why i teach
There is, has been, and always will be a certain group of people whom inspiration visits. It's made up of all those who have consciously chosen their calling and do their job with love and imagination. Their work becomes one continuous adventure as long as they manage to keep discovering new challenges in it.
Wislawa Szymborska, Winner - 1996 Nobel Prize for Literature
I teach because I am hopelessly in love
My calling is to help people fall in love with what I am hopelessly in love with - MUSIC. Music in all of its glorious variety - music of every genre, every culture, every historical epoch - any kind and every kind of music. I confess that I am hopelessly in love with music, and have been as long as I can remember. I have had a life long relationship with music, and there is simply nothing else I would rather do than share it with others. This love of mine has led to dozens of other loves, and through these loves I've learned the value and importance of listening well.
I invite my students into a deep, lasting and intimate relationship with music. Depending on what aspect of music I am teaching, the methodology changes, but my primary agenda remains the same. To love something is to have a relationship with it, and a relationship requires an investment of time. The idea of 'spending quality time' is a convenient myth created by those trying to use a short cut and get something for nothing. 'Quality time' is 'Quantity time', and a relationship is all about quantity time. It has periods of sublime happiness as well as periods of deep saturnine darkness and grief. All of the variegated experiences associated with relationships are necessary to fall in love, to grow in love, and to stay in love. Genuine and healthy relationships require everything we have, nothing held back. They take time - lots of it.
Given these ideas, my job is relatively straightforward: I stimulate, guide and show people how to fall passionately in love with music, help them create the habits to acquire a life-long relationship with music, and then watch and marvel as that relationship transforms their lives and everyone connected with them. My most rewarding experience as a teacher has been to observe this unfolding in countless student's lives. Having cultivated a relationship with music, they are trained, equipped and anxious to cultivate relationships with other arts, subjects, and people, and to do it in a caring and intentional way. I accomplish this by bringing three important objectives and aspects of relationship building to my overall teaching.
Relationship with the course material - Listen to this
Whatever the specific material is, I motivate my students to become involved and engaged in the subject matter. This requires two things of them: their time and their undivided attention. So often we play music in the background of our lives while we do something else 'more pressing' or 'more important'. My first goal is to help them become aware that music needs and deserves their time and attention. I require them to schedule a specific time each day to simply listen to music, and I provide them with questions to ask and ideas to observe that will develop their listening skills. For most of my students, initially this is strange and difficult, but soon they begin to look forward to their daily musical quiet time with a sense of anticipation and pleasure. I promote the idea of spending intentional and undistracted time with music, and prepare them to transfer this discipline to other relationships.
While I obviously encourage them to listen without distractions of any kind, I also present multiple examples of the wonders of music accompanying other art forms - drama, dance, film, animation, worship, meditation - the ability of music to partner and expand other art forms and activities is virtually unlimited, and as we experience this together, we all become aware of the vast role music plays in enriching everyday life.
Relationship with the teacher - Listen to me
As the chief communicator of the subject matter (at least at first) my responsibilities are large. I must clearly and quickly demonstrate to my students my own love and intimate knowledge of the subject matter. When they see this, it's a very easy step to paying closer attention, to coaching them to 'go deep' and ask good questions. In order to do this, I use a multi-dimensional arsenal of activities and strategies aimed at communicating my subject matter effectively and dramatically while simultaneously making it vivid and memorable. I endeavor to create connections between the music we are studying and culture, history, medicine, psychology, religion, language, technology, humor, and of course the arts - any subject that will help illuminate the finer points of the pieces we're examining is useful. Often, my students are called upon to teach portions of a class or an entire class, enabling them to further articulate their knowledge and pass it on. Listening exercises, games, role-playing, discussion, questions and classroom activities of every kind are utilized freely to make a lasting impression and stir up interest and passion.
A good example of this is aptly illustrated by one of my music history courses. Our final project is to put on a mock trial to determine which composer and their music will be saved in a fictitious and future migration of humanity from planet Earth. My classroom becomes a courtroom - populated by smartly attired defense and prosecution attorneys, famous witnesses in full regalia, colorful exhibits, animated
verbal exchanges, cries of "Objection!" and "Sustained!" or "Over-ruled!"--- all of this observed by a jury of their peers waiting to render their verdict. Much research and study must go into this, but the outcome is pure joy. Students and professors from other classes regularly stop by and attend this particular class to observe, learn and enjoy. I could have had them write a research paper. Instead, they help create a learning experience they will never forget. In short, I am always looking for new and novel ways to make a point, create a link, or engage my students and help them interact with the subject matter. The vast explosion of technology within the past few years has created a treasure trove of techniques and availabilities that were not even thought of when I was a student, and I really enjoy expanding my own interaction with these new and ever changing technologies.
Relationship with art and music beyond the classroom -
Listen to each other
My students should leave my classroom with an interest and mission to deeply engage the music they encounter and create in their lives. I encourage them to critically analyze what they hear, without asking themselves if they like it or not, or whether they consider it 'good' or 'bad' (whatever those suspect terms might actually mean). So much that is interesting, worthy and transformative is rejected by us because we make a snap judgment before really doing any kind of investigation. I motivate my students and show them how to go beyond the surface appearance - to really explore what something is about before deciding whether or not they 'like' it. We do this regularly in a variety of different ways, so this practice is actually being modeled and taught in all of my classes. By seeking to find something they can identify with, even in a composition they might consider unfamiliar or even uninteresting, my students form a bond and a link to the creation (the work in question) and its creator (a fellow human being) by searching for meaning and identification in the music. In this way, they foster communication and understanding, often between disparate and even opposing cultures or ideas.
It is my fervent hope and oft articulated desire that my students take the tools they've learned in my classes and use them to create lasting and close relationships with everything and everyone around them. I teach them to observe difference, to seek unity, and to cultivate community. This is where the specifics of teaching music translate into useful and practical life skills. There is not a single thing in any of our lives that can't be improved by listening deeply, listening carefully, and listening more attentively. It's simply the most important skill there is, and I am privileged to be able to teach it through the exquisite art of music.
Considering all of this, what's not to love?
