PART I: Inspirations for Music Teaching
My inspirations for music teaching came from several areas.
First, I played in a lot of piano recitals, so I know what it means to teach in front of an audience. I get inspired every time I play a piece. Next, I also saw a lot of master classes in piano and voice, where several teachers do different styles of lecturing.
In addition, ballroom dance also helped me to be inspired to teach. I had been under several ballroom dance teachers and I can understand their different teaching methods and procedures. I also know that there is a great correlation of ballroom dance to music because this dance form has many cultures of music. Also, with my strong musical training while I was at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, I was able to teach one student salsa dancing in only 40 minutes, and another student ballroom and swing dancing in about 45 minutes. Finally, I was able to show a samba rhythm on the congo drums to a drum circle group.
Moreover, John Barry, a Spanish teacher from Roosevelt University of Chicago (deceased), was my biggest inspiration for teaching. This was because when he teaches, he doesn't just use a blackboard and a lecture to teach people. He often uses other ways, especially music, to get students to enjoy learning.
Finally, my last inspiration for teaching was being in a doctoral program at the University of Illinois. It was like an internship in knowing how to research and do a lecture-style teaching which included instrumental performance as well. When I successfully completed the program, my teaching ability became very strong.
As a teacher, I want to make the students feel more at ease about the intricacies of music, and help them to figure out the best way to deal with musical problems that will help their confidence.
PART B: Summary of My Music Teaching Deliveries
In instrumental conducting, I will use my arm styling skills from my enjoyment of ballroom dance to my advantage. In addition, when I am cuing, I tend to lean my body more forward and not just use the face to indicate something, just to make the players know that a certain musical emphasis is needed.
In choral conducting in particular, I often would create my own vocalises for the singing group and not use traditional vocalises for warm-ups unless absolutely necessary. If a song is in a foreign language, I often will use my language skills from my vocal accompanying to do a “say and repeat” of the foreign lyrics or text. I also use my acquired pitch to my advantage and have the unusual ability to determine if a note by the chorus is too sharp or too flat.
Finally, in the two abovementioned areas, my emphasis is using my strong sight-reading skills to quickly spot interpretative errors as well as musical errors. I also err on the side of using hands only and not use the baton unless circumstances warrant it.
In my piano teaching, my style is a gentle one. In one-to-one engagements, especially private piano lessons, I use a mixture of techniques…the “play” and “imitate” from Suzuki, tactile correcting of a technique (for example, assisting the piano student to cross over or under the thumb in a major scale), and clapping from the Dalcroze and Orff teaching methods. Also, I focus mainly on more interpretation problems than technique problems, although I can balance both genres with ease. In master class piano teaching, I developed a mentality of not interrupting a student and let the student finish the performance before I make any comments…unless there are flagrant mistakes. In group piano classes, I usually will be.walking around to see if students are playing the correct notes, fingerings, etc.
In chamber music teaching, especially in conducting, my philosophy focuses more on the adherence to the indicated tempo of the composition more than anything else in the chamber music score. However, I am willing to adjust to the skills of the performers…if the performers wish to not perform exactly as the tempo markings indicate (e.g., 116 beats per minute to the quarter note instead of 112 beats), I can willfully accept this deviation. I often have an extrovert style in the chamber music repertoire of the Romantic period, such as the Brahms Piano Quintet in F minor.
In music theory teaching, I will often use my compositional skills mainly through Finale music notation software, and often give out exercises on Finale. The style is very extrovert…I often will step away from the lectern to attract more attention to my students….especially in contemporary music concepts, after I prepare for the class discussion.
In music appreciation teaching, I use several techniques….handouts, visual presentations such as PowerPoint, the blackboard with musical staffs, and piano demonstrations.
Finally, in music seminar lectures, my general lecturing style focuses on my strong skills in PowerPoint, which I use as a great visual tool. If the lecture involves playing musical examples on the piano, I often would keep the piano close to the lectern on my left side, and if a lectern is not available, I often would use a music stand as a lectern, also on the left side of the piano. I am willing to keep up with teaching technology with this matter, trying to cut back on the traditional projector.