Repositioning 'The Elements': How Students Talk about Music
This article brought up a lot of discussion points on how music education system is built. I thought it was interesting that music curriculum is being taught in a similar way as the math and science courses are, even if math and science are categorized as ‘academic’ courses. It seems like the article was trying to point out that music should be taught differently than in an ‘academic’ sort of way. I’m in most of an agreement with that. I believe since people coming into a music class will have much different backgrounds in music and how they interpret it. I believe it should be taught from a more self-discovery sort of method. The author brought a lot of points about how music is looked which surprised and frustrated me. The concept that there is only a ‘certain type’ of band music frustrated me. When it comes to band repertoire there are some stereotypes about what should or shouldn’t be played. Many band directors are now hesitant to play music that doesn’t fit into the ‘elements of music’ or music that is played in a sort of media. This usually leaves out pop music, movie scores or any other music that doesn’t match the ‘proper criteria’ that certain music festivals or audiences considers to be ‘proper music’. I personally think it’s great for bands to play popular music. From my own experience younger musicians especially seem to really enjoy music that they are more familiar with. I believe this even allows young musicians an easier way to express the music they are playing and focus on making music. If the musicians already have an understanding of the music they are about to play they will most likely have to concentrate less on reading the sheet music, allowing them to listen more to other members of the ensemble. It often times plays a factor in the popularity of a band. Most professional bands or orchestras have a ‘Pops Series’ in which they play what is labeled as ‘pop music’. These concerts often tend to be in high demand. What is frustrating about the ‘elements of music’ that was discussed is the limitations that come with it. Teachers that make students only listen for the ‘elements of music’ tend to make students neglect some aspects and simplify what they’re listening to. I wonder if the author has thought of ways that students can discuss music and how they interpreted it instead of the ‘elements of music’.
Rose, L. S., & Countryman, J. (2013). Repositioning ‘the elements’: How students talk about music. Action, Criticism, and Theory for Music Education 12(3): 45–64.
My thoughts on "good teaching"
I think this is a fantastic example of what is thought of as "Good Teaching". In this situation the student thinks very little of his poetry skills, maybe because he doesn't feel like he has been 'trained' enough to write one and express himself. I find this the case with myself and other students that a feeling of unprepared which might lead to humiliation can stop a person from expressing. The 'teacher' in this situation guides him to discovering what he is cable of doing. I specifically said the word "guiding" because I think the best 'teaching' is guiding another person to discovering for themselves.
My Thoughts on "Bad Teaching"
There are many things wrong with how the Cobra Dojo is structured, these are a few that I've come up with. The structure of learning at the dojo is an 'unsafe' learning environment, not just physically but also mentally. The students don't have any room to express opinions, if someone were to or if they were to do something that didn't fit the sensei's criteria they are punished in an unproductive way. All learning at the dojo is based around cruelty and mercilessness. However some students as seen in the video may thrive on this sort of teaching, similar to that in whiplash, this method of teaching is generally ineffective.
Thoughts on "Fumbling Towards Vulnerability"
Dawe’s mentioning of the black and white areas of ‘proper playing’ sparked a certain interest in me. It reminds me of when I started taking trumpet lessons. I took lessons from an orchestral player, at first it was very hard to learn the ‘proper’ technique of playing in this sort of style, I had not been exposed to very much arts music. I didn’t even think about it at the time but when I was learning this style of playing it seems like there wasn’t much room for creativity. Which has nothing to do with my teacher at the time, I’m very happy for everything I learned because it had prepared me for where I am today. Her talking about her experience auditioning for a Jazz ensemble inspired me to think about what I experienced in my high school Jazz band. She talked about a feeling of vulnerability she had when doing a solo, which led her to not fulfilling her criteria of a ‘good’ solo. I was in a Jazz band for 3 years. In that time I never did an improvised solo, only written ones. I think I felt like I had a lack of qualification because I had never been ‘Jazz trained’, I’ve mostly been trained to use techniques that are more common in classical music. I was scared to feel vulnerable because I felt like I was trained for a different purpose. Dawe’s talked about the ‘old school’ method of teaching, mainly in the case where ‘teacher knows best’ is commonly used. It reminds of me about the experiences I’ve had in school. I wonder how different the school experience would be if there was more student input in the classroom. This makes me think particularly about what that would be like for younger students in elementary school. Young people in many instances don’t have much input or freedoms based on their lack of experience and age. Would it be appropriate to let young students make some of the decisions in their own education?
Dawe, Lesley. 2016. Fumbling towards vulnerability: Moving out of the familiar for music education's sake. The Canadian Music Educator 57, (2) (Winter): 22-24, https://www.lib.uwo.ca/cgi-bin/ezpauthn.cgi?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/1766258212?accountid=15115 (accessed February 2, 2017).
Thoughts on Importance of Music in Early Childhood
I thought Levinowitz’s article brought up a lot of points that I thought were quite interesting. I was very interested by the information on early childhood development in music and how they’re affected and how it sets them up for music later in life. It seems that recently most of the topics on music in Intro to Music Ed have all been based around more an older age group, and that it’s all a bit more advanced. It was interesting getting to read about importance of development in younger children and discover how crucial music should be in early childhood education.
I liked that the article had referenced a Harvard professor that said musical intelligence is equally important compared to any other educational pursuits. This resonates with me because of the some frustrations that I have with Ontario’s educational system. First there’s hardly any music education in elementary school offered at school. This kind of shows what the Ontario government values as education, which is contrasting to what the Harvard prof. recommended. In fact this shows up again in high school. To graduate with a high school diploma you’re only required to take 1 arts course, which doesn’t even need to be music. Again I think this shows priorities of education that the Ontario government has. I thought it was interesting that it talked about the cognitive development of early childhood development. It seems like our culture does believe there is a benefit of music for young children, I’ve heard ‘Mozart makes my child smart’ a lot. There are also a lot of myths that float around this subject as well. In fact the article says it’s important for children to be able to sing as well, so that you can have tonality. It also discusses other interesting things about how we internalize music. How rhythm is better internalized through movement first and that an instrument is just an extension of the minds impression.
Teacher Interview
Me: What made you want to be a music educator?
Ms. Handley: I had great music teachers as a child and it was always in my brain to be music a person. In my first year of university I was actually in Physical Education, and then I missed music so I auditioned that year started doing music in my second year of university. I started off not knowing what to do but both programs were education based.
Before I taught in high school I worked at an elementary school in Nova Scotia and it killed me. Everything is so small and I prefer working with teenagers, you always have to have a lot of small little songs with elementary children. The gratifying part about it was getting the kids to sing in harmony. I had one of my classes in the teachers lounge so that would get distracting for the class.
Me: Did you ever think about any other music or education paths?
Ms. Handley: I toyed with the idea of piano accompaniment but that was lonely and I would’ve spent a lot of time doing something I didn’t fully enjoy. I’d much rather read through scores. So that’s why I picked choral conducting.
There was a point in high school where I didn’t think I would ever be a high school teacher. I had a teacher in grade 12 named Mr. Cowen and I remember thinking I’m never going to be like you, he just made the class so boring.
Me: Did you ever have any problems with the curriculum?
Ms. Handey: The Ontario curriculum is pretty broad so you can shape it the way you like it a little more.
Me: Is it different than the one in Nova Scotia?
Ms. Handley: To be honest I never had a department head or a person telling me what to do so I just taught the way I was taught in university. A lot of the stuff I learned in teachers college is what I apply to my teaching today, a lot of solfege and a lot of scale singing and it comes from the Codai method. It’s very applicable to high school students.
Me: Have you changed teaching styles very much?
Ms. Handley: through repetition you find a groove. I’m really lucky to be at this school because it’s a nice groove for me. I know that other teachers in the city have a tougher time because it’s not the right fit for them. Some people don’t have the good luck, sometimes they get a lot of push back. The more you teach comfortable you get and you get to understand the flow a little more. I always have the curriculum in my head but I’ll also switch gears on how the students are responding to it. Being flexible is important, if it’s not working with the students you might have to use a different teaching approach and switch gears.
Me: Do you conduct choirs with different levels of musical experience differently?
Ms. H: Usually with younger choirs I teach a lot more by wrote, lots of listening and imitation. There are some people that go through all of high school in choir without being able to read music. I also make members from the more experienced choir practise and perform with the less experienced ones, so they can listen around them. With my more experienced choirs there’s a bit more of an expectation to take the music home and learn it on your own.
Me: How do you find conducting small choirs with a dozen or so people?
Ms. H: it’s much more personal, which can be great because you get to know people well, but it can also be disruptive sometimes. You can have a little more fun in the small ensembles sometimes but you can’t do that as much in a large ensemble because then it’s more distracting. Sometimes it can be frustrating because there are more and less mature students in choir. But you have to be a human being, it’s a job of relationships and your human side needs to come out eventually. It’s like the snowball effect. There’s a balance.
Me: Do you ever think about how you want to come across from the students perspective?
Ms. H: Yeah you do. And when you first start teaching you try to emulate teachers you look up to. But eventually along the way you just need to be yourself. It sounds cheesy but it’s the magic recipe. Even if you laugh at someone’s joke and the group gets off track it’s important to be yourself, and don’t be too hard on yourself for it. I think musicians also need to get over themselves sometimes. We get caught up in studying and getting better on your instrument and doing it for the applause. It’s easy to get puffed up or think that you need to be.
Me: Do you ever feel the pressure to do solo work or be part of ensembles out of school?
Ms. H. : not really, I am part of a choir but I do it for pleasure and I wouldn’t if didn’t like it. It definitely helps when applying for a job, but it can get messy because if you’re applying for jobs you’re probably also teaching privately, so you might have a rehearsal when instead you could be making money teaching. Another thing about managing time is program building. If you want a strong program you need to put in extra time to draw people in. There’s no way to have a strong program by clocking in and out from 9-3. It’s important to have small ensembles or extra things because that’s what the students love.
Me: What are you thoughts about specialized arts school.
Ms. H: I wouldn’t want to teach at one because of the expectation non music people have on you, not that I don’t like being challenged. I just don’t like having to be told to do this event and this competition. I feel like the expectations are different on the students at an arts school, they have to learn a certain style of music and you have to do Kiwanis. You also don’t have to conduct a choir of soloists.
Me: What do you think about when choosing music for choir?
Ms. H: I obsess about the music I choose. I really want people to like the music, sometimes people need a push to understand certain pieces and some people can listen to the phone book. Sometimes you’ll have kids join choir for a song they like, it’s not always great because they’re only motivated by that one song, but sometimes that’s the hook.
My thoughts on The invisible student: Understanding social identity construction within performing ensembles
I thought the research topic of the article was very interesting. A kid being left out is something quite common in any sort of group activity and I’m glad that there are strategies that people are looking into to help children who don’t quite “fit in”. This article is quite relevant to what was being discussed in class recently. There are a lot of things discussed that I felt were very useful and something’s even in my own experiences that I can relate to or never even thought about. Throughout high school I worked summer camps and at an after school daycare. Similar to this there were a lot of times where an “invisible child” is easily or vulnerable to being left out. I used similar strategies that were discussed but I never thought about it as a science. I mainly focused my energy in being aware of things. The tone of voice the child used, their attitude, the way they interacted with other kids. Being aware of that I was able to use different approaches to children that would work best. Either way I felt like being aware of what interested them and talking about that was always a good start. I liked the big sibling method that was discussed. I’ve experienced similar programs in school. Even here at western incoming students get paired with an upper year to help guide them through university. The use of ‘peer-guidance’ seems quite effective because the upper year can empathise very well with someone younger than them because it’s likely that they’ve experienced the same sort of issues. My high school band even did peer evolutions where an upper year would meet with a younger student and they would play for each other. A teacher can be quite more daunting. The method of choosing a bus or rooming trip seems quite effective. I’ve been on a few band trips in which we were allowed to pick our roommate. It was fun because I was always with someone I knew. However one year I was late to pick someone so it was chosen at random. I was paired with someone quite, different because I’m more extroverted and social with people. Looking back this was probably good because merely by being roomed together I think the other student was included more and hang out with whomever I was with as well. The aspects of an “Invisible child” can be quite common and I think the article discussed a lot of good strategies to help them be involved.
Hourigan, R. M. (2009). The invisible student: Understanding social identity construction within performing ensembles. Music Educators Journal, 34-38.
My thoughts on : Think Everything’s “Normal?” Then It’s Time To Reconsider And Promote A New Narrative Of Disability
I thought this article was very eye opening because it made me question how I had previously looked at disability. The influence of the media was quite interesting in this as it discussed that those with disabilities are portrayed as either the hero that overcomes a disability or the villain based on the pain and suffering they’ve been made to endure. I never even thought about how rarely I see characters with disabilities play a different role than these. Were they weren’t alienated for their disability. This now makes me question mainly the movies about ‘overcoming’ a disability. It first made me think about the Movie Forrest Gump. However this one I find hard to tell because it can be looked at two ways. The story is about him overcoming oppression based on what society has deemed a ‘disability’ or that he’s not disabled at all and the story is about him having a different way of living way compared to the rest of society. Looking back at my experiences with friends and family with disabilities. One of my families close friends is paralysed from roughly the neck down with some ability to move his arms. I always thought he was sad because he was not able to things that people who weren’t in a wheel chair could do. After reading this article it seems like that sort of thought is a little condescending with me thinking that because he was in a wheel chair there was no way that he could be happy. Thinking about it now I realize that he’s living differently than me, not better or worse just different. He’s still able to drive a vehicle that uses hand steering, he can still cook and do just about anything that I can but I had always thought he was in a way suffering to do so because society has labeled his condition as an ‘obstacle’ in living life. Everything about this article has made me question my pre-conceived notion of disability.
Series, D. Think Everything’s “Normal?” Then It’s Time To Reconsider And Promote A New Narrative Of Disability.
Guest Reflection Dr. Wright
There was a lot interesting things that Dr. Wright had brought up about the Music futures program. First of all I was very happy to hear about a system like this with the intentions of getting more music into schools and making kids feel like they have a right to learn about music. I appreciated the aspect of building a bridge between the typical sort of music learned in a school and pop culture music. I’m a big fan of music programs orientated towards pop music. This tends to be relatable and ‘hooks’ students better. Also having a strong link between what’s learned in a school and what’s learned out of it sounds like the most practical thing that could ever be done. This way it seems like there is a continuous flow of learning that doesn’t stop outside of the classroom. This is sort of the thing that guides a student to making connections or having ‘light bulb’ moments. I also believe that this brings an excitement back to the classroom and makes students even more curious about making connections and things they can discover. Dr. Wright talked about the ability for a student to retain the knowledge of the class after completing it. It makes me sad when I see people who had taken music in class from grade 7 through 10 and stop and say they do not remember a thing. This also relates to making music in class applicable to music outside of school because I believe these students are wrong about saying they didn’t learn anything. I find it strange to believe that after years of being in music class there isn’t a single that was taken away from it. It seems like there would have to something wrong with what is being taught or how it’s being taught. I thought the idea of having a teacher less present was interesting. This way the students are not scared of being judged, a feeling, which usually leads to fear, which inhibits a student to be their most expressive self and perform at their peak. The guest lecture was quite interesting to listen to. There was talk about this program coming over to Canada and being more present in the music programs here which I’m looking forwards to seeing.
Guest lecture Leslie Dawe
I find the teaching style and ideas of Leslie Dawe very similar to that of Dr. Wright and Music Futures. Finding alternative or abstract ways of learning about music different than what is the ‘norm’. It seems like her method of teaching follows the idea of making a link towards popular music. In her class’ students were able to play a ‘non-instrumental’ instrument. By that I mean something that you won’t find in an orchestra, like the guitar or the bass or the keyboards, etc. I believe this has a good sense of practicality to it. She mentioned that her students are around the middle school age. I remember in middle school when people where first starting to choose an instrument. It seemed like a lot of people struggled and were turned off by an instrument that they couldn’t relate to. It’s hard to listen on the radio and find a pop song featuring a prominent tuba. But it’s easier to find one that would have a guitar. She talked about being vulnerable to discussing with the students on how the class was going to be structured. I was very impressed with her decision to do this. She said she had to move out of her comfort zone to discuss this kind of thing with her students because it’s so different than how most music classes or classes in general are set up. It seems like the teacher in most situations are supposed to have the ‘right’ answer always and that they know best. It seems very humbling for a teacher to make an approach like this where they may offer an idea, but not show that everything they know is the correct answer. Her guest lecture was very interesting and it made me think about possible ways for me to run a class as a future educator.
The interviewee in this recording is my roommate, Jake. He's had a lot of musical experience both playing and listening to it, he plays the guitar. One of the things was his experience performing music with a band. He really likes the adrenaline rush when playing, as well as the connection you have between the other players. Music for him was also a way for his family to bond. He plays music with his brother a lot and as a child before going to bed his family would listen to music.
The interviewee in this is my floor RA, Pranav. We had an interesting conversation about music in his life. He never played any instruments or sang. His experience has mostly been listening to it. He listens to it a lot and depends on how he feels. His favourite artists are Beyonce and Coldplay. We talked about the time he saw Beyonce live. He said he liked it because of the environment made the experience good.
The Elephant in the room brought up a lot of interesting discussion points on the reasons of the decreasing numbers of people enrolled in music class. What I find really crazy is that the amount of interest students have for music outside of school has not slowed down. People listen to music wherever they go but I think it’s kind of strange that there’s less appeal to try and dig deeper into it and understand it a bit more. I think the way the current transition from high school to post secondary education system is kind of set up to neglect music in schools. A little while ago in Ontario there used to be a grade 13 in high school which was supposed to be a sort of transition year where people would pick more specialized courses based on their interests. Along with this 13th year students were able to take more classes, even the ones that weren’t required for university or college programs. I think if there were still a grade 13, a student would be more likely to choose to enrol in a music class. Grade 13 was cut from high school because the government thought it was unnecessary and was too much money. I think a lot of music programs in schools are also taking a hit similar to this because there are fewer students that do music in post secondary schools so they don’t see the need to fund the programs as much. The demands of universities are also set up in a way that would prevent a student from enrolling in a music class. A lot of science and math based programs require 4-5 math and science based course credits. Along with Standard English classes or other required language courses there isn’t a lot of space for a student to take a music course. Along with the education system neglecting music classes I think music programs have a hard time adapting and evolving with the needs of the students. The article goes over a lot of reasons why the current music education system is set up.
Williams, D. A. (2011). The elephant in the room. Music Educators Journal, 98(1), 51-57.