Readings for 2/11/09

"Teach Them How to Practice" by Marilyn Kostka

In this article, the author addresses ways in which teachers can help their students to make the most of their practicing experience. Doing so, the author suggests, will allow them to develop faster and students will not get as discouraged from lack of progress, thus boosting retention rates. The author identifies 8 key ways in which practicing effectiveness can be increased: find a quite place to practice that is free from distractions, plan breaks to regenerate attention, listen to recordings, set a specific schedule, play an enjoyable piece at the end for a friend, improvise, choose meaningful music that is fun to play, ask for suggestions on playing difficult passages. Additionally, the author makes the point that properly learning how to error detect is vital for success. This is due to the simple fact that children can inadvertently continually practice a piece incorrectly and commit the errors to muscle memory.

My main experience with practicing comes from my own experiences as I have not had a chance to teach a student for an extended amount of time yet. I can say from my own personal experience, though, that the suggestions that the author makes are very useful and I tend to employ some of these strategies in my own practicing. Personally, I do have a set schedule for how long I am to warm up and then how much time to practice technical pieces. I will always end my practice session on a "good note" by playing a piece or etude that I enjoy playing. This, I feel, will allow the student to leave on a high-point and want to come back for future lessons.

As I said above, I very much agree with the importance that the author places on practicing correctly. I very much adhere to the motto that practice doesn't make perfect; perfect practice makes perfect. I feel that many students will either not practice (as they are unsure as to how) or will practice ineffectively and become frustrated at the time spent practicing with little gain when they could have been participating in another activity. I feel that it is my responsibility as a future educator to not only teach for the present, but to also endow my students with the ability to teach themselves so that they go on to become life-long musicians (a part of my personal philosophy of education that is shared by this author). I hope to have the chance to implement some of these suggestions with my future students.

"Audiation for Beginning Instrumentalists" by Kathy Liperote

In this article, the author speaks about the necessity of developing very strong audiation skills in beginners. The author argues, as many who share this point of view argue, that audiation is the language of music and to become an effective, comprehensive musician, you must be able to "speak" and "think" musically. The author suggests that students who can do this will be able to play more musically from notation. Several suggestions on how to build the various parts of this "language" in your instrumental music class are then presented. One unique aspect of the strategies is that the author supports the concept of using contrasting material to teach (i.e. to teach duple meter, triple meter should be used to point out the differences). Many of the strategies that she suggests are very non-invasive and could be fit very well into a band warm-up.

I very much support this concept of sound-before-sight and think that it is necessary to teach in this fashion to obtain the best possible sound and adequately prepare students for written notation when it is introduced. As such, I have done several readings on the topic. Additionally, many of the theories presented and referenced in this article (specifically Orff, Gordon, and Kodaly) were covered in the Elementary General course. I actually did have the opportunity to prepare several lessons in that course that employed several of these learning theories.

As I said above, I very much support this concept of teaching music and fully intend to integrate audiation into my future classroom. I feel that a comparison that can be drawn to a band class not emphasizing audiation is that of an English course that doesn't emphasize thinking in English. As I have stated before, music is a language and audiation is the way in which you think in that language; you must be proficient at audiation to be truly proficient at music. I also very much appreciated the way that the author developed these strategies so that they could fit into a normal rehearsal without taking away too much time from preparing literature. I very much look forward to applying these types of strategies to my future classroom.

"Instrumental Music for Special Learners" by Stephen Zdzinski

This article, as the title suggests, speaks about different strategies for inclusion of exceptional learners into an instrumental classroom. The author states that while it is a challenge to both the teacher and the student and is slightly uncommon, special learners can be quite successful in an instrumental music classroom. The author then goes on to describe a program an several strategies that can be employed to set the learner up for success. The strategies include adapting the instrument, social environment of the classroom, the teaching methods, the evaluation methods, the music and allowing parents to become involved in the instruction. With these changes, the author suggests, any student can be successful in a music classroom.

I must admit that I have very little practical experience with teaching exceptional learners and the experiences that I have had have been in a general classroom, which the author notes is more common than the instrumental room. I have, however, academically studied the way in which this task could be accomplished. I do feel, though, that several of the teaching strategies that I was able to use in the general setting could certainly apply in the instrumental setting.

I very much agree with the author's stand point about the ability to successfully integrate an exceptional learner into your classroom. While I understand that there will be extra effort involved on the director, I feel that it would be worth the effort as my philosophy is one of inclusion. The strategies presented in the article are a good guide for how to complete this integration, however, I realize that they are only a guideline as every student will have unique needs that must be met individually. I very much look forward to learning more about ways in which an exceptional learner could be integrated into a classroom.