All-State Festivals and the Like
I recently took one (yes one) student to audition for the IMEA District 7 Orchestra. I used to be a staunch advocate for activities like this. I used to think it was an important thing for students to do. I have since changed my stance a bit. To me, it seems like “more of the same.” Many say that it offers students an opportunity to play challenging music with a group of their highly skilled peers. I cannot argue this point. It is absolutely true. But I can’t help but go back to my argument of our focus in this country on a completely re-creative activity. We really need to stop confusing music playing and music making.
Is it wrong to be “against” these kinds of activities? (Read this as: I support any student who wants to do these festivals, but I will never make it an emphasis of my program). Should music teachers strive to do more than make our students better players? I am not convinced that I am right, and I am always happy to have disagreements about this, but I can’t help but point out some of these flaws with the profession. We want to advocate for ourselves as a vital part of the school curriculum, but we keep having these activities that are analogous to sporting events. If we perpetuate our image as an activity, we cannot promote our value as a core subject and an art.
October 21, 2008 at 5:20 pm
Agreed. Completely. I think one major thing that was missing from my music (along with many other subjects) education has been the idea of “recreating” rather than “making.” As far as music goes, I haven’t had an original though…ever, I’m convinced. The thought of writing a piece or improvising scares me, to be honest. It’s because of this, and other reasons, that I don’t feel very fit to be teaching music.
I think it’s a major problem with our idea of education that you do what you are told, rather than figuring things out for yourself. We’re scared of exploration, and screwing up. We tell people to “think outside the box”, but what does that really mean…and are we really allowing our students to do it?
October 22, 2008 at 10:15 pm
Invariably, the emphasis in education is, and always has been, on the teacher as facilitator for learning. Students are only held responsible for information presented by the teacher that is measured by a completely arbitrary set of questions or standards. While this may be one element of education (skill development), there is an entire realm that we continually push aside…allowing students to relate the material to their own lives and use it creatively. By focusing on skills, we are preparing tomorrow’s society for today’s jobs. New teachers have to be advocates for change…in all areas, but especially in music and the arts.
December 23, 2008 at 11:03 pm
Maybe the problem is not whether to support these activities or not, but the structure of the activities themselves?
District (and region/county/state/whatever you have available in your area) festivals are great opportunities in the sense that they give your musicians exposure to different viewpoints–a guest conductor, meeting peers from other programs, and possibly even more challenging music than they are used to–but it seems to me that the greatest detriment to this is the time crunch inherent in cramming so much into a single day. If the festivals were a couple days in length (like many in New York and Pennsylvania are), do you think that redeems their merit? Or because of their extra-curricular nature are such festivals still too much of an ‘activity’?
December 28, 2008 at 9:12 pm
BME – I understand your point, and in some instances you are correct. Most district-level festivals are crammed into one day, while at the state level the are generally expanded to three or four days. In either case, I would not consider these to be rewarding musical experiences. Rather, they are sometimes rewarding performance experiences.
My point of contention is that it is unfortunate that many music programs measure their level of success by how many students they send to these festivals and how most educators consider this to be some sort of accurate measure of musicianship. While many of the students that attend these festivals are fine musicians, I would guess that most have spent a majority of their time preparing for this, and similar events. Musicianship is more than a succession of concerts or levels of performance proficiency. Teachers spend most of their class time preparing students for this type of activity. If this is what a students wants to do, then they should be encouraged to do so, but not at the expense of truly teaching them about all the elements of music. This includes critical listening and analysis, the relationship of music to our culture, and creative elements such as composition and improvisation.
January 1, 2009 at 10:25 pm
Ok, Adam, now I better understand the angle you’re looking at it from–and I quite agree with you; it is a shame that many programs congratulate themselves for what seems to be nothing more than ‘teaching the test’.