MUED 352: Week 1

1.) Qualities of a good music educator.

The first quality that I myself admire in a music educator is that they believe that all of their students can learn and appreciate music. Without this quality I feel that a music educator can not be anywhere close to effective in a classroom. If I detail every aspect of what I believe a music educator should possess, I would be writing for quite sometime. Instead, I have tried to create categories of the most important qualities I think music educators should have. A music educator should be accepting. There are many ways that a music educator has to be accepting. They must respect different forms of music, different techniques used, and different cultures represented. They must respect the different likes and dislikes of their students. And as I stated before a music educator must accept all those who wish to participate in their program, offering them the same opportunity to learn music as everyone else. An educator must be tenacious. Again there are several ways in which a music educator needs to be tenacious. They need to push their students to their musical limits, find and explore new pieces of music, and above all strive for musical excellence. A music educator must also be passionate in all regards of the art form. They must be an inspiration for their students to learn music, a leader for those in the community, and an asset to the school that they are a part of. The next quality a music educator may want to have is to be presentable. Although many people find this quality very strange, I find it to be very necessary. Being well put together shows others that you are passionate about your job. You are aware of the magnitude of your position and you are able to put forth the effort for your students to look your best. The last, and most obvious, quality that I think is essential for all music educator is to be musical. This quality almost seems redundant, but it is very important. To be musical means being able to share the gift of music with others. Through your musicality you will show others how to be musical. You can show them how to create and how to explore; how to express themselves and how to learn a skill that they may use for the rest of their lives. Being musical means having the knowledge to use different pedagogy, how to respond to different musical issues, and how to express yourself through the art form and not through words or actions.

2.) What music students should learn from instrumental music.

This topic is very hard for me to answer. I feel as though I may have trouble answering because of my own personal experiences. What I learned in band is not the way that many other students learned in their programs. I feel that I made the most of my experiences and had the time of my life. However, I must admit that I think a lot of what I learned about music I did by myself, and did not occur in instrumental music in the classroom. At the moment, I think that instrumental music should teach students how to explore music and find the necessary ways for them to flourish in the art form. While I understand that a band should teach students how to play in an ensemble, how to improve on their instrument, theory, history, and a whole bunch of other skills; I do not think that it is rational that a single band class should be responsible for all of these things. Again, I do think that a band teacher should be able to teach some form, and theory, it should not be their main focus. However, I think that if the teacher is able to give the students the necessary resources to learn theory, or history that they do so. My own personal experiences has made me very biased towards this issue. Did I learn music history from my band, no, I conducted my own research. Did I learn theory from band, no, I practiced and took a theory course. Did I learn how to play the saxophone from band, yes! But not as well as I could have with out private lessons. Does this mean that I had a poor music education in instrumental music? No, it does not. Why? Because my teacher gave me the appropriate opportunities to find my own musical path. I would be dumb to call my music teacher from high school poor. As a graduate of CWRU, I know that she is well equipped to teach many things, and I respect her very much for all of the opportunities that she opened up for me. So, overall, what do I think students should learn from instrumental instruction? They should learn how to be a music student. They should learn how to be in their ensemble. They should learn how to play their instrument. They should learn how to read and understand their music. However, I find that it is not the instrumental teacher's job to do this. Instead it is their job to run the band. It is their job to see to it that all the students receive the necessary opportunities to become a good instrumental student.

3.) Music as part of the "curriculum".

I think the perfect answer to the question "Why should music be curricular?" is with the other, although annoying, question "Why not?" Though I am heavily biased, I see no reason that music be left out of any curriculum. There is one solid reason that I have that music is a curricular subject; music is a part of being human. We live with natural rhythms and frequencies built within our very selves. We have basic needs that need to be met that are music related. Music is a medium through which everyone on the planet is connected. It is foolish to write off a subject that connect the entire population of Earth. The musical benefits of teaching music are pretty much self explanatory. When you are taught music, you learn how to play music. Beyond that, you learn how to enjoy music, how to build motor skills, how to identify cultures, how to make money, and how to perform. But the benefits outside of music are very much so applicable to real life. Music teaches us how to interact with other humans, how to work as a team, and how to work until a final goal is reached. Music also opens the doors to the sciences (physics of waves, amplitude, and sound waves), mathematics (intensity, fractions, counting), history and literature (music can be found throughout every culture, and is referenced in most novels), and even in health (staying in shape, proper breathing, posture, and not smoking). The fact is that music is not considered curricular by many is truly absurd. Instead of proving that music is curricular, we need to show the world what happens when their is no music, although as John Cage has shown us, that too is music.