Module 5 - SES

The district where I currently teach is very poor.  It is a Title I school district with low socioeconomic factors.  While there are some wealthy families that feed into the district, there is an 87% free/reduced lunch rate and a 35% mobility rate.  The school district is a smaller K-8 district in the suburbs of Chicago that services about 130 kids per grade level.  Many students come from single parent households with minimal education.  There are also a number of apartment buildings and rental houses within the school district.  Students seem to be constantly moving which accounts for the 35% mobility rate.  There are also a number of foster kids within our district.  The vast majority of the students come rough neighborhoods in Chicago or other surrounding suburbs with higher violent crime rates.  The racial breakdown of the district is 80% black, 17% Hispanic, and 3% other.  Religion seems to play a big role in a lot of the students’ lives.  Christianity is the main religion represented but there is a growing number of Jehovah’s Witnesses.

Keeping all of these factors in mind, programming music can be a challenge.  With students moving in and out of the district throughout the year, I am careful not to program music that is dependent on one person.  I am also very diligent about the racial make-up of the student population.  With a lot of African immigrants making up the black population, I try to program a Kwanzaa piece for the winter concert as well as some type of Latin-influenced piece.  I am careful about the balance of sacred and secular music that I program because of the Jehovah’s Witnesses that cannot perform it.  This becomes rather difficult at the winter concert, however, because they cannot perform anything religious, patriotic, or holiday-themed.  There does come a point where alternative assignments need to be given because the student cannot participate.

When teaching a new piece of music, I always include background information about the composer, the piece of music, and the time period in which it was written.  If applicable, I also discuss what holiday, celebration, or other historical information may prove pertinent to the students performing it in the correct manner.  It is important that the students know how to perform the piece in the correct context.  With that being said, YouTube has become a wonderful resource to access recordings of music.  If a piece of music is based on a folk song, I can easily find a recording of the original folk song and then the arrangement we are doing.  Students can compare and contrast different aspects of the piece and then include them in their own performance.  Public performances are done in the winter and spring with other in-school performances for the student-body.  The inclusion of in-school performances allows for students who do not participate in band to be exposed to a musical experience they would not otherwise be exposed to.

Module 5 - Social Aspect of Music

Every year at the Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic in Chicago, the music company that services many of the Chicago area schools has a reception.  All of the band and orchestra directors that are serviced by this company are invited to attend.  This past December this reception was at a downtown hotel bar that was rented specifically for the party.  The party is a time for area directors and company employees to talk shop and socialize with each other. 

This year, a professional jazz combo from the Chicago area performed during the reception.  As typical for jazz musicians, these performers were dressed in business casual instead of concert black.  The musicians were standing the entire time and included a rhythm section and two saxophonists.  The jazz combo did not use sheet music, but they did use amplification since the venue was rather large, yet it did not overbear any of the conversations.  This combo was not interactive with the audience unless approached if there was a request.  Many directors did acknowledge the performers at the conclusion of the set to thank them.  The music provided background to the many serious and light-hearted conversations being had in the venue.  The music being performed created a pleasant atmosphere for the attendees although the music certainly intended for the background.

All of the attendees were middle school or high school ensemble directors, putting them in the middle-class of society.  The general age of the audience was varied.  Because all area directors were invited, ages ranged from early 20s to mid 50s, on average.  People of all ages were socializing with each other.  There were around 250 people in attendance at this reception.  Because this was not a concert, printed programs were not available, however, the owner of the music company introduced the jazz combo.  Attendees were dressed in business casual, as all were attending the conference earlier in the day.  Food and beverages were available for all attendees and live music is always present.  People eat, drink, talk, and listen to the music at this reception.  After each piece, however, being the trained musicians that we are, we all stopped our conversations to applaud the performers for the music that had just been performed.  The performers nodded their head as a gesture of thanks toward the audience as they applauded.  As guests to the reception, tickets were not required, but an invitation to the reception was required.  Eating and drinking commenced the entire time and the performers were also partaking in beverages during their performance.  This was a very different experience from hearing a jazz combo at a formal venue because the ensemble served a different purpose.

Module 4 - Landfill Harmonic

Music has been a part of every culture that has ever been researched, however, music has a different meaning for every meaning.  Music can be something fun or it can be a sense of life.  Different life circumstances can dictate something’s importance to them, and music is no different.  The Landfill Harmonic Orchestra is a very moving video about a poverty stricken town.  The slum has been developed on top of a landfill, yet music education is thriving.  String instruments are constructed from random objects discovered in the landfill, something that is very much out of the ordinary.  The comments that the two girls interviewed stated such as “butterflies in my stomach” and “My life without music would be worthless” are very good indications that music is a very important aspect of the community members lives.  The kids live in poverty and in a place with very little opportunity; they find success and joy in music.  Many poverty stricken communities do not have the benefit of music education because of funding issues.  This community sees the benefit of music education and while they do not have funding, they are very creative with what they have available to them and construct their own instruments from free resources.  This musical opportunity is clearly a driving factor in their own lives.

Often, music education is taken for granted by those who did not have the opportunity to participate as a child.  In order to educate the community and non-music people about the importance of music education, it is important to do more than say “Every student should have music”.  While as music teachers we work with children every day, it is important to incorporate the children into why it is important for music education.  Students can easily present to schools boards, administration, and parents about the importance of music education to themselves.  These types of presentations can be done through a speech at a school board meeting, through a presentation at a music concert, or through letters where excerpts can be presented on a school website, concert program, or letters to politicians and government officials regarding funding for music education.  Additionally, the current music students can speak with potential students during recruitment and explain to the students how important music has been in their lives.

Module 3 Reflections

1    An aesthetic experience is something that cannot be literally described, but can be met with certain characteristics.  Abeles, Hoffer, & Klotman (1995) describe an aesthetic experience as “…having no practical or utilitarian purpose…[but] it is valued for the insight, satisfaction, and enjoyment that it provides”.  An aesthetic experience involves feelings and contemplative thinking.  Being a musician, I have listened to and performed many different pieces of music.  I feel that every time I listen to a performance I have an aesthetic experience.  The level at which I contemplate this experience is based upon the music being performed and at the level of the group or person performing it.

      As a senior in high school in 2003, I auditioned into the Illinois Music Educators Association’s (IMEA) All-State Band.  Coming from a very unstable band program, the experience of performing with the top musicians from the state was an incredible experience for me.  While being selected to perform was not an aesthetic experience, listening to the ensemble was an aesthetic experience for me.  The first time we read through “An American Elegy” by Frank Ticheli in the first rehearsal was an aesthetic experience for me.  This piece of music did not serve a practical purpose, but the beauty in it was amazing to me.

  

      Knowing that Ticheli wrote the piece in remembrance of the Columbine High School shooting, the performance of the piece was very moving.  As I listened to the piece, I contemplated how each section represented different points of that experience from the happiness of being in high school, to the sadness of the actual violent act itself, to the funerals of the fallen, to the reflection of the survivors in the aftermath, to the beauty of life.  The focus was on the different timbres of the variety of instruments to help stimulate these thoughts as well as the dynamics and phrasing.  I remember getting goose bumps at multiple points in the piece and almost crying at the point where a trumpet went off stage to represent taps being played in the distance.  A variety of emotions were felt throughout the piece from simplicity, to happiness, to sadness, to hopefulness for the future.

      This experience opened my eyes to the beauty of music.  I know that sounds ridiculous coming from a music teacher, but a live performance of beautiful music is a different experience than listening to a recording.  While I often listen to recordings of music, a live performance is a beautiful experience that shows the true idea of being human.  A performer can make a mistake but it can easily be forgotten if the performance is moving.  Even going to hear the Chicago Symphony Orchestra can produce mistakes by professionals.  We are human and imperfect, but as musicians we constantly strive for perfection.  The experience of a live performance is something that cannot be duplicated again because it is always different…that is the beauty of it!

2    Teaching a sixth grade class about an aesthetic experience can be accomplicated thing to do, especially if the word “aesthetic” is used.  Most students would be overwhelmed by the word itself and would probably shut down.  I often incorporate listening examples of unfamiliar music into my general music curriculum.  Tchaikovsky’s “Symphony No. 4 in F minor, Op. 36” is a beautiful piece of music, but probably something that sixth grade students would say that they have never heard before.  I believe that in order for students to have aesthetic experience listening to this music, I leave out as many details as I can.  In fact, I do not even tell the students the name of the piece or the composer before we have a discussion.  Most students are visual learners so I would incorporate a visual aspect to the teaching.

      Each student is supplied with a blank sheet of paper and a pencil.  I would inform the students they would listen to a piece of music without words.  Their assignment is to draw what they hear.  They can have many different ideas and draw a mural if they wish.  They are not being graded on artistic ability; the drawing helps them to express their thoughts without using words.  After we listen to the piece once and have our drawings, we will listen to the piece of music again, this time having the students write three to five sentences describing why they have drawn their pictures.  They will describe what about the music made them feel that way.  Students will then share (if they wish) their picture and feelings behind the music.  At the conclusion of the class I will then inform the class of the composer, name of the piece, and time period in which they wrote music.

3    Music is important for many reasons.  There are non-musical and musical reasons for its importance in every person’s life.  For people who are not musicians, non-musical reasons for the inclusion of music in the school curriculum are often needed to show a bigger picture for the benefit of its existence.  Four non-musical reasons for music advocacy are as follows:

1.     Students of the arts continue to outperform their non-arts peers on the SAT, according to reports by the College Entrance Examination Board. In 2006, SAT takers with coursework/experience in music performance scored 57 points higher on the verbal portion of the test and 43 points higher on the math portion than students with no coursework or experience in the arts. Scores for those with coursework in music appreciation were 62 points higher on the verbal and 41 points higher on the math portion. – The Student Descriptive Questionnaire, a self-reported component of the SAT that gathers information about students’ academic preparation, gathered data for these reports. Source: The College Board, Profile of College-Bound Seniors National Report for 2006; www.collegeboard.org

2.     “The arts are not just affective and expressive. They are also deeply cognitive. They develop the tools of thinking itself: careful observation of the world, mental representation of what is observed or imagined, abstraction from complexity, pattern recognition and development, symbolic and metaphoric representation, and qualitative judgment. We use these same thinking tools in science, philosophy, math and history. The advantage of the arts is that they link cognitive growth to social and emotional development. Students care more deeply about what they study, they see the links between subjects and their lives, their thinking capacities grow, they work more diligently, and they learn from each other.” – Nick Rabkin, Executive Director of the Center for Arts Policy, Columbia College Chicago; Robin Redmond, associate director of CAP. “The Art of Education Success”, Washington Post, January 8, 2005, pg. A19

3.     The arts provide one alternative for states looking to build the workforce of tomorrow – a choice growing in popularity and esteem. The arts can provide effective learning opportunities to the general student population, yielding increased academic performance, reduced absenteeism, and better skill building. An even more compelling advantage is the striking success of arts-based educational programs among disadvantaged populations, especially at-risk and incarcerated youth. For at-risk youth, that segment of society most likely to suffer from limited lifetime productivity, the arts contribute to lower recidivism rates; increased self-esteem; the acquisition of job skills; and the development of much needed creative thinking, problem solving and communications skills. Involvement in the arts is one avenue by which at-risk youth can acquire the various competencies necessary to become economically self-sufficient over the long term, rather than becoming a financial strain on their states and communities. – The Impact of Arts Education on Workforce Preparation, May 2002, The National Governors Association; http://nga.org/files/live/sites/NGA/files/pdf/050102ARTSED.pdf

4.     The U.S. Department of Education lists the arts as subjects that college-bound middle and junior high school students should take, stating “Many colleges view participation in the arts and music as a valuable experience that broadens students’ understanding and appreciation of the world around them. It is also well known and widely recognized that the arts contribute significantly to children’s intellectual development.” In addition, one or two years of Visual and Performing Arts is recommended for college-bound high school students. – Getting Ready for College Early: A Handbook for Parents of Students in the Middle and Junior High School Years, U.S. Department of Education, 1997; http://www.ed.gov/pubs/GettingReadyCollegeEarly/step2.html

      Music education needs to be preserved for musical reasons as well.  If, as music educators, we only base the importance on music for non-musical reasons, are we really defending our importance? Our chosen art form is essential for life in many ways.

     Everyone who is able to hear knows what music sounds like, but is it enough to go through life and not feel? Music provides us with the opportunity to understand and to feel.  Music evokes emotion on multiple levels throughout life.  Emotions are the basis for human life and music is a means to experience it, rather than just going through the motions of life.

      Expression is a huge part of music.  Words cannot describe a sound the same way to everyone.  People hear and perceive things differently.  Music is a means to communicate without words.  This is evident in that musicians from any country can come together and perform the same music in the same ensemble without ever being able to speak the same language.  A conversation through music can be made without one word ever being spoken.  Cultures can come together and create a beautiful message to the entire world without a hiccup along the way.

      Music has the ability to drastically change our mood for the better.  The sounds of music can uplift our spirits in ways that words or numbers cannot do.  The beauty of music is something that can only be experienced to fully understand, not described in its entirety.

      Music makes life worth living.  Throughout the history of man we see the importance that music has had in every culture.  Music gives man a sense of purpose and joy that other areas of life cannot give.

      As a music teacher I feel very strongly about the aesthetic reasons for including music into the school curriculum.  These reasons, however, are not always the best way to advocate for music in our schools.  The education system is very date-driven today.  Aesthetic reasoning does not provide data for school districts to see the benefit of including music into the curriculum.  In addition, the inclusion of the common core standards into most school districts across the country looks at how all of the subjects work together to produce better and well-rounded citizens.  Music teachers must advocate how our art form can help schools achieve this goal.  Also, not all administrators and school board members have had the privilege to study music.  If music teachers only praise the aesthetic reasons behind music study, people with non-musical backgrounds can easily make it a point of saying that they “…were successful without music.  Why do our kids need it? I came out OK.”  Lastly, It is important that music teachers do not come off as elitists to administrators and school districts.  It is very important that music not sound more important than reading, math, or any other subject.  As passionate as we are about music, the math teacher is just as passionate about the importance of math.  Gaining supporters is very important in regards to music advocacy, especially within the confines of one’s building.  If support is garnered by fellow teachers and building administrators, then there is a greater chance of success in regards to musical advocacy in that particular situation.