Actively Encouraging Your Students to Pursue Music - Part Two

December 05, 2024

Actively Encouraging Your Students to Pursue Music
Part Two - Enlisting the Help of Others by Mike Steffen

This article is the second part of a series on encouraging your students to pursue a career in music.
Click here to read the first part: Resources to Open Their Eyes.

Now that you have actively encouraged students from your program to explore and pursue careers in music, it’s time to take that next step and enlist the help of others! Here are two options with examples to get your creativity flowing! I’d love to hear what you would add to this list! Please email me with ideas - msteffen@palenmusic.com

Option 1: Bring the help to you!

Invite guest artists once per quarter (month, week) to demonstrate for and talk with your students (in person or via Skype!). Offer them a meal or pay their gas! College students, local pros, private teachers, recording engineers, music therapists, composers, conductors, retired teachers, etc. are all great resources. Each guest will bring an added level of validity to your claim that there are many paths you can take in the world of music as they tell their own musical story. Let your guest answer questions after they demonstrate/talk about their craft, and watch your kids come alive! The students love this stuff - remember, that’s why they signed up! - and are just itching to know more people who love it just as much as they do! Don’t feel like you know enough people? Ask the people you DO know for suggestions and expand your network!

Work with your counselors to set up a career day for the whole school! Administrators and counselors are always trying to find ways to show the community that the school is preparing the students for life after graduation - and this is the perfect way! Tell them that your job will be to bring in multiple engaging people you know in the arts fields, the science teachers will find folks in the science field...you get the idea. It can be an evening event, but will be most effective during the school day.

Option 2: Take your show on the road!

Set up a music jobs field trip. If you teach in/near a large metropolitan area, set up a day to take a group of your students out to visit your music colleagues “in the field”. Set up two visits in the morning (e.g.- recording studio & music therapist at the children’s hospital), take the kids to a fun lunch, and then do one or two more visits in the afternoon. Tap into the skills of studio recording engineers, booking agents for your local performing arts center, music therapists, music store owners, etc. If need be, divide the students up into manageable groups, and set up a round-robin visit schedule where each student rotates through the three or four sites.

Not in a high-population area? Tie a visit to a music store or recording studio in to your next competition/festival trip! Why not? You’re going to be in a larger town for your festival - might as well combine the two events!

Regardless of which option or example fits your situation, make it a goal to do at least one activity that exposes your students to musicians in the “real world” before this time next year. By sharing with them resources to open their eyes and enlisting the help of others in your quest, you show your students that you believe in them; you help them plan their futures; and you give them experiences that could change their lives! Think about it - someone special once did this for you and look at you now!! Best wishes for a FANTASTIC Spring Semester!

Mike Steffen
Educational Representative - Palen Music Center Springfield
msteffen@palenmusic.com

Mike Steffen grew up in Grandview, MO and holds Music Education Degrees from Missouri State and University of Missouri - Kansas City. He served as a band director for five years in the Lee's Summit R-7 School District (KC area) where he taught band in grades 5-12. While he was there, Mike worked with the LSHS Golden Tiger Marching Band, directed the Concert Band, and directed the middle school program. Most notably, he was instrumental in the development of the Lee's Summit High School Jazz Program which had an active, well-respected big band, two student combos, and placed many students in the All-District Jazz Bands each year. Prior to that, Mike taught middle school band in Pleasant Hill, MO. Mike loves playing the saxophone, is married to his high school sweetheart, Miranda, and is the proud papa of three beautiful girls - Melody, McKenna, and Mae!

(417) 882-7006

Actively Encouraging Your Students to Pursue Music - Part Two

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