An Audience

How can I build an audience? You know, I haven’t actually thought about it much. I’m not there yet, but I do have an idea of what I should do.

            Timing and the date are always essential for planning any event. Every day varies for families and friends, so giving the date and time of the event in advanced is being kind and prepared. Usually a nighttime concert, during the week, has the best turn out between 7 and 8 PM. Weekend concerts are a bit easier to plan since it’s the time of the week were most people don’t have work. In my past experience of concerts, a concert at 3 PM on a Sunday has the best crowd. However, don’t expect these times to work for you because everyone is different and this is only from what I’ve observed. I think it’s really trial and error when it comes to planning an event; you cross off what doesn’t work and keep what does.

            Another way to get an audience is through social media. Why wouldn’t you? It’s the best way to contact people nowadays. At WCSU, most of the students who were involved with an upcoming performance promoted the event via Facebook or Twitter. If you were teaching a high school band, would it be a bad idea to encourage our students to create a way to promote their concert? Would it be bad to ask for their input on how they could get a big audience? OF COURSE NOT! If you get your students involved, the more likely they’ll be excited for the concert.

            As the teacher, you could always send emails or newsletters to parents asking them to spread the word and reminding them about the concert. Parents are a great connection, too! The concert is free to all to come! We all know that families come to concerts so the more the merrier!

            One way the opera performance grew a crowd was inviting local schools to come watch them. I got to experience playing an opera once and it was great to see the excitement the students had to see the show and then ask questions at the end. The 5^th graders at my internship school just went to see the New Britain Symphony Orchestra. Getting schools to come watch you perform not only increases participation, but also it could expand your audience as well.

            Flyers aren’t a bad idea either and it would be awesome to collaborate with the art department to ask students to design and create some flyers. You would then ask teachers throughout the school if it would be okay for them to hang up at least one in their classroom in a spot that will be seen by all.

            In my internship school, the 4^th and 5^th grade bands performed their short concert this past winter for the whole school during the day. At night they performed again for their families. I would highly suggest doing this because not only are they playing for their families, but they’re performing for their peers as well! It sounds like a lot of fun and it’s good exposure to performing for younger students. As for the older students, I wouldn’t suggest performing the entire concert, but perhaps a song or two that the students like the best.

Overall, I am not worried about an audience for now. When the time comes, I will be and then I will scramble for advice, however I do have an idea of what can help me. It may not be enough, but I can always ask for help to get a better idea of what I can do to make an audience.

“Chops” Trailer:

What are they: A high school jazz ensemble from Florida coming together to prepare for the prestige Essentially Ellington High School Jazz Band Competition and Festival.

Synopsis: This documentary primarily follows a jazz band from Douglas Anderson School of the Arts in Florida on their journey to the Essentially Ellington High School Jazz Band Competition and Festival and winning the competition as well.

Highlight: During the actual festival/competition when the bands perform or whenever a student is performing in the movie. The amount of talent is amazing. The Dixieland combo Douglas Anderson pulls off during the competition.

After watching this video, “Chops” gave me a rejuvenated feeling about jazz music and how much fun it was to be a part of an ensemble such as that back in my younger days. I was most impressed with the dedication and talent these students possessed and it definitely made me jealous. Wynton Marsalis said in the video that jazz music shows that “it’s alright to be me.” To him, jazz music is “celebrating creativity.” He’s right! What other genre of music allows you to be just that? Improvisation is all about you and how you feel in the moment when you’re performing. For jazz music, there is no right or wrong. To sum it all up, in order to gain a love for music and performing in a program, jazz band can do just that. There are just three factors I think you need to have which are: a nurturing environment, a sense of community, and exposure.

Nurturing environment. I’ve heard it before that if you do not have a nurturing environment, then learning cannot take place. The teacher must be able to establish his or her classroom as a safe haven where learning can take place through risks and mistakes. In the movie, the director of the jazz ensemble, Ace Martin, came across as a strict guy that I first got bad vibes from. He laid down his rules immediately on the first day and corrected students to what he wanted them to be. The students responded almost immediately, but eventually grew to respond to his demands. Mr. Martin worked his students hard and the students met what he was asking of them. When the ensemble was invited to the Essentially Ellington Competition, it was great to see Mr. Martin’s turn-around behavior because he was so excited for his group. When the teacher is excited, the students can feel it. Actually it should be, whatever the teacher is feeling, the students react to it as well. To create the sense of love for music, the teacher must always be willing to support and encourage his or her students in the learning process.

A Sense of Community. The students in the movie said it best that Douglas Anderson was like one big family. It was great to see when the students were accepted to the festival/competition that the other faculty were supportive as well, even though the movie showed only one other teacher, it was great to see the community the school had built. This gave the students a sense of pride and it made them even more excited for the music that they were going to be learning and performing at the festival. Another way a community can help create a love for music is having peer-to-peer feedback. It’s one thing to hear from a teacher on how you did. It’s another thing to hear from a peer. I don’t know what it is, but I feel that when you’re performing in front of your peers, it can be a bit nerve wracking than performing in front of a teacher. By bringing that into a classroom, it gives the students ownership over the learning that is done during that time. It would be the teacher’s job to monitor what is going on and it can certainly help create a love for performing since students will want to improve for their peers.

Exposure. This word can mean two different things and I see both of those definitions as helpers to creating the love. The first meaning I see exposure as is showing students different genres of music. Jazz is just one, but what about classical, funk, or even hip-hop? How can we create a love for music when we just focus on one genre of music? It would get boring real fast. The students need to be shown everything! The other definition I see exposure as is performing in various places. In the movie, Mr. Martin had his students perform at the Lakeside Jazz Festival. I thought that was really clever considering it was close to the time when Essentially Ellington was about to take place. I felt like it was a sort of warm-up before the big show, but in any other case, it’s just fun to perform for everyone to hear how much you have achieved. It’s even more fun when you’re performing with a close group of people who have become your friends. Performing so many times also helps students grow accustom and helps get rid of nerves a bit so there can be more fun on stage than anxiety.

“Chops” was a wonderful movie and up lifting. It made me find my love for jazz music again and wish that there had been more opportunities for jazz clarinet during my years in high school. It would also be great to expose students to the jazz world because it allows for so many risks to be made and there is no right or wrong answer.

I highly recommend this video, it's on Netflix and well worth the watch. The students from DASOTA are very entertaining and an example of what hard work can do.

Ten Minutes Ago.

After completing my general music lesson to a mock 8^th grade class, I realized that I probably gave enough information, but not enough elaboration. I felt as though I needed to review the major scale briefly to show the learner’s background and to at least review a bit before moving on. Perhaps I could have focused a little on the whole step, half step motion, but how much time could I spend on it with only ten minutes? My point with the stepwise motion was to show how it was done in a minor scale so then students could see how the two types of scales intertwined.

My labels on the board were composed of solfege and scale degree numbers. I explained that to my students, but I should have labeled it on the board to help the students. Though the labels would have thrown me off even more because during my lesson I was thinking too much and it got my brain all scrambled. I kept saying out loud, “I’ll go back to it.” I think I was getting too excited and too ahead of myself that I needed to just relax and continue slowly. It didn’t help at one point that a student had turned my focus to him. I do realize that is poor management and therefore a domino effect would happen, but I quickly got the students to turn their focus back on the board. Another time the students confused me even though my students were my colleagues who were trying to help me, it’s still a disruption to the teacher’s train of thought. Although it is nice that they were trying to help, it can be difficult to control after. However, the harmonic scale was something I did not intent to teach during my lesson, I thought I would just proceed with the rest of the lesson. Therefore I believe I need to make sure my lessons reflect on the time allowed instead of a HUGE lesson.

I know I talked a lot during my lesson, but when I finally got to the “activity” in my lesson, that was pretty good. I know it took me a while to get there, but I needed to explain what was happening in the scale. This was an 8^th grade class. Give if I knew I could have worked with a younger grade, I would have and obviously done a lot less talking. I should have done a lot less talking here, but it would make sense to do that when the material is more familiar to the students.

Aside from singing a scale, perhaps I could have done another activity such as taking a familiar song such as “Mary had a Little Lamb” or “Happy Birthday” and make into minor. That would have been fun, but with such a short amount of time. Looking back though, I wish I could have done that just to show how incomplete it feels to be in a minor key. Perhaps next time I will.

Is There a Coupon for That?

So here's a question to think about: 

Should we have to rely on parents and fundraising to run a modern music program?

Here's what I think. 

I don’t think that we should have to rely on them, but they can certainly help contribute. I usually see them as extra money for the music program outside of the allowed budget the music teachers are allowed. Both of these things can do a lot to help pay the cost of other things that aren’t a necessity or help along in the cause of getting something that is necessary.

Fundraising is a great way to get some extra money. I remember in high school we would fundraise to cut the cost of the annual band trip. First we would try to sell cookie dough/cheesecake/pies and then the second one would be the Entertainment book, that big book of coupons.  I find it ironic that I bring up the Entertainment book. If there were a way for us music teachers to have a coupon for EVERYTHING that we want to purchase, perhaps then we wouldn’t be in this predicament where we don’t know if the funding for the music program will be given or not. 

Parents are a good source of money as well. I wouldn’t expect them to fund an entire music program, but it is quite possible for them to support the music program. If they support their children playing an instrument, then they are contributing to the music program as well! Whether it is buying something as minuscule as a reed or something big like renting a tuba, a parent helps contribute to the music program by helping a student gain something that perhaps the music teacher cannot provide.

Becoming a Techie

Today’s world is changing thanks to the technology that is being developed or updated every day. With this new change, comes adaptation. The new generation of students has adjusted quickly and can maneuver through this technology better than the older generations. Everything is now more accessible. Young students can find songs easily on YouTube then go download them from iTunes for their iPods or for the older students, iPhones. Video games such as Guitar Hero and Rock Band can give the student an experience in coordination when it comes to playing an instrument. iPads have a new apps that help students grow in music while having fun! They also give students a way to play an instrument if they normally don’t play one. So what does this mean for music in the classroom? In an article I found called, “ How Music Teachers Got Their Groove Back: Music Instruction Goes Digital,” it tells how some teachers have found ways to integrate technology into their music classes.

The truth is that music education has been changing to fit in the new technology. Many schools have received funding for all sorts of new gadgets such as iPads, MacBooks, Chromebooks, and Macs. With these new gadgets, music teachers can find apps and other software to make music possible. Software such as Garage Band can help a teacher teach composition to his/her students. Therefore opening doors to students’ creative minds. I remember one time when I was observing in a middle school, a general music class was learning about film music and their project was to create their own pieces to fit behind a thirty second movie trailer. I was able to listen to some of the pieces the students had written and it was amazing to see what they were really capable of.

Do technology and music really have to stop at just composition? Of course not! Dr. Douglas O'Grady, a professor at my alma mater, composed a piece of music for iPads and an orchestra called iAlchemy. Thanks to an app called MorphWiz, that’s what gave the students of Seymour High School the tools to play with the orchestra. When listening to the song, it was very dramatic and sounded very much like something Danny Elfman would compose. The song sounds amazing and it’s very cool to see that technology (something new) can combine with an orchestra (something old).

Unfortunately a concert that featured the piece happened two years ago so if you wish to listen to this song, you’ll just have to click on the word, iAlchemy above.

Music Educator Traits

Music teachers are a unique type of teacher. We do things differently than any other teacher, but what part of us makes us so exceptional? Is it because we have to teach every student an instrument rather than grammar? Is it because we have to rehearse ensembles rather than have everyone sit at a desk, bored because of math?

            Maybe, but what makes us distinctive are the qualities we have as teachers. No two teachers are alike. Sure we can emulate what we’ve seen from colleagues, but we make our classroom our own. The way we teach is our own as well. Though there are three traits I believe to be very essential to music teachers.

1.     Optimist

The music teacher needs to be an optimist, “someone who tends to take a hopeful and positive view of future outcomes.” That is how Peter L. Boonshaft defined it, in his book, Teaching Music with Purpose. The classroom climate in an optimist’s room is positive where negativity is not welcome. As the optimistic music teacher, I believe it is your duty to reinforce positive behaviors you see with appropriate compliments that will be an example for the other students to follow. An optimistic teacher is also confident in his or her students by telling them firstly that they can succeed. Since you just showed that you believe in your students, then they will believe in themselves.

2.     Flexible

Much like how the students learn about the teacher and the subject, the teacher learns about the students and how to teach them in a manner that will lead to success. The teacher must have an extensive knowledge of his/her specialty. This teacher will need a bag of tricks in case if something that had been explained does not make sense to a student. Some students won’t understand clearly the first time, it’s a good idea to have more ideas in the back of your mind or come up with some that can give a student an easier time to understand. As a music educator, one must be able to communicate clearly what he or she wants to achieve with his or her students, especially in rehearsal, where it’s best to talk LESS and do MORE to make the most out of time. 

3.     A Leader

Defined by Merriam-Webster Dictionary, to lead means to direct on a course or in a direction. For a teacher to be a leader, one must be able to guide students on the right path. It can easily be achieved if you have a positive attitude. To be a leader and a teacher, one must have people skills! You have to know how to keep people engaged and excited to learn. A teacher is always enthusiastic to see his/her students grow and succeed. Being a musician, a teacher, and a conductor, mistakes are made a lot. Boonshaft says that mistakes are learning experiences so long as you, the teacher, show them that it’s okay and I couldn’t agree more. It’s important for student to keep going and to not stop. As educators we are passionate about what we do. I have yet to meet a teacher who does not like his/her job. Therefore, if you’re a music educator, you must have a passion for expanding the brains of students and music. So you must be committed! Meaning you won’t give up on your students and to pull through until your ensemble performs! When times get rough, always remember to STAY POSITIVE. Frank Battisti said it best; “The primary task of a leader is to keep hope alive.” That’s the greatest thing we educators can do.