What Now? Music Education at its Best!

By now we are all in the middle of the "new normal" for the foreseeable future and it is nothing like we prepared for. We all want to be back in our classrooms enjoying the last part of the year when students have grown as people and musicians so that rehearsals are powerful excursions into music making. We want to go those trips we planned to reward students for their hard work and to help them continue to come together as friends and colleagues. We want to bring the school year to a conclusion that honors what the students offered and prepares them for new or continued success. This is what we were prepared for.

So, what now? Perhaps this is an opportunity for us to go all the way back to our beginnings as music educators. Think back to the first time you can remember making this decision. Why did you choose to become a music educator? (I bet it was not for the great pay, the wonderful hours, and the amazing working conditions). As a music teacher educator for many years, I asked this question of every music education major with whom I worked. Answers varied, but the overwhelming majority came to similar conclusions. At some point, music had changed this perspective teacher's life in a very positive way, and he or she felt an overwhelming desire to enable similar experiences for other students. When the perspective teachers spoke about this desire, it was with passion and commitment you could hear in their voice and see in their eyes. For many, this was a mission.

This mission gets complicated as we make decisions about what to teach in our classrooms. We can choose to approach music learning in one of three ways. We can choose to focus our teaching on the skills required for effective music learning. We help students learn hand positions, posture, daily drill, precision exercises, scales, tone production, bow hold, and a host of other essential skills that musical excellence requires. We can also focus our teaching on the necessary knowledge required for effective music making. These might include historical foundations of our repertoire, how to use a rhythmic counting system, or basic fundamentals of reading notation. Most agree that these two areas -- musical skills and musical knowledge -- receive the bulk of our instructional attention. The third potential focus of our instruction addresses the affective part of music making that includes moods, feelings and attitudes surrounding our music making. Focus in this area asks students to explore why they make music, what power might it have in their lives, or how music making can or has impacted them now or in the future. It asks students to be vulnerable enough to explore their ideas and emotions honestly. It is the part of what we do in our music classrooms that students don't often get in other parts of their school experience. It is the heart of what we do.

What if we use this time away from the pressures of performances, trips, banquets and all the other business of end of the year to focus on the hearts of our students? You have developed relationships with your students that transcend the need for regular classroom contact. You have given them the tools necessary for them to share themselves with others meaningfully. You have given them a language beyond words that allows them to express themselves in immensely powerful ways. Yes, their musical skills and knowledge are essential parts of this process, but now may be the time we focus on helping our students make music simply because they love it, they love those with whom they share it, and they want to have a positive impact on their world. We can empower this engagement in in a virtual environment and our students can be agents of change all around our communities. This is music education at its best!

In all of this, let's not forget about the importance of self-care! As a result of engaging students this way, we are able to get back to our beginnings as music educators. We can slow down and take stock of why we believe learning to make music is an essential part of being human. This idea that music making is a human essential is anthropologically reinforced, as we have yet to discover a human society that has not made music of some kind. Even among primal societies where food, shelter and safety were the concerns of the day, people made music. When we remember why we make music and share those opportunities with our students, we are not only engaging them in an essential part of their education, we are helping them learn how to be more human(e). Such work is food for our music teaching souls. It can heal us.

Your students are so fortunate to have you in their lives helping them learn not only how to make music, but why it is so important to do so. You can do this! It is likely why you thought about teaching music in the first place. Enjoy!