I was playing in a pit orchestra, and we were asked to transpose a number up by a whole-step because it was too low for the actor. Nonetheless, as a cellist, I don't see this coming up very often.

A good musician is aware of precisely what is going on 'behind the scenes' of the music, and can make changes to blend with an ensemble or stand out when need be. However, it seems to me that the ability to change styles and keys at will would only be useful for certain musicians playing in 'popular' settings, i.e. jazz or rock bands, which traditionally only include a small selection of instruments.