Teaching Music Through Performance

As most of you know, I am studying to be a music teacher. Well... this semster I am student teaching and have learned quit a bit in just the first 7 weeks (the business related to student teaching is why I haven't posted for a very long time). The thing that has really hit me about music education in general is understanding how to teach music in our schools.

I want to be a music educator, not just a conductor for the school's band or orchestra and prepare for concerts. I truly want to teach music; in part becuase that is the job description. As teacher it is our job to instruct and impart wisdom to our charges. But how do we do that with music? It's simple, we use our medium to help students understand music hands on. We teach them to play and instrument or use their voices to create music themselves and be part of an ensemble becuase that is what professionals in this field do. That is how science, math, and all other subjects work as well. But our work doesn't end with simply playing the instrument, no, it is merely the gateway through which we teach music. It's our version of the science lab where we teach the basics of music like rhythm, pitch, meter, etc. though hands-on activity. As a student continues through their music experience we continue to grow their knowledge of music and start experiencing phrasing, blending, communicating while also teaching life skills like working as a team, perseverance, and woodshedding. This last one is really important since so many kids these days give up if they can't do something right away. We teach them that concetrated effort on difficult theings will yield positive results. In the end we hope that student not only can go on to become professionals in music, they can also go on to become professionals in other fields wiht added skills they developed in the music classroom.

Our music class also serves and an in depth music appreciation class. Today is the day of the ipod, youtube, and other at-your-fingertips technology that allow student to hear music all the time. This both good and bad. Since we hear music so musch it has really become like aural wallpaper to our lives and we no longer listen to the actuall music. In fact a majority of popular music thee days is liked becuse of its simplicity, such as trance music, likely becuase its easy to be used as wallpaper. Music educators have the task of teaching students to listen again; to use their critical ear and to concetrate on music for its own purpose rather than using it for something else. With our help, students should be able to enjoy a night listening to classical music and will be able to critically analyze the performance (which is also an enjoyable acitivty).
One of the purposes, therefore, is to preserve music as an art and concertgoer's activity rather than something to fill up silence.

In summation, the work of the music teacher is not one of rehersals and music making, though those things arre present. It is a job with an ultimate goal of teaching music by using performance as a tool to present material. I must, as a music educator, strive contantly to plan lessons with a musical gola in mind other than to prepare for a concert. The good performance should, and will, be a positive outgrowth of student learning rather than a final goal if we put music EDUCATION first.