I VALUE amateurism over product, or performance centered models of music education. That, outside of elementary schools, 20% musical participation is lauded as a successful program is not good enough. Our profession is too focused on performative achievement, and the attached strings therein, that too many students choose not to participate. In fact, I believe that the 80% unenrolled in music are the ones in most need of a music education. An amateur approach acknowledges the biologically primary nature of singing and the growing number of adults unwilling to sing Happy Birthday, sing a lullaby to their child, participate in Karaoke, or even believe they can sing. I believe music education, especially vocal music education, must find ways to teach so that any student may find an entry point and uncover the specialized knowledge necessary for lifelong music making. To me, this does not necessarily end in singing in a church choir, community choir, wind band, or orchestra, but in helping a society unable or unwilling to participate in the human joys of individual and communal music making. My skilled-amateur focus intersects with the moral imperative I see in music education. As a profession, we offer help to and value most often to those who already sing or play well, not those who do not yet. Due to the Eurocentric history of our school ensemble programs, we inevitably miss out on teaching musical knowledge to communities underrepresented in this de facto tradition.
To begin reconciling the lack of equity in music education I opine that the purpose of schooling is to provide specialized, epistemologically structured knowledge that engenders higher-order, critical thinking. The core tenet of my music education philosophy centers on the dissemination of epistemologically structured, conceptual knowledge about music through making music. Firstly, I believe that educational institutions serve the unique role of teaching knowledge unavailable outside of schooling. To me, this is not only an epistemological imperative, but a moral and social-justice one. When the lines of formal and informal learning blur to amorphous proportions, students miss out on acquiring the critical, higher-order skills of abstraction and conceptualization that schooling provides. As school populations grow in diversity, educators must aid students in uncovering the powerful, and possibly universal knowledge shared in all kinds of music making, be it formal or informal. Bridging the discursive gap between informal and formal musical learning provides students the tools to embrace musical knowledge, utilize it, discard it, and be a part of the conversation about music making rather than passive participants.
While I acknowledge the Aesthetic impulses in a concept, or cognitively based approach to music education, I believe that musical learning functions best through a combination of doing, and naming. As students grow in their applicative musicianship, educators must name the techniques, identify the processes, and clearly reveal the epistemological structure of the embedded knowledge present in performance. Music education develops not only an awareness and understanding of how we think, feel, process, make critical decisions, evaluate, differentiate, interpret, and create, but also develops the ability to actualize these skill sets to our best ability. The music student is then knowledgeable about and accountable to how they think, feel, etc. Students are reflective of and partners to their own learning.
The most effective student learning begins experientially. Generally, students of most ages will characterize a concept through action first. This is followed by a visual understanding, or iconic representation, and finally through cognition or symbolic understanding. It only becomes technique or habit after the cognitive step. Music, participation in an ensemble, listening to or creating music, working in small and large groups, and witnessing musical events provides for rich learning experiences.
My role is to facilitate or provide the experience. Then I endeavor to engage the student affectively, kinesthetically, or cognitively. Kinesthetic engagement includes simple movement and dancing or deconstructing the musical body and its mechanics. Affective instruction might include narrating an experience, group interpretation of song lyrics, building a communal lexicon of musical jargon, journaling in private, or publicly inciting an emotional connection to music and learning. Cognitive instruction then provides a practical, fact-based, framework by which students build lasting technique that they can access and enhance as their education continues. This may include mastery of traditional musical elements and concepts, physiology of instruments or the singing body, historical and contemporary practices, interdisciplinary connections, technological applications, or knowledge about the music field.
The resulting student will then be able to recognize the nature and requirements of a musical or life goal/experience, have a set of strategies for approaching the task, know which strategies would be appropriate for the particular endeavor, monitor progress towards achieving the experience, adjust strategies as circumstances change, evaluate the result in performance or practice, and take action to improve next time. These are not only musical skills, but also life skills. Along the way, the teacher and student are developing an aesthetic passion and understanding of music and the human experience so that students may continue to make music after instruction ceases, as well as seek out and enjoy future musical experiences. They will also be more aware of how they might best achieve life goals and negotiate human experiences. Many believe that we study most disciplines to better understand what goes on around us. I believe that we study the arts to better understand what goes on within and between us.
Regarding musical traditions and cultures, I believe in a universalist, scientific approach. That is, I believe that music, as a human tradition, consists of universal elements like rhythm, timbre, opportunity and opposition, balance, and an ability for self-transformation. While from a western, classical background myself, I endeavor to incorporate multiple languages, cultures, time periods, and genres into my curriculum. By the time they reach school-age, students have already begun to develop their own musical identities. I see it as my job to not only make my classroom a place that invites multiple identities, but also that broadens the lens of exposure and access.
To begin reconciling the lack of equity in music education I opine that the purpose of schooling is to provide specialized, epistemologically structured knowledge that engenders higher-order, critical thinking. The core tenet of my music education philosophy centers on the dissemination of epistemologically structured, conceptual knowledge about music through making music. Firstly, I believe that educational institutions serve the unique role of teaching knowledge unavailable outside of schooling. To me, this is not only an epistemological imperative, but a moral and social-justice one. When the lines of formal and informal learning blur to amorphous proportions, students miss out on acquiring the critical, higher-order skills of abstraction and conceptualization that schooling provides. As school populations grow in diversity, educators must aid students in uncovering the powerful, and possibly universal knowledge shared in all kinds of music making, be it formal or informal. Bridging the discursive gap between informal and formal musical learning provides students the tools to embrace musical knowledge, utilize it, discard it, and be a part of the conversation about music making rather than passive participants.
While I acknowledge the Aesthetic impulses in a concept, or cognitively based approach to music education, I believe that musical learning functions best through a combination of doing, and naming. As students grow in their applicative musicianship, educators must name the techniques, identify the processes, and clearly reveal the epistemological structure of the embedded knowledge present in performance. Music education develops not only an awareness and understanding of how we think, feel, process, make critical decisions, evaluate, differentiate, interpret, and create, but also develops the ability to actualize these skill sets to our best ability. The music student is then knowledgeable about and accountable to how they think, feel, etc. Students are reflective of and partners to their own learning.
The most effective student learning begins experientially. Generally, students of most ages will characterize a concept through action first. This is followed by a visual understanding, or iconic representation, and finally through cognition or symbolic understanding. It only becomes technique or habit after the cognitive step. Music, participation in an ensemble, listening to or creating music, working in small and large groups, and witnessing musical events provides for rich learning experiences.
My role is to facilitate or provide the experience. Then I endeavor to engage the student affectively, kinesthetically, or cognitively. Kinesthetic engagement includes simple movement and dancing or deconstructing the musical body and its mechanics. Affective instruction might include narrating an experience, group interpretation of song lyrics, building a communal lexicon of musical jargon, journaling in private, or publicly inciting an emotional connection to music and learning. Cognitive instruction then provides a practical, fact-based, framework by which students build lasting technique that they can access and enhance as their education continues. This may include mastery of traditional musical elements and concepts, physiology of instruments or the singing body, historical and contemporary practices, interdisciplinary connections, technological applications, or knowledge about the music field.
The resulting student will then be able to recognize the nature and requirements of a musical or life goal/experience, have a set of strategies for approaching the task, know which strategies would be appropriate for the particular endeavor, monitor progress towards achieving the experience, adjust strategies as circumstances change, evaluate the result in performance or practice, and take action to improve next time. These are not only musical skills, but also life skills. Along the way, the teacher and student are developing an aesthetic passion and understanding of music and the human experience so that students may continue to make music after instruction ceases, as well as seek out and enjoy future musical experiences. They will also be more aware of how they might best achieve life goals and negotiate human experiences. Many believe that we study most disciplines to better understand what goes on around us. I believe that we study the arts to better understand what goes on within and between us.
Regarding musical traditions and cultures, I believe in a universalist, scientific approach. That is, I believe that music, as a human tradition, consists of universal elements like rhythm, timbre, opportunity and opposition, balance, and an ability for self-transformation. While from a western, classical background myself, I endeavor to incorporate multiple languages, cultures, time periods, and genres into my curriculum. By the time they reach school-age, students have already begun to develop their own musical identities. I see it as my job to not only make my classroom a place that invites multiple identities, but also that broadens the lens of exposure and access.
