Musical Futures and its Impacts:
During one of my Music Teaching and Learning classes, we got the pleasure of having Dr Ruth Wright visit our class and run a workshop about the Musical Futures initiative, allowing us to experience the project firsthand. The program started in England and was supported by the Paul Hamlyn Foundation in hopes of addressing the problem of lack of engagement with music in schools. Dr. Wright explained how, in many elementary and high schools, students tended to not have an interest in the educational aspects of music but rather in the popular music heard on radios and other streaming platforms. Lucy Green helped develop the Musical Future programs with this in mind, and it was implemented in 17 schools as a test run in 2003. Since then, it has expanded into 1700 schools in England and Canada and is offered in other countries as well.
This initiative intends to make use of informal learning process that are typically found outside of school and to implement them in the classroom. The Musical Futures program has impacted both the students and teachers. Dr. Wright explained how students gained greater enthusiasm for music, lowered levels of absenteeism, increased musical learning, and increased confidence. For teachers, it renewed their self-esteem as a teacher, increased their enjoyment of teaching music, and made them rethink the traditional ways of teaching music.
After telling us about the Musical Future Program and how it works, Dr. Wright led us through an activity that allowed us to experience it ourselves. The activity we did was to recreate the song "Royals" by Lorde with different instruments that were provided. We had the choice of any instrument, but Dr. Wright encouraged us to choose one that was unfamiliar to us. Within the room that we were in, we found an electric keyboard, guitar, drum set, and a microphone. Each person in my group found an instrument that they were not familiar with, allowing for people to explore different musical paths. I found this method of teaching to be quite effective and interesting because it gave me a different perspective on how to keep engagement high while also being able to teach music. Rather than it being a complete teaching experience, the student gets a chance to self-interpret the idea/lesson. This method is a more informal way of teaching, rather than just having a teacher explain ideas.
I was surprised that a program like this existed. I typically thought of music in schools as being completely based on classical music through various ensembles. I never knew or thought about incorporating popular music in schools. As Green (2001) noted, 94% of world record sales are in popular music, which implies that it is more recognizable than other genres, including what is traditionally taught in North American music programs. Another idea I encountered is that Musical Future learners choose the music they learn themselves rather that of which they are taught. This made me think about all the different activities that could come from students rather than the teacher. Students learn by listening and copying recordings of the music that they predominantly listen to rather than learning from notations. This takes a lot of listening and self-motivation rather than being forced to learn the music from a classroom setting. This basically means that students enjoy learning more for personal enjoyment rather than working and seeing music as an academic subject.
Caroline Barber Workshop:
I had the pleasure of hearing from Dr. Caroline Barber on the ways that creativity can affect music education. In this session, we delved into the world of music education. Dr. Barber drew on research and experience to explain where creativity originates and the different components of creativity. Words such as “discovery” and “invention” arise when talking about creativity, and although they make up aspects of what it means to be creative, they are not the same. For example, discovery of something is never intentional as it is currently unknown until you discover it. It would not be considered as a discovery it already exists.
Dr. Barber discussed how the overall concept of traditional music education in North America can be viewed as a room from which we need to escape from. The key to the ‘locked door’ is creativity and expanding from the preset norms that are present when teaching music. This concept stuck with me the most due to the uniqueness of the idea. Within an escape room, there are tools and different structures that are previously set up to help you achieve, just like in traditional music education. However, if you want to truly succeed and “escape”, you need to be creative and think outside to box.
Something that surprised me in Dr. Barber’s workshop were the correlates she listed as the components of creativity. I initially thought they all seemed to be synonyms of the word creativity; however, they were each missing a key feature. The term that stood out the most was innovation. Based on my previous experiences, I thought that innovation was the same thing as creativity, because an original product would be created; however, Dr Barber explained that innovation required creativity to exist. All creation is innovative; however, innovation is not creative.
Aside from this, many of my assumptions about the nature of teaching and learning were in line with her ideas as well. Thoughts such as creativity being based on personal thoughts and inspirations both exist within my views and in her presentation. Her views have made me think about the ways in which teaching music varies for everyone. Certain techniques may not work on this new generation of students due to various factors such as developing technologies and different mindsets. Rather than thinking of applying what is commonly practices in North American classroom music education, we should be creative and come up with different methods to help students.
One major idea from the presentation that can apply to teaching and learning is the idea of what creativity relies on. The four main ideas that were expressed were remote associations, analogies and metaphors, combinations and abstraction. All these aspects require prior knowledge of the topic, and when dealing with music teaching, it inspires me to collect all my experiences and apply them to the future. Since creativity stems from all these topics, I want to acquire a vast toolbox to piece together new ideas and give others the opportunity to experience something new. In conclusion, Dr Barber’s presentation about creativity being a core construct of music education has further advanced my path in thinking about teaching.
Bridget Sweet Workshop:
The article, “Keeping the Glass Half Full: Teaching Adolescents with a Holistic Perspective” by Bridget Sweet, gives one a broad understanding with teaching students spanning from middle school, all the way until university. It outlines the various difficulties and ways to overcome these challenges.
Within this time period, adolescents experience the power of emotion and development as they grow and expand their feelings. These students can range between being hardworking, caring and loyal, all the way to unenthusiastic, unpredictable and irrational. However, this article focused on the side with the “glass half full” attitude. They are the ones that view everything in a positive light and focus on the favorable aspects. Rather than trying to redirect and control emotions, teachers are encouraged to embrace it and provide their students with a support system. For example, one can use these emotions to properly mesh their class, by being able to relate to each other and to bring about conversations easier. Another major process that occurs within these years is the natural physical development of the human body. During this time, several growth spurts occur, causing students to have to adjust to the new limitations and capabilities of their bodies. After these growths, students begin to refine their motor skills, which leads them into the different activities they enjoy. This article directly explains the way this affects choral teaching and the major growth that affects singing is the change of voice. Many times, when students are uncomfortable with how their singing voice is, they begin to stray away from singing, causing a fall in self-esteem. Teachers need to embrace this awkwardness and keep their students positive and persevering. Encouragement and giving constructive feedback are quite beneficial to the attitude that students bring to class and it will also keep them focused.
The article I found, “It’s Only a Phase: Teaching Adolescents” by Brad Thompson, is also another piece that has various recommendations and processes to teach students. It describes the different aspects of development that occur in adolescents.
Firstly, intellectual development transitions from concrete thoughts to those that are abstract. New ideas and different perspectives originate in this time which allows for the student to receive a greater insight into various situations. Rather than purely thinking about the present, adolescents begin to think about both the past and future, filling them with a greater knowledge on how to advance their learning. Curiosity takes over their minds and enhances their ability to continue education. Another development that occurs are physical changes, which are the most obvious. Many students become obsessed over the way they present themselves and begin to physically change their diets, as a result of social media influence and metabolism. Physiological development occurs within the brain and causes various mood swings and changes. Typically, adolescents become erratic and their emotions constantly vary. This age group looks for social acceptance and strives to gain positive relationships with others, causing them to take risks. Leading into the next point is social development. Conflicts between individuals generally arise due to the changing attitudes and knowledge gain. Values that are usually only held by adults tend to creep into the minds of adolescents, causing them to model their actions by others. While teaching, people need to keep all these changes in mind and be sensitive to them. They need to take them in mind and not feel as these actions are personal, but rather as a phase that everyone must go through. They need to be mindful and help these students and support them even at their worst. This article gives various teaching strategies to help teachers navigate adolescent’s feelings: Plan your work and work your plan and win the war before the battle. Each of these strategies are unique but the one that stuck with me the most was the second point. The author mentions that the best way to deal with adolescence is to take care of the problem before it happens. Anticipate the emotions and actions that may ensue and tackle them early. For example, attacking the problem of practicing before adolescence and make sure your students have allotted time each day for it before various activities arise when adolescence arrives.
These two articles were very similar in comparison and both highlighted the key factors that affect adolescents. The main points in each article were to give students the encouragement and feedback that they need. Adolescents generally care most about their social lives and how they are viewed, which directly relates to their self-esteem. If teachers were to keep the student’s self-esteem high in the classroom, then it would be considered as a foundation for their lives. This would result in less dropouts for the music program, allowing the students to be able to create music. I believe in all these points because personally, I have seen many of my peers drop out of music programs for various reasons, but mainly due to nerves and the feeling of awkwardness. I wanted to keep my friends with me in band so we could continue to create amazing music, however, they decided against it. In the future, I would want all of my students to have a positive experience to keep them in the program.
Thompson, B. (1995). It's Only a Phase: Teaching Adolescents. American Music Teacher, 45(1), 22-72. Retrieved April 2, 2020, from www.jstor.org/stable/43542862
Sweet, B. (2016). Keeping the Glass Half Full: Teaching Adolescents with a Holistic Perspective. The Choral Journal,57(3), 6-14. Retrieved April 2, 2020, from www.jstor.org/stable/24883871