Active Roads to Musicianship for General Music

Each January, music educators from all over Missouri make their way to the annual Missouri Music Educators Convention at Tan-Tar-A Resort.  In addition to building and rekindling relationships with colleagues, participants are able to attend workshops that discuss best-practices of teaching as well as those that focus on their specific music discipline.

While attending the convention, I had the pleasure of attending the session “Active Roads to Musicianship for General Music”, presenter – Brent Gault, Indiana University Jacobs School of Music.  The main topic of discussion was the importance of choosing appropriate literature and creating systems that prepare students for the most musical experiences possible. When selecting performance literature it is crucial to consider the musical material, the learner and the experience. For the musical material, is it interesting, appropriate, and will it highlight the current experience? For the learner, what do they already know, what will be unusual or new, and how can I prepare them for a successful experience? With regard to the experience, does the music utilize different learning modes (aural, visual, and kinesthetic), does it begin in a way that prepares students for success, and is it musical? Once those considerations have been made, the next step is structure your classroom to create daily musical learning experiences that will ultimately create a successful musical performance (perhaps a final concert). For instance, what adaptations need to be made for these types of activities to work in my classroom, how can I create a series of lessons that enhance the daily experience, and find ways to apply new material with current classroom activities? When we view each day with our students as a chance to make music, not just “go through the motions”, we begin to view music as teaching tool, not just something we like because it makes us feel good.  Although we want our students and audience members to enjoy the music chosen for the performance, we must first choose literature that will give students daily opportunities for success.