Standard 4: The teacher of PK-12 music has skills in listening to, analyzing, describing, and performing music.
Music teachers must have skills in listening, analyzing, describing, and performing music so that they can add to a wholesome, professional education for their students. All these aspects fall under the process of understanding the “nuts-and-bolts” of music and understanding how to put adjectives to it. Much like looking at art or describing a story, music needs to be defined so that it can be understood. What is the chord progression of that phrase? Why does it make you feel the way you feel? What emotion is it evoking? How can this add to the quality and emphasis of your performance? What does this mean to you and your audience? As teachers, we must be able to answer these questions and guide our students in thinking this way. This standard calls a teacher to show students how to find purpose behind making music beyond the technique and what’s written on the page.
I have worked diligently to understand how to be a picky and precise consumer and producer of music. I want to be able to critically listen and analyze the form of music so that I understand how and why it sounds the way it does. From that, I can speculate why a composer may write music the way they did and what message they were trying to convey. This makes the meaning behind my performance enhance past a technical show. I have spent the better part of my undergraduate years listening to and analyzing music so that I can then describe what I hear and be able to tell people what is happening. Even when playing solo literature, I find the form and structure to a piece so that I can better describe what’s going on. Just as a poet can describe what they are reading, I challenge myself to be able to describe the music I’m making. From this process, my performance has much more purpose and has a deeper meaning not only for me, but the people listening.
Challenging myself to go through this process will have direct benefits to my students. I do not like playing any music if I can’t find a purpose behind it. I want to know the story and the reason why the piece was written. With this drive, I can show students how to research about music and composers and dig beyond what is written on the pages. By guiding them through the series of questions I wrote in the first paragraph, I am showing them how to be curious and critical learners. They should not play music without purpose. Even if that purpose is only better technical achievement. I believe students should always know what they are working on and be able to describe it in a professional way that demonstrates learning. This skill directly impacts anything else they do in their lives.
For students to develop these skills, teachers must first develop them. Teachers must be able to think critically about music making so that they can guide their students in thinking through this process. The goal of teaching our students to think critically about music is to make them educated performers, but overall, to make the educated consumers. From there, they can always be advocates of music and better understand the purpose as to why we teach it and why it is a part of our culture.
I have worked diligently to understand how to be a picky and precise consumer and producer of music. I want to be able to critically listen and analyze the form of music so that I understand how and why it sounds the way it does. From that, I can speculate why a composer may write music the way they did and what message they were trying to convey. This makes the meaning behind my performance enhance past a technical show. I have spent the better part of my undergraduate years listening to and analyzing music so that I can then describe what I hear and be able to tell people what is happening. Even when playing solo literature, I find the form and structure to a piece so that I can better describe what’s going on. Just as a poet can describe what they are reading, I challenge myself to be able to describe the music I’m making. From this process, my performance has much more purpose and has a deeper meaning not only for me, but the people listening.
Challenging myself to go through this process will have direct benefits to my students. I do not like playing any music if I can’t find a purpose behind it. I want to know the story and the reason why the piece was written. With this drive, I can show students how to research about music and composers and dig beyond what is written on the pages. By guiding them through the series of questions I wrote in the first paragraph, I am showing them how to be curious and critical learners. They should not play music without purpose. Even if that purpose is only better technical achievement. I believe students should always know what they are working on and be able to describe it in a professional way that demonstrates learning. This skill directly impacts anything else they do in their lives.
For students to develop these skills, teachers must first develop them. Teachers must be able to think critically about music making so that they can guide their students in thinking through this process. The goal of teaching our students to think critically about music is to make them educated performers, but overall, to make the educated consumers. From there, they can always be advocates of music and better understand the purpose as to why we teach it and why it is a part of our culture.