The Audience

Most middle and high schools don't seem to need to worry about building an audience. Most concerts are filled to the brim with supportive parents, grandparents, siblings, etc. Should we worry about building an audience?

The most important reason for having a concert is for the students. Concerts give the students the opportunity to share the music that they have worked on with the community. This can help to motivate students to work to their full potential. Concerts should also serve to give the students encouragement. I know from years of experience exactly how intimidating it can be to perform in front of an audience. I want my students to know the incredible sense of accomplishment that comes from overcoming that hurdle when you give a beautiful concert, it can be incredible uplifting. It is also rewarding when you share music you love and it has an impact on the audience.

That being said, if the auditoriums are full and the focus is on the students, why should we bother worrying about getting a larger audience? Music should not be a solitary art form, it is meant to be shared. It can unite communities, inspire others to take up music, and expose people to different styles of music as well as cultures.

I've heard of high school directors who fill the concerts with "popular music" to fill the seats and keep the audience interested. While I think there is a time and a place for that kind of music, it should not be selected with only the audience in mind or to make the concert "fun". This choice contradicts the number one reason for having concerts. Repertoire should be selected to interest the students and audience, as well as developing their skills and teaching a variety of musical genres.

Here are some ideas for expanding an audience:

• Find new venues to perform at. For example, it may be possible to bring your ensemble to the local elementary schools or nursing homes. 
• Think about when the concerts are happening? What else is going on at that time? If the performances occur at a time when most people are working, or are unwilling to go out, your audience will be limited.
• Advertise to the community. People who don't have a child in that program typically don't know when performances are, so they do not attend.
• If you can, post videos of your ensemble performing. Give people an idea of what your ensemble offers so they are interested.
• Think about who would be interested in the program you offer. Not everyone will want to attend your concert, so know who your audience base is and make sure they know about it.

Broadway or Bust

The students featured in PBS's documentary "Broadway or Bust" have clearly found a love of singing and performing. The documentary follows a group of high school students who have advanced the the final round of the National High School Musical Theater Awards.  The Jimmy's celebrate some of the finest High School Musical Theater actors and actresses from across the country. 

The Jimmy's are powerful for the students who advance to this round, as well as many other aspiring musicians across the country. For the students who have not made it yet, it gives them a goal to work towards. Not only that, but they see ordinary students their own age giving truly incredible performances and opportunities, and that goal seems attainable. They can be inspired by these truly extraordinary performances and challenge themselves to find the same connections, musicality, and presence.

How can we bring this enthusiasm and excitement to our own schools without having a huge program and Broadway stage? I believe the key is celebration. Music is meant to be shared and enjoyed. Students must be given opportunities to find music that they love and that expresses themselves. They must also have opportunities to share their music. The students that were most successful in the competition, whether that means they advanced further or simply had an amazing time, sang songs that meant something to them. They connected to the songs and were able to share a pure, honest moment with the audience. A moment like that feels exactly the same no matter what stage you are standing on.

One of the casting directors at the end of the film says that it is important that the kids don't see not winning as "rejection." Music can sometimes feel like rejection, especially when it seems like students are auditioning for everything, and feel like they're not finding any success. This feeling of rejection is the biggest enemy of fostering this passion. As educators, we must help students to see their accomplishments every step of the way and celebrate those accomplishments. We must help students understand not to take it personally and to continue making music because they enjoy it.

Woody Guthrie

The other day I had the opportunity to teach a mock lesson on Woody Guthrie to my graduate class. My classmates pretended to be eighth graders for this lesson. They make excellent eighth graders.

Honestly, I had not heard of Woody Guthrie until I received my assignment for this lesson. However, as I began researching Woody and his songs I realized that I had grown up singing many of his songs in school, including "This Land is Your Land." While reading about his life I discovered that the strongest influence on his music was his life and travels. This influence was very clear in "This Land is Your Land," so I chose to use this song as an example of his style and background. Once students understood Guthrie's background and how it influenced his compositions I introduced the students to a project we would be working on in school . I had the students brainstorm aspects of their lives that they could write a song about (this would have continued the next time we had class, if I were teaching a real class). The students came up with very creative ideas.

For the most part, I was pleased with the way the lesson went overall. I started the class with the students standing up and singing. This got the students engaged and gave them the opportunity to be actively involved in Guthrie's music. I felt the students needed to be told information about Guthrie to understand how his background influenced his music, however, I kept the information about Guthrie limited to only what they need to know for this lesson. By doing this, I was able to spend most of the lesson doing activities such as singing, writing, and listening instead of lecturing.  To keep the students engaged in the "lecture" portion of the lesson I asked them questions throughout. Most of the questions I asked them were very basic, I learned that I can ask students more thought provoking questions. I had also intended to have some of Guthrie's music playing in the background, but I forgot to turn it on.

I could have planned an activity that would have been able to fit entirely in the 10 minute lesson. For example, instead of having the students write their own songs I could have had them write another verse to the song. This would reinforce Guthrie's particular style as well as the form of the song. This could also lead to students writing their own songs later in class.

Parents, Money, and Music

When I was in High School the parents of the "music kids" were incredibly involved in helping us put together our performances. There were parent organizations such as "Choral Parents" that ran fundraising and organized buying the choir gowns and tuxedoes. They were in charge of selling roses and refreshments at concerts. For marching band, parents were in charge of handing out uniforms, helping to organize events, and moved equipment to the different competitions. Parents ran the fundraising programs that helped to pay for competitions, music, instruments, and scholarships. We were incredibly fortunate to have so many parents who valued our work enough to dedicate their time to helping us. Their help and dedication gave our directors time to focus on helping us improve our music, instead of focusing on the many logistics that go into operating a thriving music program.

Unfortunately, this is not a reality for many schools. The question that we face is, should we have to rely on parents and fundraising to run a modern BOJC program?

If a teacher is fortunate enough that they have parents that want to be involved they should utilize that incredible resource. It is important for students to see that their parents support what they're doing. One of the amazing things about music is that it has the ability to bring people together, to form communities. Parents were always an important part of my high school music community. By making parents a part of your musical community, students feel supported. They know that their music is important because their parents show that they believe it is important also. It's easy for a student to believe music is not serious if that's the message they receive at home. 
However, although parent support is wonderful, a program must be able to survive without it. It is not always feasible for parents to be as involved. If a program does not have parent support it is up to the teacher to make up the difference. I believe that fundraising is important because music is expensive. Fundraising takes some of the financial burden off the students and their parents. Parents should be encouraged to help, but teachers should be prepared to create a successful program without them. 

Technology in the Music Classroom

The first time I substitute taught in an elementary school after I was dumbfounded by the amount of technology these students have access. It had only been about three years since I had been in an elementary school, but  technology in the school had completely changed. Every classroom had a Smartboard and many students had Ipod touches and Ipads. I was able to see how teachers utilize this technology to enhance their teaching and engage their students. How has this technology changed in the Music classrooms?

Students now expect technology to be a part of their education. And why not? Technology provides so many resources that can be utilized in the classroom. Students may no longer be interested in or be engaged by writing on paper or the chalkboard, or even listening to you talk.

Youtube is an excellent resource for any music classroom. There are so many ways you can utilize it in your classroom. People often post videos of their performances on Youtube. Before starting a new piece with your ensemble you can find an example of an ensemble who did an EXCELLENT performance of that piece to inspire your group.With parent permission you may even be able to share videos of your ensembles performances. Students get very excited when they are able to share their work with the world.

Youtube is also a wonderful source for video tutorials. If you have a class of beginning trumpeters, you can find a tutorial on Youtube to recommend to them for practice at home with. This means that they don't need to waste time at home practicing incorrectly or getting discouraged because they can't remember what was done in class. You could even make a Youtube video yourself!

Musictheory.net is one of my favorite resources for practicing musical skills. The website provides practice for concepts as basic as staffs and note reading, to advanced analysis. This is an excellent source for students to practice concepts learned in the classroom. They can even make a game out of it! The website also has lessons for students to review the concepts. 

Teachers also use the internet to post their own lesson ideas. Through technology we can build an even larger community of music educators. In his blog post, What Does it Take, Chris Johnson writes that music educators must be thieves. We make music education better by learning from other teachers, and in turn we can share our own ideas. A music teacher in Plattsburgh, NY created a website with links to different music lessons that utilize the Smartboard. By using the Smartboard for these lessons students can visualize and engage in music in a new way.

Choral Warm-up

In addition to the clarinet lesson, I had to lead my class in a choral warm-up yesterday. This experience was very intimidating, but also a lot of fun. There were three main lessons that I learned from this exercise:

I consider myself to be a very positive person, so it seemed natural for me to say "good" or "excellent" at the end of a particular warm-up. It turns out too much positive reinforcement is a bad thing. Particularly when the students didn't do anything to reinforce, or you're really just reinforcing bad happens. It would have been much more effective for me to be specific, to really listen to who's doing something right and draw their attention to that. This reinforces the good work, and provides a positive teachable for the other students who may not be doing it right. This gives them information about how to correct themselves without you saying "Johnny don't sing like that!"

I also definitely should have listened more. Instead of listening I sang with the students. It hadn't really occurred to me that this could be a bad idea. I sang with them out of habit, but also because of my lack of piano ability. I felt that if I couldn't play the warm-up with them I should sing it with them to keep them on track. This was not necessary the students knew what they were doing. Also, by singing with them I wasn't able to really hear the students well enough to make corrections. If corrections and reinforcements are not given during warm-ups it tells the students its ok to be lazy at warm-ups and creates bad habits for future warm-ups and repertoire.

Warm-ups are about more than simply warming up the individual voices. Warm-ups should also prepare the choir for the rehearsal. Warm-ups using harmonies help get readjusted to the sound of the choir. It helps them focus on tuning and blending with the other choir members.

Clarinet "Lesson"

Yesterday I had the exciting task of teaching my very first clarinet lesson. My job was to pretend my professor was a fifth grader who was there for his first clarinet lesson (we were both new to the instrument). The lesson was to be taught in front of the other students in my secondary methods class.

My goal for this first lesson was to teach the student proper posture and breathing techniques. I believed by doing this we would create a solid foundation that could be built upon. I think a lot of what I had to say may have gone over the student's head. In my own musical training I have learned to breathe using very technical terms. I knew these would be too complicated for the student, especially in 5 minutes, so I tried to explain it in ways he would understand. I don't think he needed to understand it as fully as I wanted to teach him. The foundation could have been simpler.

If I were to do it again, I would teach him posture and begin to get him thinking about breath. It is unreasonable for me to expect him to find the low connection to breath (which took me years to learn) in five minutes. This goal overwhelmed both of us and the lesson was not as productive as it could have been. I would then begin to teach the student some basics of the actual instrument. In real life, the student would have been very bored and frustrated by this lesson and likely would not have returned for a second one.