Musicing

I just finished entering final grades for the semester. This completes my first year as a college music professor. All in all it was an enjoyable experience. The students were great; they participated in discussions, took projects seriously, attended class regularly, were polite and cheerful, and were generally interested in learning. That’s not to say there weren’t some difficult issues with students and with the music teacher education curriculum. I have become very interested in music teacher education as a result of my experience this year. I want my students here to find joy in teaching music and I want their students to experience the joys of musicing. So, it is important that enjoyable musicing be modeled in my classes. I wonder how effective I have been in this regard . . .

 In elementary music methods we played guitar, recorder, and a bunch of singing games. That seemed pretty fun although it’s difficult for college students to really let loose in class. (I understand that they let down their inhibitions when they’re drinking, but of course that wouldn’t be appropriate in class.) But, once they get used to the idea of playing children’s games, for example, they seem pretty willing to let go of some of their inhibitions. I think its also a bit startling at first to have a course that does not involve lectures, text books, or taking copious notes. And, I doubt many of them have held hands and danced with their professor before. In fact, the only class that I had as an undergraduate that was this informal was my elementary music methods class. Sister Kenney (everyone was called brother or sister at BYU) was (and is) an awesome teacher and her class was loads of fun. In fact, it was somewhat of an antidote to the strict/traditional/teacher-centered ensembles and theory and lit classes. (I imagine that elementary majors probably get that type of experience in their art and P. E. methods courses as well.)

One day the power went out during music appreciation class. I had planned to use some CD’s and DVD’s, but that was impossible. Rather than just let everyone go early, however, I ran down to my office and got my accordian and had them all dance the patty-cake polka. There are 50 students in the class, so we had to make two big circles. They seemed to have fun dancing (although some of the boys wouldn’t hold hands with each other) and THEN I let them go early. In retrospect, it was kind of a corn ball thing to do, but I really don’t care about that. I’m sure it was memorable at any rate.

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