My Beliefs in Music Education

Philosophy Paper from Art of Teaching Music I

            During my preschool to middle school years, our music classes were just the teacher sitting in front of the piano and teach us, which were seated in well-organized rows, singing songs in unison the whole time.  That was around a decade ago in China. As I grew up as a young musician and now studying to become a music educator myself, I am aware that music education is, will be, and should be much different than the music education I had in school when I was a kid.

            First, I believe that everybody has the right to receive proper music education. I have encountered plenty of people who think that music belongs to a particular group of “talents” who were born with natural gifts, and everybody else has nothing to do with music. I find this idea scary, and I understand this as a failure of music education in their lives. I believe that the first and the most important job for a music teacher, is not to teach the students to perfect the skills of singing or playing an instrument, nor teach students to read music, but make music a part of students’ life. Whether or not one has the intention to pursue any music skills, the ability and the willingness to enjoy music is a fundamental human right.

            Music education is not just about music. Like all the other subjects, the learning experience is as valuable as the learning outcome. A thriving music classroom would not only promote student’s music skills, but also their psychological well-being as a person, which I find this true not only in music teaching but any other subjects (Countryman, J., & Rose, L. S., 2017). As a teacher, it is also crucial to know and care about your students as people. Students would be willing to open to learning from you if they feel you genuinely care about them. It is also essential to understand the correct way to encourage and challenge different types of students. For example, some students might find it incentive when you give them challenges; others may stress out and quit.

            After establishing the most crucial concepts of music education, I have the ambition to teach music as a subject successfully. Even though I have the dream to teach high school or higher education classes as most of the people would entering education major, I heartily acknowledge the importance and the challenge of elementary education. Elementary education is a powerful place; it is a crucial factor to a student’s success which whether he or she had solid instructions as the base in his or her young age. Myself as an example. Even though the mainstream music education idea is that kids should learn to read music at the age they start to read languages, I learned to read music way before I began to read any language. Thus, I feel that the ability of reading music has become a part of me that comes naturally, just like the ability to walk and blink. I never felt any frustration learning to read music later in my life. People often underestimate the learning ability of young kids. After observing Mr. Velez’s class, I was amazed by how much those kids at this young age can learn and do when you lead them in the proper ways (J.P. Velez, personal communication, 2017). Even though kids are the masters at learning new things, it should be kept in mind that they also have incredibly short focus span. As I learned from one of the sessions at the NAfME national conference this year, that kids are capable of appreciating music at a young age, it just needs to be done playfully. In an elementary music class, the students should be able to move around and do multiple activities in each class. Thus, an early elementary music class setting should be teaching kids music skills through playing and a place for them to explore the idea of music.

            When it comes to later elementary school and middle school, music can play a significant role in the adolescents’ psychological well-being. At this age, students start to trying find out who they are and the reason of being, and it is also the most crucial time for them to form an understanding of the world and the society. A correct and healthy classroom environment can promote students’ self-worth and the sense of belonging (Countryman, J., & Rose, L. S., 2017). Music class should not only be a place to learn but also can be a sanctuary for students who experience psychological insecurity. Middle school is fun because it would also be the perfect time to start teaching more detailed and complicated music theory.  The tricky part of teaching middle school music would be that the singers often are having a lot of voice changes on almost a daily basis, both boys, and girls. It is the teacher’s job to carefully guide them to find, adapt and protect their new voices.

            In high school, students are all at an age that close to being a young adult, which gives the teacher the fun to do more advanced repertoires. At this stage, some of the students may also start considering about their future careers, and some of them may even choose to go into music major. The teacher teaching at this stage should present a sufficient amount of professionalism, which that the students would have an idea of what it is like to enter this profession. The teacher should also treat the students more equally as young artists rather than purely students.

            Other than general music education, I am most excited about teaching choirs. Growing up singing in choirs, I have experienced the charisma of choral singing and choral music. I also noticed the power that choirs have on the singers’ personal growth both musically and psychologically. In choirs, students learn to read music, sing with a conductor and balance their voice with the chord and tune with the whole choir, which this effectively develops the integrated musicianship and aural skills. More importantly, a successful choir requires everybody to work together as a whole. The choir experience teaches students to cooperate with each other intuitively. This does not only provide students the social skill of working in teams but also develops a better community. As Dr. Jordan said, even when you are doing everything musically correct, a choir would not tune if the people in the choir have disputes between them (J. Jordan, personal communication, 2017).

            It is an important part to choose the repertoire for either the choir or the general music class setting or the band. I believe that a successful repertoire list includes masterworks and diversified works. Learning western classical masterpieces is important because it is the foundation of everything we have today in the mainstream music world. I believe that learning classical works from the past is also a magical way to communicate with the brilliant human minds that existed before us. The masterworks from the more contemporary era are also important to learn because every success has its reason and its worth to learning. Diversity is also a key to repertoire choices. Western classical music has been dominating most of the musical world. However, there are all kinds of different music in different genre, regions, and origins that is as valuable as western classical music. In the States, which the whole society is already relatively diverse, learning various styles of music helps the students to understand this community better. In other regions which might have less diversity than the U.S., introducing different genre and style to the students would be like a window for them to see the different cultures in the world just by being in the classroom.

            I have something that is more specific that I would like to experiment and discover more in the future, which is about music theory teaching. Growing up studying with different instructors in and from different places, I had to switch to using different systems a couple of times. During this experience, I found that there are advantages and flaws in each of them, and it has been helpful for me to apply all of them together, which I don’t think it is what the music education world has focused on. I believe that intergrade music theory system around the world would help the learning easier and more successful.

            I believe that, as a teacher, it is important to not only help the students to become better musicians and better people but also always work to become a better self. I believe that one knows how to be a good teacher only when one is a good learner. I found that it is easy to stuck in the self-complacence once stops searching and learning from the innovating world. Especially nowadays, with the world and the technologies making huge progresses that changes the way people live, the idea that the market, society and teaching works can easily be shift in just a few years (M. Onofrio, personal communication, 2017). Staying curious and open helps one to become more successful in many ways in the current society. I am also aware of that a teacher/conductor/director often plays the role of being a role model for the students which sometimes can make a huge difference in a student’s life. I find this to be a great responsibility and one should take this trust very carefully, as the person in power must perfect him or herself continually. Becoming a better person also helps a music director to improve his or her program in a practical way, as people would come to your program because of you (J. Jordan, personal communication, 2017).

            I understand that as a music teacher teaching in a school or any other institutions alike, my job is not only in the classrooms. I have to consider the whole picture, as each school has its philosophies and each district has its unique situation and goals. I am also aware that being a teacher it is not only to interact with my students, but also develop a healthy working relationship with my colleagues. Though I have an ideal plan for my very own music program, it is often necessary for me to make compromises that is for the better for everybody (Abraham, 2005). The case studies from Dr. Abrahams’ book is not only in the books but our daily lives. The ability to envision the whole picture and anticipate potential conflicts is important in any situation, but in this case, it is crucial for one to become a successful music educator, not only for one’s sake but the whole school and whole community.

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References

Abrahams, F., & Head, P. D. (2005). Case studies in music education (Second ed.). Chicago, Illinois: GIA Publications. 

Countryman, J., & Rose, L. S. (2017). Wellbeing in the Secondary Music Classroom: Ideas from Hero's Journeys and

            Online Gaming. Philosophy of Music Education Review, 25(2), 128. doi:10.2979/philmusieducrevi.25.2.03

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Jordan, J. (2017, November 9). Personal communication.

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Onofrio, M. (2017, December 5). Personal communication.

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Velez, J.P. (2017, November 7). Personal communication.