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.

Thunder Soul: Creating a love for music and performing

The role of a band teacher is to pass on the joy of playing music to students by giving them opportunities to play and express themselves. Music director of the Kashmere high school stage band, Conrad “Prof” Johnson gave his students just that. In the movie Thunder Soul we are given the backstory of this amazing high school band from Texas in the 70s that played funk music on a professional level.

Prof created love for music in his band program by tailoring the music selections to the group; playing funk tunes instead of old fashioned jazz. The Kashmere stage band started out playing the typical repertoire of high school bands at that time which consisted of jazz standards and ballads like “Summertime.” Prof noticed that his students were becoming bored with the tune selection of the group and would watch them start to jam on funk grooves after rehearsals ended. The popular music artists during this time period were James Brown, Earth Wind and Fire, Parliament Funkadelic, and Sly and the Family Stone. Prof intuitively changed the band's’ repertoire to all funk tunes that he either wrote or arranged himself. Once the high schoolers had music that they could connect to, they became self motivated and evolved into a professional level ensemble.

Not only was this band program a music learning vehicle, but Prof also taught his students how to become hard working men and women. The impression that this man had on his students was so strong that thirty years later they reassembled the band to put on a show in his honor.

Thunder Soul is an inspiring movie for all audiences, but especially music teachers. Prof created a successful band out of 16 year olds by making the music that they performed relevant to them and the audience. Instead of picking the usual jazz selections for stage bands, Prof gave his band something that they could latch onto and make their own. Playing funk was used to educate the students in playing as an ensemble, being good showmen, and working hard towards a goal. This film motivates me as a music teacher to one day build a strong band program by picking the music that the kids really want to play. I hope that i can create an inspirational learning environment in my classroom that resembles that of the Kashmere high school band room.

Audition Lesson Reflection

Recently I taught a ten minute general music lesson on copyright to my music methods class. The lesson went better than I expected, but overall it needs some work. Some of the main issues that I think my lesson had were that I didn’t have the class play or sing, I started the class with a slow pace, and I jumped from one important topic to a totally different one.

I started my class by passing out a questionare that would serve as a class conversation starter. I like the idea of having the class do a worksheet, but the contents of the questionare didn’t really have anything to do with the listening examples that I played later in the lesson. The questions that were on the worksheet dealt with artists losing income because of free online access to music. If I use this questionare in the future, I will gear the remainder of the lesson towards piracy and getting music for free.

After the class discussion, I played the song “My Lord” by George Harrison and compared it to “He’s so fine” by the Chiffons. I like the listening comparison, but I needed to do more research about the court case. I also need to plan the use of technolgy in my lesson and some playing. Overall, I liked the way that I led the class. I want to make a better lesson unit that is more focused on specific topics and has more playing built into it.

Some questions that I need to investigate are: Can chord progressions be copyrighted? How do you protect yourself against copyright infringement? I would like to incorporate those topics into my unit better. I have to remember that my job is to teach the class about copyright laws - how am i going to do that? I want to teach the class how to copyright their own ideas - how do I teach that? I will try to fix these issues in my next shot at teaching this lesson.

Technology in education

Technology has always had an impact on teaching. In our modern world, electronics are ubiquitous and part of our everyday lives. Today most students have their own personal tablets, phones, and computers. Since students are well acquainted with using these devices, they are more engaged when teachers incorporate them into their lessons. Smart boards and computer labs also contribute to this change in the way that lessons are taught. Teachers can now show video clips from YouTube in their classrooms, or have students work independently on chrome book laptops.

One of the major changes that I have observed in the modern classroom is that teachers can manage their students using technology. When kids are working on laptops independently, they are quiet and focused. The teacher can get a lot of work done in their room instead of having to engage the whole class in an activity.

Another change that has occurred in schools is the use of smart boards. Classrooms can instantly become theaters by switching on the smart board and playing a video clip. This is a huge advantage for teachers because they can now show videos or demonstrations to the class whenever they want. There is no need to roll a television cart into the room and then return it later.

Some music apps are very useful for teaching. One website/app is musictheory.net. On the website, students can choose from a variety of music theory lessons and then test their new knowledge with the companion app. This resource helps teachers by reinforcing what they have already taught their students and also by giving them a chance to practice their skills with the app.

Music technology will continue to change the way that music is taught in schools. As long as our society continues to value electronics as much as we do, we will be using it in our classrooms for generations to come. In most music colleges notation software such as Finale or Sibelius are being taught in music tech classes. Recording programs like Logic or Garage band are also taught in classes, just like Excel or Word.

Music technology will continue to make a huge impact on our teaching and will help us teach in new creative ways.

Assessing student work

Rubrics provide teachers with a systematic framework for grading student work. The role of the rubric is to take the guesswork out of grading and give the teacher a clear-cut view of the criteria for an “A” paper. Unfortunately this system for grading does not promote creativity and risk taking because students know what they will be graded on specifically. Alfie Kohn’s article “The trouble with rubrics” outlines the reasons that rubrics are ineffective.

            Kohn writes that when students are graded in this manner they “tend to think less deeply, avoid taking risks, and lose interest in the learning itself.” He goes on saying “rubrics actually help to [legitimize] grades by offering a new way to derive them. They do nothing to address the terrible reality of students who have been led to focus on getting A’s rather than on making sense of ideas.” Sadly this style of assessment is very common in our education system.

            Perhaps an alternate approach to grading could be used that would promote student creativity and still make the teacher’s job easier. Robert Duke’s concept of assessment is a more holistic approach and still uses a “rubric.” I put the term rubric in quotations because Duke’s format is basically a checklist of things that the student either does or does not do. An example that he gives in his book Intelligent Music Teaching is a checklist rubric for students performing a guitar piece with an ensemble. The things on the list include:

Guitarist: Sat up straight, began immediately when called upon (no nervous mannerisms), Smiled, Gave correct starting pitch, and maintained steady pulse with right hand.

            This form of assessment grades students on a yes or no basis so there is no grey area when it comes to grading. There are also twenty bullet points on this rubric so missing a few of them doesn’t mean that the student will fail. This allows the students to be more relaxed, not so nervous about their grade, and more willing to take risks. Perhaps the most important aspect of Duke’s assessment concept is that he grades students on their actions. Everything on his list of criteria is an action verb; “Smiled, Sat up straight, maintained a steady beat, etc.” These are the qualities that we look for in good musicians. We should be grading our students on the most important aspects of musicianship in this yes or no format instead of using the typical rubric system.

Jazz must be taught in American schools

            Teachers must be extremely knowledgeable about the content area that they teach and music is no exception. Music teachers must know their theory, instrument techniques, repertoire, and music history. For the American music teacher, this means that we must be well versed in Jazz.

            Jazz was born in America and is one of the only styles that truly came from our country. We need to know the history of Jazz, and teach it to our students. Jazz molds together the western harmony of European classical music, the complex swing rhythms of Africa, and the marches that were popular in New Orleans around the turn of the century. When students trace the history of Jazz in their music classes they will also be getting a broader perspective of their country’s history. This music is closely tied to the civil rights movement of the 60s.

            Some of America’s best songs come from the Tin Pan Alley Broadway show tunes. These songs were popular in the thirties and forties and as a result, jazz musicians used them as framework for their improvisations. Some of the jazz standards that should be taught to American students are George Gershwin’s “I’ve got rhythm,” Jerome Kern’s “All the things you are,” and Duke Ellington’s “Take the A Train.” These tunes all teach students about 32 bar song form and rich with ii-V-I harmonies.

            Students need to learn how to improvise in their music classes. Jazz offers people the canvas to explore and create music of their own. There is a lot of emphasis on learning how to read music in schools. Unfortunately this system does not promote creativity.

            Learning Jazz also gives students a deep understanding of melody, harmony, and song forms. The melodies of jazz standards are harmonized with seventh chords and almost always utilize upper extension color tones. Jazz chords usually have ninths, elevenths, and thirteenths, which are far more complex than simple rock and blues chord changes. Jazz harmony is not necessarily better than rock and roll, but It does give students a broader palate of musical colors to choose from when it comes to writing original music.

            Jazz teaches kids how to swing which is an important rhythmic feel in US pop music. Blues, rock, funk, R&B, hip-hop, and rap all use swing feels extensively. Learning and understanding the swing feel is an advanced concept because it forces people to divide a pulse into an uneven subdivision. This feel is hard to explain in words and hard to notate so it must be taught by rote and by listening.

            Music educators must be experts on Jazz because it is a culturally relevant style of music. It is closely tied to the civil rights movement, it gives children a vehicle to improvise, it is rich in harmonic material, and it has a swing feel which is vital for all American musicians to be well versed in.

Introductory Band Lesson

Recently in my Secondary Methods class at UB our professor had us teach the first five minutes of an introductory band lesson. The scenario was we were the teachers and our professor was the fifth grade student.

The first thing I did in my mock band lesson was introduce myself and learn the name of my “student”, Brandt. I didn't spend any time making small talk, but instead I got right down to business and we opened up his instrument case.

I told Brandt that it is important to open the case on the ground and showed him how to do this right side up. The next thing that I explained to Brandt was the two main parts of his instrument; the trumpet and the mouth piece. I told him that our objective was to make a sound and that the way sound is produced with the trumpet is called “buzzing the mouthpiece”.

Next I had Brandt copycat what I was doing with my lips. I loosely blew a raspberry, tightly made a buzz, and tried a couple of other variations. Brandt picked up on this very quickly and mimicked what I did with my embouchure. Once I got him to make the right lip buzz I told him,"Great job, that's the sound we want!" I also explained to him that I am not principally a trumpet player and that we are both learning.

The next thing we did was assemble the mouthpiece to the trumpet. Luckily he already knew how to hold his instrument, so I did not have to instruct him for this procedure. Once he had his trumpet assembled I had Brandt buzz his lips on the mouthpiece again and he was successful in making his “first sound." 

This was a hilarious class activity and very helpful. It was great to observe my classmates teach and see some of their strategies. I will never forget this lesson and will definitely use some of the information that I learned in my own music classes one day.

What makes a "Good" musician?

           Recently I read an article by my professor Brandt Schneider entitled Creating Musical Flexibility Through the Ensemble (http://www.leadingnotes.org/2012/02/06/schneider/). In the article Schneider points out that the modern day school ensemble is a “repertoire machine” that pumps out a couple of concerts every year. The emphasis is on learning a program of songs and mastering them, then starting over next year. This system can yield some great performances, but at the end of the day it does not produce versatile musicians that can improvise, compose, and play in all twelve keys.

            Professor Schneider was given the opportunity to build a band program from scratch, which gave him the freedom to use his own teaching approach. The kids that went through this program were able to sing the songs that they played using solfege syllables. They could swap parts and transpose their music on sight. They could play simple melodies like “Mary had a little lamb” and “Somewhere over the Rainbow” in multiple keys. They could also play the songs that they knew in different styles or genres.

            This approach to teaching band and orchestra seems revolutionary, but Schneider reminds us that these skills were common for musicians in past generations. The current system of teaching music in schools is relatively new. Perhaps our culture’s definition of what a “good” musician entails has changed as the years have gone by.

What makes a “good” musician? In my opinion a good musician is somebody who:

• ·      has an excellent sense of rhythm and time.
• ·      has excellent ears and can figure out melodies and harmonies by ear.
• ·      is able to play many different styles of music.
• ·      is a skilled improviser.
• ·      plays multiple instruments.

You may have noticed that I have not listed reading music as one of my criteria. I don’t think it is vital for an accomplished musician to read music. Some of the best players are self-taught and have never taken lessons. Reading however is an invaluable skill to have as it opens many doors to playing classical repertoire and a sea of other pieces. It seems that today’s band programs in middle and high schools are geared towards making kids the best readers that they can be. Teaching this skill is awesome and as I stated above, it opens up almost limitless amounts of repertoire for reading. Unfortunately this method leads students to believe that being a great sight reader is the pinnacle of good musicianship and artistic creativity falls by the wayside.

Good musicians are also always practicing and trying to make improvements in their lives. Practicing an instrument intensely gives people the work ethic to set goals and work towards them in all facets of life. Practicing music can teach students how to listen to people, work towards a long-term goal, and use critical thinking and problem solving.             The skills that Brandt Schneider is teaching his ensembles are extremely versatile and will open doors for many of his students to play gigs, compose original music, and entertain friends and family. Music is so much broader than just learning how to read dots on a page. To put it simply Schneider’s approach to teaching music ensembles cultivates intelligent, well rounded, “good” musicians.

Who am I? and Core Values

            Hi! My name is Jake Habegger. I have been playing music since I was eight years old when I started taking piano lessons. Some of my favorite musicians and bands are Led Zeppelin, Miles Davis, Elvin Jones, Frank Zappa, Pink Floyd, Bach, Beethoven, and Mozart. I love to go jogging, hike in the woods, go skiing, eat delicious vegetarian food, spend time with my fiance, and play N64. When I was about fourteen years old I switched from piano to drums. I graduated from Watertown high school in 2007 and then attended Western Connecticut State University from 2007 – 2011 majoring in music performance. It was during my college years that I began to play more gigs and teach private lessons.

When I was in my junior year at WCSU, I started telling my friends that I was gay. Although I had come out to my family in high school, this point in my life marked my true coming out because I started telling everybody. When I started college, I didn’t tell any of my new friends about my sexuality because there was no easy way to bring it up. When I came out in high school, I basically let the word spread that, “Jake’s gay” and avoided the subject at all costs. Coming out to my friends in college was my own choice and I finally mustered up the courage to say it out loud to the world.

If you talk to me or see me, you probably won’t pick up on the fact that I’m gay. I have a “straight guy” persona and hang out with mostly straight dudes and I do not have a good fashion sense... When I was growing up, I rejected my sexuality and consciously or subconsciously emulated the mannerisms and vocabulary of a straight dude that played drums and loved Zeppelin. I mean, I really love classic rock and playing music and probably would have gravitated towards this path no matter what, but I sometimes wonder about other versions of Jake Habegger in a parallel universe that faced their fears earlier that I did. I’m not saying that to identify as gay, you have to look and act gay. There is nothing wrong with being a stereotype, but there is something wrong with feeling ashamed of who you are and trying to act like someone you aren’t.

Now that I am a teacher and I’m shaping the futures of so many children, I feel that it is my responsibility to be known as that “awesome music teacher that also happens to be gay.” I want the kids that I teach to know it is okay to be the person that they truly are. I happen to love playing music and want to pass on that passion to my students, but at the end of the day I feel that the most important gift that I can pass on to my students is to unabashedly be myself every day. Peter Boonshaft puts it beautifully in his book Teaching Music with Purpose:

“A hundred years from now… it will not matter what my bank account was, the sort of house I lived in, or the kind of car I drove… but the world may be different because I was important in the life of a child.”

I hope I can live up to this quote and guide many children through the path to figuring out what they will do with their lives. I also hope that I will acquire the great skill that Boonshaft has for telling stories. I love his anecdote about spilling an entire bag of M&Ms on the floor of a movie theater and relating the horrendous sound that they made to his ensemble.

The above tale of my life sums up my core values as a human trying to make the world a better place. But specifically as a music teacher, one of my core values is teaching students to really understand rhythm. I believe that having a firm grasp of how to read, count, and play notes on a page is one of my main jobs as a music teacher. In contrast with this principle, I also believe that music is for enjoyment and expression. I incorporate a lot of improvisation in my piano and drum lessons with the intent of having fun and being creative. Basically, I want my students to be excellent improvisers and excellent readers. Charlie Parker says it best:

“You've got to learn your instrument. Then, you practice, practice, practice. And then, when you finally get up there on the bandstand, forget all that and just wail.”