GUEST LECTURE
DR. MARK HOPKINS
Last week, I had the privilege of having Dr. Hopkins come in and share his teaching philosophies and methods with me. I was very excited to have him come in and speak with us, as he is a close friend of my ensemble director, Dr. Colleen Richardson who I admire as an educator. He did not disappoint - he brought critical thinking that challenged our standard way of teaching music in public school, specifically elementary school where there are many beginning musicians.
Firstly, I respect his decision to initially turn down re-creating the Nova Scotia primary music curriculum - he said that he believed that not everyone would not want to learn the way he teaches. Obviously, the curriculum has a large impact on how a student learns and if they choose to pursue music post-primary education. Dr. Hopkins also noted the flaws within the ways that he had been taught, and didn't want to continue that cycle of problematic, structured learning. Eventually he changed his mind and was able to introduce a less conventional curriculum that contains features from the former curriculum, but new features as well, such as a language-acquisition approach, imitation/improvisation, creative pursuits from day one, etc. that focuses on people, process, and product.
This method dawns on the idea that there is more to a student's education than simply the product - we must put some emphasis on the effort, growth, and personality of the student. There are ways to still evaluate students and give them grades without totally disregarding the other elements of their progress. I believe that in the current music curriculum, there is too much emphasis on the product, so therefore, students who are not virtuosic but put in a lot of effort are not rewarded with good grades.
Before this lecture, I had never heard of the "cycle of musical elements" in education. I was aware of the continuously-developing elements of music, although I had never thought of it in a non-linear pattern. It was interesting to see this educational philosophy put into a visual diagram.
I agreed with a lot of the ideas that Dr. Hopkins brought to this lecture, but the idea that music is a language really struck a chord with me. Beyond the scientific side to this of how music improvisation ignites the creative part of the brain, I do not believe that it is unusual to think of music as a language - if you think about it, they have a lot of similarities. Like a foreign language, musical notation takes time and training to be able to read and is a medium of which can be used to convey emotion and tell stories. I appreciated that he took the time to talk about this in his lecture.
Finally, one of the most prominent topics of discussion was the discussion of the use of method books in elementary schools. In all honesty, I do not remember my experience with method books well (for my principal instrument at least - I used them a little to learn French horn as a secondary instrument in my grade twelve year). I know that I definitely used one and it helped me in a lot of ways. But after going through both the pros and cons of using them, I wonder if it set me back in my learning at all. I definitely think they are a helpful resource but this was my first time considering the other side of the argument and how damaging to a teacher and a student they can be.
In summary, I was very impressed by Dr. Hopkins and the ideas he brought forth. He is clearly a smart educator and believes in the evolution of education. After his lecture, I wonder if all these years after revising the Nova Scotia primary music curriculum, would he do it again? If so, what would he change? What is the most problematic part of the curriculum? Is there any way it can be fixed? Where is the future of music education headed?
GUEST LECTURE
LESLEY DAWE
Having Lesley Skype in with us in our class this week was really an amazing experience for us - it was so beneficial to have the opportunity to ask our questions to someone who is a young teacher and was in our position not too long ago.
I came into that lectures prepared with several questions to ask her, ones that I had been thinking about for a while now and after hearing her perspective in her article, I wanted to hear her take on things.
My first question (and the most pressing one for me, at that) pertained to "lack of creativity" and being told what to do in almost every musical situation. I told her that I related strongly to the introduction of her article; I had been raised in a musical world where I was told what to do all the time and had possibly lost some of my creativity as a musician as a result of that. I have been able to identify that, but at the same time, it does not bother me that much. So does that make me a bad musician? Will I not be successful as a teacher? Her answer was thoughtful and reassured me that I was not abnormal by any means - she explained that she too has students that wish for everything to be in a cookie-cutter mold for them to follow. That's just the way they are and that's the way I am. As for teaching... it would only be negative if I deny my students who desire to be expressive and creative the opportunity to do so.
After so much discussion about the negativity of the elements, I began to feel bad about the fact that I wasn't feeling "oppressed" and like I had been let down in my education. Having Lesley reassure me that it was okay and that I wasn't strange for thinking the way I do made me feel better. I really respect her approach to pedagogy and her ability to see all sides of the teaching world.
My other questions were not as pressing me, but it was still cool to hear her take on them and what sort of strategies she has implemented in her classroom, as well as hear some of the struggles that she is encountering. It opened my eyes and helped me to think forward a few years to what I will be facing in my own classroom one day.
I also really appreciated her honesty - one of my classmates asked her a question that she didn't have a response for and she didn't try to make something up - she said that she didn't have a good response to that and explained that she doesn't have everything figured out and is still making mistakes. This was so important for her to say because humility in teachers can often be few and far in between but it is such an important characteristic to have as an educator. Teachers have to be able to identify when they are wrong and accept it with open arms, so it was nice to see Lesley possess that characteristic.
She provided us a great opportunity and I am very thankful that she took the time to speak with us.
GUEST LECTURE
RANDALL ALLSUP
This lecture was definitely not what I was expecting, but that is not to say I didn't enjoy it. I was expecting something more along the lines of Dr. Mark Hopkin's lecture (more of a lecture-like style that was all clearly directly related to music education), but this was something entirely different.
I found it interesting that he started with the "what do you hear?" prompt and the listening. I understand that he was trying to get us engaged and our ears going (as well as lead into our next activity) but I was a little confused on the end goal of that activity - was it simply to teach the idea of an ostinato? If so, I understand that much but it was very time-consuming and not practical for a public music education class where time is very limited.
For our next activity, we were asked to create an ostinato with any sort of item that can create a minimum of three different timbres. One of the issues that I noticed with this activity was that although we talked about what "timbre" meant, the word "ostinato" was never explained or defined. Thankfully, I have talked a lot about ostinatos in my band and studio lessons, but there were several other of my classmates who had no idea what an ostinato was and had no idea what to do for the activity unless someone explained what it was. It is kind of an obscure word and in first year especially, there is a large variety of experience and knowledge among the students, so it is kind of unfair to assume that everyone knows what an ostinato is. While I'm sure this was completely unintentional on Mr. Allsup's part, I just thought it was something that should have been discussed before we started our activity.
For our final activity, we worked with a beautiful Mongolian folk song titled "Grassland, My Home." I had a lot of mixed feelings about this activity. Part of me of course loved it because it was fun to be engaged in an activity instead of just listening to a lecture for three straight hours and the end product was incredible. I was floored at the creativity and abilities of my classmates and everyone else who attended this lecture. There is something really special about creating a totally unique experience and sharing it with some very talented people and have the end product be so beautiful. Yet at the same time, I was challenged with one of my greatest fears - being creative. When Mr. Allsup was listing off all of the tasks that each group would do, I felt incredibly nervous and anxious because each activity was totally out of my comfort zone due to the creativity it required. My group was given the task of creating an ostinato which was one of the lesser evils for me, and although I did have some fun, I was anxious during my time playing.
One thing that I did admire about Mr. Allsup's teaching was his approach. I noted his effort to in a student-centred way that would allow students to be as successful as they can be (e.g. not giving demonstrations so that students will follow their own intuition and impulse instead of simply imitating the example that the teacher gave). He also created a very positive environment to learn in which I think is one of the most essential features of an effective teacher.
Mr. Allsup gave a very inspiring and enjoyable lecture and I was glad to have attended it.
GUEST LECTURE
DR. RUTH WRIGHT
I had never heard of "Introduction to Musical Features" before this lecture, but after being given the full run-down of what the program is, I am very interested. One of the most important things about this program is that it is set up to combat the lack of student engagement in music - something that is becoming more and more of an issue. I was startled and honestly, quite perturbed to hear that many students consider music to be the most useless subject, despite all of the cognitive benefits that music has.
There are a lot of issues with the majority of the education system, one of them being how music is taught. While it works and appeals to some students, it does not appeal to most or even all students. As educators, our goals should be to engage every student and give them an enjoyable experience, no matter if they plan on continuing with music for the rest of their life or not. My favourite thing that Dr. Wright said in this lecture was that "all students are entitled to a music program that engages them." I have always thought this way, but never known how to put it and I think this perfectly articulates what I want to say.
It is almost revolutionary to have students design their own personalized program, considering that since the beginning of time, teachers have always held a position of power over students. How engaged can a student be if they feel like a prisoner and "photocopier" in their classroom? This new system is far more empowering and therefore must be more successful, as well as more enjoyable for teachers. I figure that most teachers would want to be a facilitator instead of a dictator. I also appreciate how students make their own learning goals and figure out how to achieve them; this is a lifelong skill that will be applicable in almost any situation, even outside of music.
I was not really surprised to hear of the impact that it has on students, what with the results of greater engagement, lower levels of absenteeism, increased musical learning, greater self-confidence, etc. Although I was indeed surprised to hear of the impact that it has on teachers (renewed self-esteem, enjoyment of teaching, etc.). It does make sense in theory, but I hadn't thought about that as well.
It was also interesting to discuss the idea that music is encoded into the human genome. It makes total sense though - there are hundreds of videos on the internet of infants and young children dancing and singing along to music; it's a natural instinct.
The only thing that did concern me a little is that the course seemed very popular music-centric. While I understand that it's called popular music for a reason and that the course's main focus is to engage, as I mentioned in my fifth annotated bibliography, I am concerned about the declining interest in classical music. It would be amazing to have this program with a lot of classical influence. So that being said, I would ask Dr. Wright if that is possible. And if yes, how much of the program can be classical? Can the program run with just classical influence? How can all of this be implemented into a large classroom setting where time and learning styles play a large factor?
GUEST LECTURE
KELLY BYLICA
It was truly a gift to have Kelly come in and speak with us this week. Firstly, because she is lovely and of course very engaging, but also because she brought some interesting ideas to the table for us.
I enjoyed the way she started her lecture, by showing us a fragment of the letters a couple of her students had written to her at the beginning of the year. It was interesting to see how much negativity she had initially received - one would think that kids would look forward to music because it's more "fun" than math, science, English, etc, but no. Kelly then proceeded to ask us what assumptions we had made about the aforementioned students, and what assumptions they had made about her in return. We had assumed that they were troublesome, "bratty" students who had had negative previous experiences with other teachers and music, and therefore made the assumption that they would hate Kelly and her class. I found particularly interesting to hear that they didn't consider their lunch time music-making to be legitimate music and perceived classical music as boring music that "doesn't tell a story." After we had finished discussing that, we moved on to a different set of students who gave off the impression that music was a joke of class.
Kelly told us how she used these letters written on the first day of her class to get a sense of her students and asked us what we would do for day two in our own classrooms. As a class, we seemed to navigate towards ideas and activities that would empower the students and give them the idea that they were no better or worse than anyone else in the classroom, as well as give them plenty of mediums to explore music and all the different forms it takes.
The last portion of the class was dedicated to looking at books by Chris Raschka (who, admittedly, I had never heard of prior to this class). We split into four groups and each looked at one of his picture books - my group was assigned "Mysterious Thelonious," and just from looking at the cover we were able to tell that the story would be about a jazz pianist. Inside the book, we eventually figured out that the words were written in the way that the music was notated in Thelonious Monk's piece "Misterioso." There was even a key at the beginning and end accompanied with solfege, making the book extremely musical. We went around in our groups and shared our thoughts and findings about the books we were given.
We were very lucky to have Kelly come in, and if I had the opportunity, I would ask her how this would apply in a high school setting.
GUEST LECTURE
DR. KEVIN WATSON
This was actually not the first time I had done this workshop with Dr. Watson. In January of this year, Western's Music Education Student's Association held a music education conference in which various educators from different cities in southern Ontario came and presented a workshop in their area of expertise, and I chose to sit in on Dr. Watson's. He presented on the topic of teaching improv and gave virtually the same lecture as he did today. It was just as interesting the second time around though!
We started off by putting ourselves in the shoes of seventh graders and simply listening to a few different jazz pieces, commenting on what we noticed in terms of instrumentation, improvising, structure, etc. We then shared our findings and thoughts.
After our discussion, we got out our instruments and started to play. We started with just simply a Bb concert note and doing various swung rhythms in a call-and-response format. It progressively got longer and more elaborate, as he would add other notes within the blues scale (Db, Eb, F, etc.) but let us figure out the pitches on our own. For the vocalists, it was fairly easy to sing the pitch but in return it was hard to pinpoint the note, whereas instrumentalists struggled with finding the pitch, and then naming it was easy.
Like many classically trained musicians, I have relied on sheet music and notation for everything. This was one of my first times playing without any music in front of me, especially considering I had to create my own melody. That being said, you can imagine how stressed out I might be when we went around in a circle and had to improvise a two bar melody by ourselves. I could feel my heart racing and to be perfectly honest I doubt I'll be that nervous for my jury next month. Improvisation is something so foreign and scary to me because I have no experience doing it, so I found myself rehearsing what I was going to play in my head over and over so that when Dr. Watson came up to me, I wouldn't really have to make something up on the spot.
Yet surprisingly, the irony is that I did exactly what he wanted me to. At the end of our lesson, he said that he wanted his students to improvise with intention, not just pushing down random buttons and hoping something good comes out. Reflecting back on this, I feel better and am able to recognize that I came up with my own improvisation. And even though it was only two bars, it's a start!
We also discussed the chords used in the progression and used it as a foundation. Throughout Dr. Watson's entire lecture, he never once wrote down anything on the board and only gave us the pitch of one note in the very beginning, which was the Bb. I found this very interesting because I think he was able to get his points across more effectively without notation, especially regarding an activity where there is no written music (I mentioned this in our final discussion as well.)
The activity was concluded with our final discussion, which I think is always a necessity for these sorts of things where there is strong intent more to be learned than what meets the eye. We discussed the purposes of teaching this lesson by wrote, other things that are being taught than simply improvising, and anything else that could be added on to this lesson.
After today's lecture, I am still scared of improvising. But less so, now that I understand the foundation of it and know that I can do very simple improvisations. With time and practice, I am sure that I will eventually get there, and I learned a lot from Dr. Watson's pedagogy.
TEACHER INTERVIEW
Over the reading week, I had the privilege of interviewing someone who is very important in my life, and the best high school teacher I had – Mrs. Marlatt, Head of Music at my former high school. I had the opportunity to inquire about her music education journey and philosophies. As per request, the audio file of this interview will not be posted.
ASHLEY: “Thank you for volunteering your time to speak with me today. I just have a couple questions about you because I really admire you as an educator. My first question is how did your music education journey start?”
MARLATT: “I was lucky because I was in Scarborough Board of education, and the arts were really strong back in the day. So I had a great choir director, and I was in choir from grade one straight through. We did musicals and all that sort of stuff. In grade four, I actually started with the instrumental program because in Scarborough you were allowed to begin instruments in grade four. So I began playing the trumpet in grade four, and never looked back and was in strong music schools after, and had great teachers, and by the time I was in grade eight, I knew I wanted to be a music teacher. So I just followed that path.”
A: “Out of all the great teachers that you had, who was the most influential and why?”
M: “Okay, that’s tricky. Probably one of the most influential would be my elementary choir director because she is the one who really instilled a love of music, and really gave herself and… showed me what could happen. And then when I transitioned into being band-focused, I would have to say that Wayne Hill was pretty important in my development because he is one that absolutely demanded excellence, and insisted that you do well, and we had some outstanding bands. In grade seven and eight, I was playing stuff that most high schools were playing.”
A: “All right, cool! That’s impressive. Just going off of that, does your teaching style reflect how you were taught by those inspirational teachers or have you cultivated your own completely unique style?”
M: “Yeah, no, it’s completely the opposite to what they did because it’s more curriculum-focused for me. Although I had great performance opportunities, that was the majority of the training that I got. So when I went into university, I got scholarships based on my playing and was almost not let in because of my academic background in music. So to make sure that that doesn’t happen to anyone I teach, I’ve changed the way I run my program to ensure that no one is in the same situation that I was in when I went to university. As far as demanding excellence I still do that! (Laughs) But the curriculum stuff is – I would love to run seventy-five minute rehearsals every day, but there’s more to it than that.”
A: “For sure. So do you think that those teachers who didn’t teach you theory and history – does that make them a ‘bad’ educator? Or is that just a different approach?”
M: “I think that times were different. I think that the curriculum focus wasn’t as much, and that it was all about creating music at the time. So I don’t necessarily think they were ‘bad’ educators, they were just focusing on one facet instead of being well-rounded. So was every school like that back then? I don’t know, but I think a lot were. People who used to go into music had piano and all that extra theory and stuff, which I didn’t do, meaning they would have gotten that elsewhere. But if I was able to go to university without taking, you know, extra theory and stuff and history, then I want to make sure that other people can be prepared.”
A: “Yeah. So do you think being more well-rounded with experience in piano, and having theory background and history background makes somebody a better musician?”
M: “Yes, because with the historical knowledge of music that you gain, you are then able to interpret music better/differently, you are more aware of different styles, different composers, different tendencies. With the theory, it’s important to know because you’re looking at a score all the time and you’re figuring out how it’s constructed and you need theory for helping kids start on instruments, and knowing transpositions and all that sort of stuff. So I think it gives you a way more solid foundation.”
A: “All right. What has been the most challenging part about your job as Head of Music?”
M: “As Head of Music or just being a music teacher?”
A: “Either or, you know, elements of both.”
M: “Okay so Head of Music what’s the most challenging is the extra stuff you have to do. The paperwork, the extra requirements for you to run the department, and having to tend to all of that sometimes other things become last-minute and you coast on some things because ‘I have to get this paperwork done, we’ll just wing that this afternoon’ so that’s a bit of a problem. And managing a department is something else that you have to be good at, you have to be good at working with people and you have to accept a whole pile of different people that walk though your department, and you have to be able to help them, direct them, yet not offend them. So that’s tricky. As far as just being a music teacher, one of the things is it’s hard to have kids come through your program and see them go. It’s hard when you have students who… could be so much more than they are, but don’t want to be, and then, you know, you try everything you can to motivate them yet it’s not in the cards. And that’s – you have to know when to say ‘okay, that’s as good as it’s going to get,’ and you have to know the limits. And that’s something that you have to learn how to do because you always want it to be perfect, but sometimes it can’t be perfect. Now whether or not that’s because you’ve chosen music that’s too hard, or whether or not the kids are just done with certain things, so… It’s all a matter of timing and knowing what you want, and all that sort of stuff. But that’s frustrating.”
A: “Right. I can imagine. So in my class, we’ve been talking a lot about accommodation for different kids, you know with special needs or whatever, and so I’m just wondering if you ever have any difficulties with that at all, or does it seem to work itself out because you’re in a more like, kinetic-based classroom with movement?”
M: “Yeah. I think we have a lot of benefits as music teachers because so much of it is aural that you’re hearing what they’re giving back to you all the time. So if I’m going to set a test, I can hear when everyone’s ready, regardless of their learning disability or what have you, I can hear when the majority is ready, and so I have the benefit of saying, ‘okay, well we were going to have this test on this day, but everyone will be more successful if we do it next week’ and everyone gets an extra week in their practice. So that’s not so much of a struggle; the academic side of things is where they tend to have disparaging results based on abilities. And so you find ways, if they have an IEP, things that you can do to help them, right? So in academic things you can reduce questions that they’re asked, you can change how they’re supposed to answer it, you can provide study guides for them that they can take in and use in the situation. This semester even, I had two students who were both allowed to have that accommodation, and one dug in and used it and did great, and one didn’t really want to, and so didn’t. They were both given those accommodations, so that allowed them to be on the same level if they chose to be.”
A: “Right. So going back to what you said earlier about the struggles of just being a music teacher, having kids come and go and kids who don’t put in the effort but have great potential – how do you deal with that?”
M: “With a kid who is unmotivated?”
A: “Yeah.”
M: “Well, there’s different things that you can do. If the kid is a great player, but unmotivated, you try and provide extra opportunities, like you try and provide extra places to play, extra ways to get them interested, pick music that maybe features them, gets them keyed up about playing. And then if you have a kid that just really doesn’t care, and isn’t very ‘good,’ then a lot of the tactic I take is be super, super supportive and let them know that they’re just as good as everyone else and you’re hearing great things. A lot of the time the phrase I use is ‘I’m hearing a lot of really good things that you don’t know that I’m hearing.’ Because you know, I’m listening for x, y, z, and all you’re worried about is that you didn’t play the right notes. But I’m listening for other things, so you can give them positive feedback that way. Nothing works as good as success and nothing works as good as positive feedback. So I try to go that way rather than be super negative and say, you know, ‘You should be able to do better than this.’ Do I use that? Yes, but that’s reserved for certain occasions because you know, sometimes a kid just needs to be told: ‘Enough, time to try.’ But that usually is reserved for when it’s really needed.”
A: “Of course. So you use encouragement a lot with students to try to get them to be better?”
M: “Yeah. Positive reinforcement, you know, and there’s a lot of humour, right? Like so there was an article in ‘The Instrumentalist’ last month and it was ‘How Does Your Music Teacher Tell You They Love You?’ and you know, your music teacher tells you they love you by saying, ‘Okay we’re going to do this one more time!’ and then doing it six more times. And things like a little bit of sarcasm that lets them know okay, that wasn’t as good as it could have been, and I know you can do better, and that’s going to get them to do it. But it’s all encased in fun, it’s all encased in ‘I can tease you because you know I care’ like the sign out front.” (Laughs) (This is a poster that is taped on the wall in the classroom that reads I yell because I care. Sorry I cared a lot today.)
A: (Laughs) “Except you never yell so that’s not accurate.”
M: (Laughs)
A: “Okay, so that kind of ties into my next question which is what is your overarching goal as an educator? Like what do you try to do with your students? What is your end goal?”
M: “Generally? First and foremost, I want them to love what they do. That’s probably the most important thing. For me, that comes before curriculum. Because if they love what they do, then they’re engaged, and if they’re engaged, then they’ll do well. And again, then they have success. So they have to love it. They have to play music that inspires them, they have to want to be terrific. So that’s the first and foremost thing. I want them to be well-rounded; I have all these students who go off into science and math and what have you, and they all come back saying, ‘Oh my gosh I’m failing this, I’m failing that, and I’m not doing well in that,’ and I don’t ever want to have a kid come back and say that. And to date, I haven’t.”
A: “I’m failing everything.” (I am not. I just like to mess with my teacher.)
M: “No you’re not.”
A: “I’m doing horribly.”
M: (Laughs) “But that’s the thing, right? I don’t want someone to go and say, ‘Hey, you’re conditionally accepted to university because you don’t know enough theory.’ And I want people to hate rhythmic dictation while they do it here and then go off to university and go, ‘Thank you!’ That’s what I want. I want them to be prepared. And you know, for the kid who’s not going into music, I still want them to love what we do, what they do, I want them to keep music in their life and I want them to want to be well-rounded, so that they can sit in the car and go, ‘Hey, I remember that piece, we studied that piece in history. I don’t remember what it’s called but I know it!’ You know? That’s what I want them to do.”
A: “Well I think you have been very successful in doing that.”
M: “Thanks!”
A: “Yeah, you’re a great teacher so thank you for doing this with me. It’s good to hear your experience and your thoughts on things so thank you.”
M: “No problem.”
For my reflection on this interview, please see the "reflections" tab.
DR. MARK HOPKINS
Last week, I had the privilege of having Dr. Hopkins come in and share his teaching philosophies and methods with me. I was very excited to have him come in and speak with us, as he is a close friend of my ensemble director, Dr. Colleen Richardson who I admire as an educator. He did not disappoint - he brought critical thinking that challenged our standard way of teaching music in public school, specifically elementary school where there are many beginning musicians.
Firstly, I respect his decision to initially turn down re-creating the Nova Scotia primary music curriculum - he said that he believed that not everyone would not want to learn the way he teaches. Obviously, the curriculum has a large impact on how a student learns and if they choose to pursue music post-primary education. Dr. Hopkins also noted the flaws within the ways that he had been taught, and didn't want to continue that cycle of problematic, structured learning. Eventually he changed his mind and was able to introduce a less conventional curriculum that contains features from the former curriculum, but new features as well, such as a language-acquisition approach, imitation/improvisation, creative pursuits from day one, etc. that focuses on people, process, and product.
This method dawns on the idea that there is more to a student's education than simply the product - we must put some emphasis on the effort, growth, and personality of the student. There are ways to still evaluate students and give them grades without totally disregarding the other elements of their progress. I believe that in the current music curriculum, there is too much emphasis on the product, so therefore, students who are not virtuosic but put in a lot of effort are not rewarded with good grades.
Before this lecture, I had never heard of the "cycle of musical elements" in education. I was aware of the continuously-developing elements of music, although I had never thought of it in a non-linear pattern. It was interesting to see this educational philosophy put into a visual diagram.
I agreed with a lot of the ideas that Dr. Hopkins brought to this lecture, but the idea that music is a language really struck a chord with me. Beyond the scientific side to this of how music improvisation ignites the creative part of the brain, I do not believe that it is unusual to think of music as a language - if you think about it, they have a lot of similarities. Like a foreign language, musical notation takes time and training to be able to read and is a medium of which can be used to convey emotion and tell stories. I appreciated that he took the time to talk about this in his lecture.
Finally, one of the most prominent topics of discussion was the discussion of the use of method books in elementary schools. In all honesty, I do not remember my experience with method books well (for my principal instrument at least - I used them a little to learn French horn as a secondary instrument in my grade twelve year). I know that I definitely used one and it helped me in a lot of ways. But after going through both the pros and cons of using them, I wonder if it set me back in my learning at all. I definitely think they are a helpful resource but this was my first time considering the other side of the argument and how damaging to a teacher and a student they can be.
In summary, I was very impressed by Dr. Hopkins and the ideas he brought forth. He is clearly a smart educator and believes in the evolution of education. After his lecture, I wonder if all these years after revising the Nova Scotia primary music curriculum, would he do it again? If so, what would he change? What is the most problematic part of the curriculum? Is there any way it can be fixed? Where is the future of music education headed?
GUEST LECTURE
LESLEY DAWE
Having Lesley Skype in with us in our class this week was really an amazing experience for us - it was so beneficial to have the opportunity to ask our questions to someone who is a young teacher and was in our position not too long ago.
I came into that lectures prepared with several questions to ask her, ones that I had been thinking about for a while now and after hearing her perspective in her article, I wanted to hear her take on things.
My first question (and the most pressing one for me, at that) pertained to "lack of creativity" and being told what to do in almost every musical situation. I told her that I related strongly to the introduction of her article; I had been raised in a musical world where I was told what to do all the time and had possibly lost some of my creativity as a musician as a result of that. I have been able to identify that, but at the same time, it does not bother me that much. So does that make me a bad musician? Will I not be successful as a teacher? Her answer was thoughtful and reassured me that I was not abnormal by any means - she explained that she too has students that wish for everything to be in a cookie-cutter mold for them to follow. That's just the way they are and that's the way I am. As for teaching... it would only be negative if I deny my students who desire to be expressive and creative the opportunity to do so.
After so much discussion about the negativity of the elements, I began to feel bad about the fact that I wasn't feeling "oppressed" and like I had been let down in my education. Having Lesley reassure me that it was okay and that I wasn't strange for thinking the way I do made me feel better. I really respect her approach to pedagogy and her ability to see all sides of the teaching world.
My other questions were not as pressing me, but it was still cool to hear her take on them and what sort of strategies she has implemented in her classroom, as well as hear some of the struggles that she is encountering. It opened my eyes and helped me to think forward a few years to what I will be facing in my own classroom one day.
I also really appreciated her honesty - one of my classmates asked her a question that she didn't have a response for and she didn't try to make something up - she said that she didn't have a good response to that and explained that she doesn't have everything figured out and is still making mistakes. This was so important for her to say because humility in teachers can often be few and far in between but it is such an important characteristic to have as an educator. Teachers have to be able to identify when they are wrong and accept it with open arms, so it was nice to see Lesley possess that characteristic.
She provided us a great opportunity and I am very thankful that she took the time to speak with us.
GUEST LECTURE
RANDALL ALLSUP
This lecture was definitely not what I was expecting, but that is not to say I didn't enjoy it. I was expecting something more along the lines of Dr. Mark Hopkin's lecture (more of a lecture-like style that was all clearly directly related to music education), but this was something entirely different.
I found it interesting that he started with the "what do you hear?" prompt and the listening. I understand that he was trying to get us engaged and our ears going (as well as lead into our next activity) but I was a little confused on the end goal of that activity - was it simply to teach the idea of an ostinato? If so, I understand that much but it was very time-consuming and not practical for a public music education class where time is very limited.
For our next activity, we were asked to create an ostinato with any sort of item that can create a minimum of three different timbres. One of the issues that I noticed with this activity was that although we talked about what "timbre" meant, the word "ostinato" was never explained or defined. Thankfully, I have talked a lot about ostinatos in my band and studio lessons, but there were several other of my classmates who had no idea what an ostinato was and had no idea what to do for the activity unless someone explained what it was. It is kind of an obscure word and in first year especially, there is a large variety of experience and knowledge among the students, so it is kind of unfair to assume that everyone knows what an ostinato is. While I'm sure this was completely unintentional on Mr. Allsup's part, I just thought it was something that should have been discussed before we started our activity.
For our final activity, we worked with a beautiful Mongolian folk song titled "Grassland, My Home." I had a lot of mixed feelings about this activity. Part of me of course loved it because it was fun to be engaged in an activity instead of just listening to a lecture for three straight hours and the end product was incredible. I was floored at the creativity and abilities of my classmates and everyone else who attended this lecture. There is something really special about creating a totally unique experience and sharing it with some very talented people and have the end product be so beautiful. Yet at the same time, I was challenged with one of my greatest fears - being creative. When Mr. Allsup was listing off all of the tasks that each group would do, I felt incredibly nervous and anxious because each activity was totally out of my comfort zone due to the creativity it required. My group was given the task of creating an ostinato which was one of the lesser evils for me, and although I did have some fun, I was anxious during my time playing.
One thing that I did admire about Mr. Allsup's teaching was his approach. I noted his effort to in a student-centred way that would allow students to be as successful as they can be (e.g. not giving demonstrations so that students will follow their own intuition and impulse instead of simply imitating the example that the teacher gave). He also created a very positive environment to learn in which I think is one of the most essential features of an effective teacher.
Mr. Allsup gave a very inspiring and enjoyable lecture and I was glad to have attended it.
GUEST LECTURE
DR. RUTH WRIGHT
I had never heard of "Introduction to Musical Features" before this lecture, but after being given the full run-down of what the program is, I am very interested. One of the most important things about this program is that it is set up to combat the lack of student engagement in music - something that is becoming more and more of an issue. I was startled and honestly, quite perturbed to hear that many students consider music to be the most useless subject, despite all of the cognitive benefits that music has.
There are a lot of issues with the majority of the education system, one of them being how music is taught. While it works and appeals to some students, it does not appeal to most or even all students. As educators, our goals should be to engage every student and give them an enjoyable experience, no matter if they plan on continuing with music for the rest of their life or not. My favourite thing that Dr. Wright said in this lecture was that "all students are entitled to a music program that engages them." I have always thought this way, but never known how to put it and I think this perfectly articulates what I want to say.
It is almost revolutionary to have students design their own personalized program, considering that since the beginning of time, teachers have always held a position of power over students. How engaged can a student be if they feel like a prisoner and "photocopier" in their classroom? This new system is far more empowering and therefore must be more successful, as well as more enjoyable for teachers. I figure that most teachers would want to be a facilitator instead of a dictator. I also appreciate how students make their own learning goals and figure out how to achieve them; this is a lifelong skill that will be applicable in almost any situation, even outside of music.
I was not really surprised to hear of the impact that it has on students, what with the results of greater engagement, lower levels of absenteeism, increased musical learning, greater self-confidence, etc. Although I was indeed surprised to hear of the impact that it has on teachers (renewed self-esteem, enjoyment of teaching, etc.). It does make sense in theory, but I hadn't thought about that as well.
It was also interesting to discuss the idea that music is encoded into the human genome. It makes total sense though - there are hundreds of videos on the internet of infants and young children dancing and singing along to music; it's a natural instinct.
The only thing that did concern me a little is that the course seemed very popular music-centric. While I understand that it's called popular music for a reason and that the course's main focus is to engage, as I mentioned in my fifth annotated bibliography, I am concerned about the declining interest in classical music. It would be amazing to have this program with a lot of classical influence. So that being said, I would ask Dr. Wright if that is possible. And if yes, how much of the program can be classical? Can the program run with just classical influence? How can all of this be implemented into a large classroom setting where time and learning styles play a large factor?
GUEST LECTURE
KELLY BYLICA
It was truly a gift to have Kelly come in and speak with us this week. Firstly, because she is lovely and of course very engaging, but also because she brought some interesting ideas to the table for us.
I enjoyed the way she started her lecture, by showing us a fragment of the letters a couple of her students had written to her at the beginning of the year. It was interesting to see how much negativity she had initially received - one would think that kids would look forward to music because it's more "fun" than math, science, English, etc, but no. Kelly then proceeded to ask us what assumptions we had made about the aforementioned students, and what assumptions they had made about her in return. We had assumed that they were troublesome, "bratty" students who had had negative previous experiences with other teachers and music, and therefore made the assumption that they would hate Kelly and her class. I found particularly interesting to hear that they didn't consider their lunch time music-making to be legitimate music and perceived classical music as boring music that "doesn't tell a story." After we had finished discussing that, we moved on to a different set of students who gave off the impression that music was a joke of class.
Kelly told us how she used these letters written on the first day of her class to get a sense of her students and asked us what we would do for day two in our own classrooms. As a class, we seemed to navigate towards ideas and activities that would empower the students and give them the idea that they were no better or worse than anyone else in the classroom, as well as give them plenty of mediums to explore music and all the different forms it takes.
The last portion of the class was dedicated to looking at books by Chris Raschka (who, admittedly, I had never heard of prior to this class). We split into four groups and each looked at one of his picture books - my group was assigned "Mysterious Thelonious," and just from looking at the cover we were able to tell that the story would be about a jazz pianist. Inside the book, we eventually figured out that the words were written in the way that the music was notated in Thelonious Monk's piece "Misterioso." There was even a key at the beginning and end accompanied with solfege, making the book extremely musical. We went around in our groups and shared our thoughts and findings about the books we were given.
We were very lucky to have Kelly come in, and if I had the opportunity, I would ask her how this would apply in a high school setting.
GUEST LECTURE
DR. KEVIN WATSON
This was actually not the first time I had done this workshop with Dr. Watson. In January of this year, Western's Music Education Student's Association held a music education conference in which various educators from different cities in southern Ontario came and presented a workshop in their area of expertise, and I chose to sit in on Dr. Watson's. He presented on the topic of teaching improv and gave virtually the same lecture as he did today. It was just as interesting the second time around though!
We started off by putting ourselves in the shoes of seventh graders and simply listening to a few different jazz pieces, commenting on what we noticed in terms of instrumentation, improvising, structure, etc. We then shared our findings and thoughts.
After our discussion, we got out our instruments and started to play. We started with just simply a Bb concert note and doing various swung rhythms in a call-and-response format. It progressively got longer and more elaborate, as he would add other notes within the blues scale (Db, Eb, F, etc.) but let us figure out the pitches on our own. For the vocalists, it was fairly easy to sing the pitch but in return it was hard to pinpoint the note, whereas instrumentalists struggled with finding the pitch, and then naming it was easy.
Like many classically trained musicians, I have relied on sheet music and notation for everything. This was one of my first times playing without any music in front of me, especially considering I had to create my own melody. That being said, you can imagine how stressed out I might be when we went around in a circle and had to improvise a two bar melody by ourselves. I could feel my heart racing and to be perfectly honest I doubt I'll be that nervous for my jury next month. Improvisation is something so foreign and scary to me because I have no experience doing it, so I found myself rehearsing what I was going to play in my head over and over so that when Dr. Watson came up to me, I wouldn't really have to make something up on the spot.
Yet surprisingly, the irony is that I did exactly what he wanted me to. At the end of our lesson, he said that he wanted his students to improvise with intention, not just pushing down random buttons and hoping something good comes out. Reflecting back on this, I feel better and am able to recognize that I came up with my own improvisation. And even though it was only two bars, it's a start!
We also discussed the chords used in the progression and used it as a foundation. Throughout Dr. Watson's entire lecture, he never once wrote down anything on the board and only gave us the pitch of one note in the very beginning, which was the Bb. I found this very interesting because I think he was able to get his points across more effectively without notation, especially regarding an activity where there is no written music (I mentioned this in our final discussion as well.)
The activity was concluded with our final discussion, which I think is always a necessity for these sorts of things where there is strong intent more to be learned than what meets the eye. We discussed the purposes of teaching this lesson by wrote, other things that are being taught than simply improvising, and anything else that could be added on to this lesson.
After today's lecture, I am still scared of improvising. But less so, now that I understand the foundation of it and know that I can do very simple improvisations. With time and practice, I am sure that I will eventually get there, and I learned a lot from Dr. Watson's pedagogy.
TEACHER INTERVIEW
Over the reading week, I had the privilege of interviewing someone who is very important in my life, and the best high school teacher I had – Mrs. Marlatt, Head of Music at my former high school. I had the opportunity to inquire about her music education journey and philosophies. As per request, the audio file of this interview will not be posted.
ASHLEY: “Thank you for volunteering your time to speak with me today. I just have a couple questions about you because I really admire you as an educator. My first question is how did your music education journey start?”
MARLATT: “I was lucky because I was in Scarborough Board of education, and the arts were really strong back in the day. So I had a great choir director, and I was in choir from grade one straight through. We did musicals and all that sort of stuff. In grade four, I actually started with the instrumental program because in Scarborough you were allowed to begin instruments in grade four. So I began playing the trumpet in grade four, and never looked back and was in strong music schools after, and had great teachers, and by the time I was in grade eight, I knew I wanted to be a music teacher. So I just followed that path.”
A: “Out of all the great teachers that you had, who was the most influential and why?”
M: “Okay, that’s tricky. Probably one of the most influential would be my elementary choir director because she is the one who really instilled a love of music, and really gave herself and… showed me what could happen. And then when I transitioned into being band-focused, I would have to say that Wayne Hill was pretty important in my development because he is one that absolutely demanded excellence, and insisted that you do well, and we had some outstanding bands. In grade seven and eight, I was playing stuff that most high schools were playing.”
A: “All right, cool! That’s impressive. Just going off of that, does your teaching style reflect how you were taught by those inspirational teachers or have you cultivated your own completely unique style?”
M: “Yeah, no, it’s completely the opposite to what they did because it’s more curriculum-focused for me. Although I had great performance opportunities, that was the majority of the training that I got. So when I went into university, I got scholarships based on my playing and was almost not let in because of my academic background in music. So to make sure that that doesn’t happen to anyone I teach, I’ve changed the way I run my program to ensure that no one is in the same situation that I was in when I went to university. As far as demanding excellence I still do that! (Laughs) But the curriculum stuff is – I would love to run seventy-five minute rehearsals every day, but there’s more to it than that.”
A: “For sure. So do you think that those teachers who didn’t teach you theory and history – does that make them a ‘bad’ educator? Or is that just a different approach?”
M: “I think that times were different. I think that the curriculum focus wasn’t as much, and that it was all about creating music at the time. So I don’t necessarily think they were ‘bad’ educators, they were just focusing on one facet instead of being well-rounded. So was every school like that back then? I don’t know, but I think a lot were. People who used to go into music had piano and all that extra theory and stuff, which I didn’t do, meaning they would have gotten that elsewhere. But if I was able to go to university without taking, you know, extra theory and stuff and history, then I want to make sure that other people can be prepared.”
A: “Yeah. So do you think being more well-rounded with experience in piano, and having theory background and history background makes somebody a better musician?”
M: “Yes, because with the historical knowledge of music that you gain, you are then able to interpret music better/differently, you are more aware of different styles, different composers, different tendencies. With the theory, it’s important to know because you’re looking at a score all the time and you’re figuring out how it’s constructed and you need theory for helping kids start on instruments, and knowing transpositions and all that sort of stuff. So I think it gives you a way more solid foundation.”
A: “All right. What has been the most challenging part about your job as Head of Music?”
M: “As Head of Music or just being a music teacher?”
A: “Either or, you know, elements of both.”
M: “Okay so Head of Music what’s the most challenging is the extra stuff you have to do. The paperwork, the extra requirements for you to run the department, and having to tend to all of that sometimes other things become last-minute and you coast on some things because ‘I have to get this paperwork done, we’ll just wing that this afternoon’ so that’s a bit of a problem. And managing a department is something else that you have to be good at, you have to be good at working with people and you have to accept a whole pile of different people that walk though your department, and you have to be able to help them, direct them, yet not offend them. So that’s tricky. As far as just being a music teacher, one of the things is it’s hard to have kids come through your program and see them go. It’s hard when you have students who… could be so much more than they are, but don’t want to be, and then, you know, you try everything you can to motivate them yet it’s not in the cards. And that’s – you have to know when to say ‘okay, that’s as good as it’s going to get,’ and you have to know the limits. And that’s something that you have to learn how to do because you always want it to be perfect, but sometimes it can’t be perfect. Now whether or not that’s because you’ve chosen music that’s too hard, or whether or not the kids are just done with certain things, so… It’s all a matter of timing and knowing what you want, and all that sort of stuff. But that’s frustrating.”
A: “Right. I can imagine. So in my class, we’ve been talking a lot about accommodation for different kids, you know with special needs or whatever, and so I’m just wondering if you ever have any difficulties with that at all, or does it seem to work itself out because you’re in a more like, kinetic-based classroom with movement?”
M: “Yeah. I think we have a lot of benefits as music teachers because so much of it is aural that you’re hearing what they’re giving back to you all the time. So if I’m going to set a test, I can hear when everyone’s ready, regardless of their learning disability or what have you, I can hear when the majority is ready, and so I have the benefit of saying, ‘okay, well we were going to have this test on this day, but everyone will be more successful if we do it next week’ and everyone gets an extra week in their practice. So that’s not so much of a struggle; the academic side of things is where they tend to have disparaging results based on abilities. And so you find ways, if they have an IEP, things that you can do to help them, right? So in academic things you can reduce questions that they’re asked, you can change how they’re supposed to answer it, you can provide study guides for them that they can take in and use in the situation. This semester even, I had two students who were both allowed to have that accommodation, and one dug in and used it and did great, and one didn’t really want to, and so didn’t. They were both given those accommodations, so that allowed them to be on the same level if they chose to be.”
A: “Right. So going back to what you said earlier about the struggles of just being a music teacher, having kids come and go and kids who don’t put in the effort but have great potential – how do you deal with that?”
M: “With a kid who is unmotivated?”
A: “Yeah.”
M: “Well, there’s different things that you can do. If the kid is a great player, but unmotivated, you try and provide extra opportunities, like you try and provide extra places to play, extra ways to get them interested, pick music that maybe features them, gets them keyed up about playing. And then if you have a kid that just really doesn’t care, and isn’t very ‘good,’ then a lot of the tactic I take is be super, super supportive and let them know that they’re just as good as everyone else and you’re hearing great things. A lot of the time the phrase I use is ‘I’m hearing a lot of really good things that you don’t know that I’m hearing.’ Because you know, I’m listening for x, y, z, and all you’re worried about is that you didn’t play the right notes. But I’m listening for other things, so you can give them positive feedback that way. Nothing works as good as success and nothing works as good as positive feedback. So I try to go that way rather than be super negative and say, you know, ‘You should be able to do better than this.’ Do I use that? Yes, but that’s reserved for certain occasions because you know, sometimes a kid just needs to be told: ‘Enough, time to try.’ But that usually is reserved for when it’s really needed.”
A: “Of course. So you use encouragement a lot with students to try to get them to be better?”
M: “Yeah. Positive reinforcement, you know, and there’s a lot of humour, right? Like so there was an article in ‘The Instrumentalist’ last month and it was ‘How Does Your Music Teacher Tell You They Love You?’ and you know, your music teacher tells you they love you by saying, ‘Okay we’re going to do this one more time!’ and then doing it six more times. And things like a little bit of sarcasm that lets them know okay, that wasn’t as good as it could have been, and I know you can do better, and that’s going to get them to do it. But it’s all encased in fun, it’s all encased in ‘I can tease you because you know I care’ like the sign out front.” (Laughs) (This is a poster that is taped on the wall in the classroom that reads I yell because I care. Sorry I cared a lot today.)
A: (Laughs) “Except you never yell so that’s not accurate.”
M: (Laughs)
A: “Okay, so that kind of ties into my next question which is what is your overarching goal as an educator? Like what do you try to do with your students? What is your end goal?”
M: “Generally? First and foremost, I want them to love what they do. That’s probably the most important thing. For me, that comes before curriculum. Because if they love what they do, then they’re engaged, and if they’re engaged, then they’ll do well. And again, then they have success. So they have to love it. They have to play music that inspires them, they have to want to be terrific. So that’s the first and foremost thing. I want them to be well-rounded; I have all these students who go off into science and math and what have you, and they all come back saying, ‘Oh my gosh I’m failing this, I’m failing that, and I’m not doing well in that,’ and I don’t ever want to have a kid come back and say that. And to date, I haven’t.”
A: “I’m failing everything.” (I am not. I just like to mess with my teacher.)
M: “No you’re not.”
A: “I’m doing horribly.”
M: (Laughs) “But that’s the thing, right? I don’t want someone to go and say, ‘Hey, you’re conditionally accepted to university because you don’t know enough theory.’ And I want people to hate rhythmic dictation while they do it here and then go off to university and go, ‘Thank you!’ That’s what I want. I want them to be prepared. And you know, for the kid who’s not going into music, I still want them to love what we do, what they do, I want them to keep music in their life and I want them to want to be well-rounded, so that they can sit in the car and go, ‘Hey, I remember that piece, we studied that piece in history. I don’t remember what it’s called but I know it!’ You know? That’s what I want them to do.”
A: “Well I think you have been very successful in doing that.”
M: “Thanks!”
A: “Yeah, you’re a great teacher so thank you for doing this with me. It’s good to hear your experience and your thoughts on things so thank you.”
M: “No problem.”
For my reflection on this interview, please see the "reflections" tab.