Dr. Stephen Gage is one of my favorite people on God’s green earth.  It usually takes about 5 minutes of talking with him to feel better about life, faith, and music.  His status on Facebook was the impetus and with his permission I will share it here:
“I am beginning to worry that in our quest to ‘get it right’ that we forget why we became musicians, that we lose sight of what is really important, and that we compromise what we know down deep in our musical souls. When all of these things are in an alignment, EVERYONE grows and everyone falls more in love with music!”

Love is a pretty important word in that last sentence.  But to get all Tina Turner on you for a second “What’s love got to do with it?”  Is love a second-hand emotion?  For the musician – absolutely not.  I am sure there are physicists that love calculus, but it is hard to see that.  Football players love to play football – thus the over-extended celebrations when they score a touchdown.  But a football player cannot play forever – and even from the booth or the sideline a retired player will never get that degree of love back again.  But musicians have the opportunity to extend their love over a lifetime, and whether it is conductor of community band, a local rock group, or a church organist they have the opportunity to keep making music.  Whether its covers of the Beatles, Corialan Overture by Beethoven, or hymns by Martin Luther, the love affair never has to stop and it is a relationship they never have to leave.

But we as educators, where is our love?  Where is our love for our students in which we profess to “have the best interests”?  Do they see our love and passion for this art that we teach? Do we model it? Do we help them build their own loving relationship with music? It saddens me when I meet a student teacher from another discipline in the building in which I teach, and they tell me “Oh, I used to be in music in high school…”.   I will ask them why they stopped, and usually the answer often turns into a rehearsal schedule and expectation level for competition that pursued a trophy on the wall instead of instilling a song in their heart.  Competition can be healthy – but if it is destroying student’s love of music, I am not sure that in the grand scheme of life it is appropriate or worth it.

How many of our students will play that final concert their senior year, and never consider how they can continue playing their instrument later in life? Too many.  How many of us as educators consider ways in which we can offer them avenues to pursue to keep playing? Too few.  Do we love teaching music? Do we share our love of music with students?  If the answer to those two questions is yes, why don’t we think about ways in which this future music-lover can engage with music? Unlike the song by Meatloaf folks, two out of three ain’t good enough.  I have already extolled on the possibilities of one avenue we can pursue, and I encourage you to read it about in my post entitled “Small Ensembles and the Chamber of Doom?”.

I would like to share a comment by Brian Balmages in response to Dr. Gage’s response that I think is particularly appropriate when we consider our role as an educator: “I think the biggest problem is not the music itself – it’s the passion for music. When everyone started playing an instrument, they did so because they were excited about it …just a pure love and excitement for music itself. We need to instill that same passion for music in our youth. I try to do that every time I guest conduct. Passing on our passion is a sure way to keep music alive. Many of our students will not go on to be music majors or educators – but some of them will be community leaders, politicians, school board superintendents, etc. They can make as much a difference from the outside as we can from the inside. I love that we all discuss the irrelevance of getting a “1″ at festival, but the problem is deeper than that – we need to instill passion. Absolute love for music. Things like that do not go away as you get older.”

Bravo, Brian! Another great quote about music, its importance, and the passion that it brings out was shared with me by Francis McBeth at Midwest my Senior year of College: “Don’t forget why you became a musician.  It was because of a love affair with sound.  It was not a love affair with organization, techniques, or competition, no matter how commendable these efforts may be.  A musical experience has no substitute; and when it is experienced by the band, the conductor and the audience, it is desired above all else.”

The benefits of instilling passion and love of music are now coming to the forefront as an important role for which the music education profession must take seriously.  It is a passion and love of music we must instill – not in the sense of puppy-dog utopia love – but a passion to engage with all kinds of music and let the music work on us and we work on the music to transport us to a different emotional and mental state. In an article about brain research as it relates to emotion, Bennett Reimer (2004) wrote that music can designate any easily identifiable emotions, and though drawn out through its context, can make something musical out of any and all various images, stories or events.  Where else would people choose of their own free will to engage with sad music not to feel sad, but to move beyond sadness to where the music takes them?  As the music unfolds, feelings and emotions unfold that powerfully and precisely reveal the conscious condition achieved by the human brain and body (Reimer, 2004).  Reimer calls upon music educators to be nurturers of consciousness.  Music has a boundless capacity to expand the intricacies, depths, breadths, and range of conscious awareness made available to our minds and bodies through a felt, sonic experience.  Our true self begins to form and take shape as our experiences with music accumulate.

I was surprised to find an article by David Elliot (2005) written about the same time that takes a similar stance to Reimer in relation to the emotional education of students.  It is Elliot’s view that “musical understanding” is often equated to reading music notation, knowing musical facts and concepts, and how to perform (I am sure he would they “music”…) by some parents, students, music teachers, and music education professors.   Elliot questions how often are teachers and students engaged in “expressional” musical meanings, and the role of such meanings in their enjoyment of music.

Elliot cites part of his own philosophy of music education when he states that musical expressions of emotion occur within specific musical-cultural contexts. For the listener to recognize a musical pattern as expressive of an emotion, that listener must understand the vocal customs or gesture customs that musical pattern seeks to resemble.  The implication for music educators then, according to Elliot, is to provide opportunities for students to listen, reflect and interpret works that are clear examples of emotion in music, and perform and create works that express emotion.  Furthermore, educators need to be musical role models by providing regular demonstrations of expressive music making, and use emotional language and emotional analogies so that students attend to the expressive features of a work.

Finally, the last piece of the puzzle for me came from an article that appeared in the NBA Journal by David Whitwell (2009). Whitwell discusses that language is an important form of communication, but anyone who has tried to write a love letter knows it is quite inferior in the realm of expressive emotions (Thank God for Hallmark!).  Language expresses ideas, while music expresses feelings, and expressing an emotion or feeling has something to do with becoming conscious of it.

Whitwell continues that music offers the listener the opportunity to discover his experiential right hemisphere of the brain, to discover individual emotional identity, and to contemplate his reaction to that discovery.  The student must be given opportunity to hear the emotion in the music, and through this process it causes him to become aware of his emotions.  As long as the music is authentic, the listener cannot fail to perceive the generalized form of the emotion.  So music education needs to be in the school where a child becomes aware of it, begins to explore and understand, and finds a means of expressing his own personal emotional being.

Any composer who wants his music to communicate joy can do exactly that – music in other words, is a form of communication that transmits emotion, and speaks about emotion in precise ways.  Musicians use this language in order to communicate emotions and qualities to others who recognize the language.  Whitwell contends that the great artist looks for the emotional content in music, and not the abstracted data elements, the “grammar” of music.

It is more than just love.  Music has a fundamental ability to communicate emotion.  We, as a profession of music educators, have an oath to present this dimension of music to our students as passionately as we contend that trombones should play B natural in 4^th position!  It is easy to get ground down by the bureaucracy of that is forced upon us by mindless state departments and politicians (see also Ed Rendell) who think that the only way to show a school is succeeding is to publish their standardized test scores in the local fish-wrap.  Despite their worst efforts, music and music educators continue to rise up and confront these problems.  We keep many different musical styles and traditions alive in the public schools because of knowledge and abilities as educators.  I contend that we make them attractive to students because of our passion for them.  Remember to take your scores, baton, metronome, and tuner to the podium at your next rehearsal – but don’t forget the love.  You and your students need it!

We are the music makers,
And we are the dreamers of dreams,
Wandering by lone sea-breakers,
And sitting by desolate streams;—
World-losers and world-forsakers,
On whom the pale moon gleams:
Yet we are the movers and shakers
Of the world for ever, it seems.

-          Arthur William Edgar O’Shaugnhessy, Ode from his book Music and Moonlight (1874)

Elliot, D. J. (2005). Musical understanding, musical works, and emotional expression: Implications for education. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 37 (1), 93-103.

Reimer, B. (2004). New brain research on emotion and feeling: Dramatic implications for music education. Arts Education Policy Review, 106 (2), 21-27.

Whitwell, D. (2009). Music education of the future: Two paramount new purposes. NBA Journal, 50 (2), 43-60.

But we are lining up a series of great posts for the November carnival.  I can almost smell the funnel cake from here…

There is plenty of room for new posts as well as bringing back some old ones that have received attention.  So far I have really enjoyed reading a number of older submissions and reflecting upon my current perspective compared to the one I had reading it the first time.  It really is amazing how this campaign has taken off, continued to evolve, and is bringing some refreshing conversation to the perspective.

If you have not submitted before, never fear as this is easier that cleaning your band office coffee pot after a two week coffee hiatus….not there was mold growing mind you, just a penicilin experiment gone awry. The process is actually very easy.  You can find the Music Education Submittal Page by clicking on the following link: http://blogcarnival.com/bc/submit_4443.html. 

I am looking forward to hosting, so come one and all and step right up to the greatest show on earth!  And if you are able, I am really jonesing for some funnel cake…

First of all, these athletes took the time necessary to focus on ONE thing and become great. There are wonderful students in our classrooms and ensembles who seek recognition in many areas – there always will be. They make positive contributions musically and socially to our organizations – they always will. But lest we forget, there is that small percentage who is on the cusp of doing something great. We need to focus the energies and talents of those students like a Coach does and help them understand their potential and the path to take to realize it. Every student is different, every situation is unique, and each coach has their own perspective. So where do we start?

I spoke with my marching band over the summer about five aspects of a musical experience needed to make it meaningful (These are taken from Reimer’s A Philosophy of Music Education: Advancing the Vision – thanks Dr. Dorfman!). They need to understand trust – each member of our group has to depend on someone else who is depending on them. They need competence – achieving it means that work needs to be done. They need cooperation – both between members of the group, but with the materials (the music, the instrument, the sonic image of the composer). They need respect – grant others a sense of worth as part of a shared enterprise). They need courage – the risk of being open to the unexpected, the not yet known, and willing to be wrong as much as they are right. I agree with Dr. Reimer that these make more ethical people from our teaching, but it also lends itself to making student musicians who make great musical and social decisions. Phelps trust in his relay teammates was rewarded – Men’s & women’s track and field relay teams fell apart. How hard Nastia and Shawn worked for those moments – and cooperation with their coach, the apparatus, and allowing their body to perform what was created in a visual image by the mind. All of those athletes had courage – even when that meant a slight bump on the hurdle cost Lolo Jones everything she still had the courage to speak about what happened. The “Redeem” Team has been a wonderful example of respect in their support of the other athletes – a lot of that comes from the top down, and I love Coach K. (I highly recommend his book, Leading with the Heart).

But that is not all. There is one component I would add that they NEED to see from us – and that is passion for what we do, the art we create, interpret, and teach. Do you really believe there was no passion in the overtime between the US and Brazil in Soccer? Or between Japan and USA in Women’s softball? Passion reigned supreme when those events ended. But passion should fill our hearts as educators and we should not be afraid to show it in a rehearsal or in a concert. How much better will students react when they see someone excited and energized about what they do? Never forget why you became a musician – it was a love affair with sound (this great advice was shared with me by Francis McBeth some years ago). They need it as much as the five qualities named by Dr. Reimer.

In some cases, these athletes have spent a lifetime training for 10 seconds of glory. One match. Just under 51 seconds of the most exciting swimming final ever. But they prepare with a mindset to give their personal best each time – the process of their preparation is to be the best in the world. Our students are a little different and sometimes are far from that standard, but it doesn’t mean we should give up because it is never going to be attainable. Their coaches have taken TIME to teach them – they set them on a path towards excellence, they inspired them to believe in themselves, they put them through a process so that no matter if there were three people who finished ahead of them they know that they have given their best.

Maybe a concert doesn’t need to be an hour long – maybe it only needs to be 40 minutes of greatness instead of 60 minutes of better than average. Time is the biggest pressure we have day to day within our teaching schedules – ask anybody they will agree, maybe not on a Presidential choice, but on instructional time? Pshh, that is a no-brainer. When is the last time you heard anyone say “I wish I didn’t have as much time to teach my students?” These athletes continue to prove that the quality of the experience is more important than the quantity of experiences. Perhaps our instruction should reflect more of that commitment to raising the quality, and doing it in what little quantity we sometimes have.

We (as educators) are not in the business of working with professional musicians – but that doesn’t mean we should be lacking a professional attitude. Some of them are amatures, some slightly better, some that are exceptional – but they are all still kids. Kids who need role models committed to trusting, competence, cooperation, respect, courage, and passion. Role models who teach them because they love what it is that they do for all the right reasons. And before some of you take fingers to keyboard and call me out, yes those paychecks do help don’t they? But explain to me why I feel like a million bucks at the end of the Pines of Rome – for me that is one of those right reasons.

We want our students to make the right decisions as people and musicians. Let us lead them as their coaches in making our choices ones that inspire, challenge, and mold them into student musicians who seek to continually improve themselves. My opening ceremony for the year is now concluded , the torch is lit, and it is officially time to teach!

When preparing for this (which is probably similar to Contest Festivals in other states), there is no cramming and last minute “throwing things together”.  The performance should reflect a significant amount of time studying the piece to deliver the composer’s intent for the music.  That being said, there is another side to the coin which I feel can be dangerous for student growth and appreciation of music.  While I understand that for some schools a good rating at a festival is of paramount importance (and sometimes is oddly tied to their continued support and funding…), I don’t believe necessarily in a ”drop everything else so we can get this rating” mentality.  There is a fine line of process and product to be walked in this kind of endeavor, and it is certainly worth the walk to elevate the expectations for your program.  I do my best to emphasize the importance of what we can learn by presenting a part of the product as part of the process.  I will gladly acknowledge that preparing and performing at a very high level for some of our students creates a meaningful connection with music that alters their life perspective (and maybe their career choice to become a music teacher or performer!).  They may experience the ultimate success at this level (or a similar situation).  They could also experience a degree of failure.  Be mindful of how they pick themselves up, and be active in helping them assimilate and analyze what happened.  You could be Bowling for Mozart and not even realize it.

Talking with a couple of friends who also had groups at the festival, I was in agreement that we definitely learned things about our groups on Tuesday.  More importantly, the students learned things about themselves and their ensemble as well.  When we return from our Easter break, there are a number of comments from the judges that I can share that will hopefully guide us on the next path of our journey.  Our students sometimes end up unconciously “tuning us out” (sorry, no pun, put away your Korg….) because they hear us day after day address things like:

• Key Signature
• Accidentals
• Rhythms 
• Tuning
• Intonation
• Phrasing
• Balance
• Expression
• Trombones, it’s A natural! Second position! (Ok, so perhaps I tipped my own frustrated baton on this one….)

But throw the comments of an outside observer at them, and suddenly their perspective is refreshed (Not to mention our own!).  Knowing the adjudicators we had on Tuesday, they have all been in the position during their career that the directors are currently working.  Their comments will be very useful, because they will reinforce to the students to commit to quality and strive to make your next performance better.  They will tell a group where the strength lies, but also where the weaknesses are as well.  Their comments will be practical for everyday use in rehearsal, and they will not be condescending to the point it would damage the group’s self-esteem or confidence.  As I have said before, the ears of an outside observer – whether a colleague, a student teacher, a friend – can lend a perspective that can be helpful in evaluating our instruction.

I was proud of all my students for accepting the challenge of the music we studied, and for giving the music their best possible effort.  I have a list of things that we will continue to build upon.  I also have a list of things I know that we will be able to incorporate, work on in our daily rehearsal, and thereby improve the quality of the ensemble as well.  This was part of the on-going process that by engaging our students and ourself we will ultimatley improve our product.