Final lesson reflection

My final exam lesson was much better than my initial lesson, but still has room for improvement. I think overall I was kind of stumped by the topic of copyright as it was never taught to me in general music class. I do think that it is an important topic to teach and I will use these lessons in my future classes, but I would like to observe somebody else teach with this subject first.

Another area of weakness is my concept of assessment. I am used to teaching private piano and drum lessons and constantly informally assessing them. The goal that they are working towards is performing in a recital at the end of the year, not taking a test or quiz. I feel that this will be one of my biggest challenges as a music teacher.

I liked the fact that my lesson was centered around creating original music and the students were playing for the majority of the lesson. One detail to refine would be having headphones available for all of the keyboards. It was too noisy in the piano lab for my students to concentrate on what they were doing. Another thing that would likely backfire on me would be taking the students aside to record them while the rest of the class is by themselves in a room. I would probably not do that in a real lesson with 8th graders, but i trusted my fellow grad students to behave.

Teaching and observing these mock audition lessons has been very instructive and fun. I feel that I have a much better grip on how to plan a lesson after taking this class and also how to imagine how a lesson will go.

Creating an audience

Nothing feels more rewarding for a musician than to play in front of a packed house of eager listeners. Creating an audience is an important aspect of leading a music program that can sometimes be overlooked. Most school ensembles have the support of their families built into the audience. When I was in high school band and chorus, my parents and grandparents were always in attendance. The harder group of people to market to are the peers of the student performers.

Some ways to draw in this group of people is to have a reception after the event. When I host my piano recitals in the winter and spring my students love to get the chance to meet and greet with the other performers and eat cupcakes. This reward after their hard work helps motivate them for the recital and it also gives the other audience members something to look forward to.

Another strategy for boosting audience turn out is to have concerts on Friday evenings instead of weekday nights. People are usually busy with other obligations during the week, so having the concert on a Friday or Saturday would make the performance more accessible to a greater amount of people.

One of the best ways to build an audience is to play popular repertoire and advertise it. The high school band from Thunder Soul built a huge audience by playing funk instead of standard jazz. Most people today aren’t interested in classical music or the great repertoire that we musicians value. Making a program of popular songs with some classical repertoire slipped in is a good way to draw an audience and expose them to great music.

Building a strong supportive audience for your music program is vital for the performers’ self esteem and motivation. If students know that they will be playing in front of a crowd, they will practice more. This non-musical aspect of running an ensemble is one of the keys to creating a successful music program.

BOJC Funds

• Should we have to rely on parents and fundraising to run a modern BOJC program? 

I believe that in a perfect world BOJC programs would not have to rely on parents and fundraising. Music and the arts are an important aspect of modern education because they give students an outlet for expression. This is a vital part of human growth and development that is rarely taught in academic classes. Denying music instruction to kids is denying them the safe environment to actively work on their creativity. In poor communities where parents cannot afford to pay for music it should be the district’s responsibility to cover the expenses in their budget.

Learning a musical instrument teaches children how to listen intently to others, practice new skills that are difficult, and apply knowledge from their math and science classes. For these valid reasons, music programs should primarily be funded by school budgets and supplemented by parent fundraising organizations. In some lucky school districts this is the case. Sadly however it is not the norm and music programs are frequently cut from curriculums.

Because BOJC programs are constantly at risk of being cut, we do need to rely on parents to fund their children's music education. Until our society begins to value music instruction as a vital piece to the education puzzle, parents will have to foot the bill. In a perfect world, this would not be the case.