Late post BUT I had the opportunity to commission the wonderful Joshua Thomson for a piece for tuba and electronics. He wrote me this incredible piece as an opener for my Master's recital and I could not be happier with how it turned out! (:
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Nothing too in depth here, just wanted to say I finally managed to go to my first TubaChristmas and it just so happened to be in Chicago.
On February 17th, 2020, I (along with a few other members of the UNCG Wind Ensemble) was given the opportunity to play side by side with the United States Air Force Heritage of America Band for the final piece on their concert, "The Stars and Stripes Forever".
The concert featured pieces including "Ride" by Samuel R. Hazo, "First Suite in E-Flat" by Gustav Holst, "Danzon No.2" by Arturo Marquez, "Liberty Bell March" by John Philip Sousa, and an arrangement of "America The Beautiful". The concert then went on the feature two vocal soloists in a variety of pieces like the "Flower Duet" from Léo Delibes' opera "Lakmé", "Marry the Man Today" from Guys and Dolls, and "For Good" from Wicked. It ended with the "Armed Forces Medley", followed by the side-by-side on "The Stars and Stripes Forever". I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to serve as a camp assistant for the JMU Summer Marching Band Camp. This event is a 4-day long camp where students from rising 8th graders to rising college freshmen learn a field show, music, and review the fundamental basics of marching technique, learning drill, and musical technique. I had the opportunity to work as 1 of 2 sousaphone counselors for the camp, which included leading sousaphone sectionals, observing full low brass sectionals, and observing full ensemble rehearsals. I was also able to help teach students how to reach their drill charts, teach basic marching skills, and adjust and fix drill throughout the entire ensemble while learning drill. The following video was taken during their final rehearsal the day before the performance. The show was entitled "Bohemian Rhapsody". It was a Queen Medley including songs like "We Will Rock You", "Fat-Bottomed Girls", and "Bohemian Rhapsody". I got the honor to work with the Gemeinschaft Songwriting project during this semester, and I was tasked to create a ukulele curriculum plan to use at a Gemeinschaft Songwriting Project. I grouped up with Rebecca and Doug, who were also involved with the project, to help create this curriculum plan. We created a curriculum plan consisting of three 1-hour long sessions, in which the residents would learn a different song at each session. Over the course of the three sessions, they'd learn different chord progressions, strumming patterns, and learn how to interpret the moods of each song and how they personally interpret each song. We realized during this project that giving context is very important and helpful, because someone seeing this with no context may not completely understand what we are trying to do, but if we give that context it gives a clearer image of what we intend to do. I got to spend my time this semester working with the residents at the Gemeinschaft home, helping the residents use their stories to inspire songwriting and music making. This experience really changed me in so many aspects of my life.
As an educator, I got the opportunity to collaborate with social work students. Getting to work with them really opened up a new way of engaging students in general. The students really knew how to ask open and guided questions and they got the residents to be productive without the residents feeling forced into it. After talking to the men after our last session about what they thought about the experience, at least with the men I spoke to, they said that there was nothing they would change (besides having everyone in one room, seeing as it gets crowded, loud, and overwhelming very quickly). The residents I spoke to were sad to see us go, and while some of them said they won't continue necessarily songwriting, they did say that they would journal more, start getting into poetry, or just writing down anything they think is interesting. Some of the residents are very excited to continue music, however. One of the residents took a particular liking to the ukulele, and for the last session, he asked if he could mess around with it. I told him that there's ukulele chords for almost any song he could imagine, and I could see his eyes kind of light up. He told me as soon as he was able, he was gonna get a ukulele and learn some songs. I got to teach him some chords too (FM and CM), and he seemed very excited to learn about this. This is why I want to teach students of any/all ages. I want to be able to provide that sort of light for as many as people as possible, and open music up to everyone. One of the men said to me that he was too old to learn an instrument, as much as he would've loved to do it. At the last session as everyone was coming in, he was playing away on the guitar. I want to be able to do that for anyone who wants to be involved in music. As a musician, this tested me a bit. I had never really done any musical improvisation before, and this whole project was just kind of me improvising music. The residents have a sound in mind for how they want their songs to sound. Unfortunately for me, I am not proficient on guitar, and most of the resident's songs wanted guitar. So if any of the residents ever wanted piano or percussion of any kind, I was ready. I learned quickly how to get to what sound the residents wanted quickly, but at first, I'd try to be too technical with it. I would say "Major or minor? 4/4? What chord progression?", and after doing that once and failing horribly, I realized that was not going to work. I observed how the social work students went about asking the residents and went from there. I still asked major or minor, but I would just play different chords and see if any stuck out, play in different registers of the piano to see what they liked, and went from there. As a human being, it really opened me up to a lot of new perspectives. I got to hear life stories from so many individuals. Talking with the residents about their lives not only gave them inspiration and more ideas for their song writing, but it also inspired me, especially if the song was about a specific person, to want to make the song as best as possible and as close to the sound as the resident wants in order to create the best product that they will feel proud of and best represents what their intentions were with their song. For my MUED 273 class, 4 of my classmates and I read For White Folks Who Teach in the Hood... And the Rest of Y'all Too by Christopher Emdin. This book goes into detail about different scenarios while teaching in an urban community. Our group split the chapters up between ourselves, and then we filled in this google doc with summaries of each chapter, key points and quotes, and discussion questions. ReflectionReading this book really opened up a whole side of education that I had never truly thought about before. I knew that when I finally become a teacher that I'd have to adjust to the environment and the culture of the city/town that I'm in, but this book went into so much detail and gave so many real life scenarios about teaching urban youth, especially if you are not already acclimated to their current culture. From the two chapters alone that I went really in depth with, I learned so much about different ways that teachers have modified their teaching/personal habits in order to gauge and connect with their students more. Even just reading the summaries of the other chapters just flooded my brain with ideas of what to do when I eventually teach, but for now, I'll just go into detail about the two chapters I went in depth with.
The third chapter spent most of its time showing comparisons between predominantly black churches and youth urban classrooms. It also brought up the situation of a teacher who got awards for the precise lesson plans he wrote, but he could never get his class engaged. There's a quote from the chapter I really like from after the author left that teacher's class for the first time after observing it: “After leaving this class, I wondered why the ability to plan a lesson, and not the ability to connect with students, was the prerequisite for being a model teacher” (Emdin, Ch. 3 p. 48). It lets me know that when I will inevitably be teaching, that having a lesson plan, even the most precise lesson plan possible, can be helpful and enriching for the class, but it means next to nothing if I can't bond, connect, and engage the students in a positive way and encourage growth. Chapter 9 covered a lot of topics. The first one it brought up was about a teacher being very confused as to why her students were dressing so nicely and presenting themselves so well if their families are struggling with money, to which the author rebutted with something along the lines of "people shouldn't have to worry about being to afford to feel good about themselves". The teacher then asked why she had problems engaging her classroom, and the author suggested buy a pair of new shoes that the kids would like, which inevitably stirred up conversation between the teacher and her students. Even students she didn't teach would come up to her and recommend other shoes or music suggestions, and she got engagement up in the classroom just from putting herself out there and being willing to at least try to relate to her students. It makes me feel more confident that if I just am willing to put myself out there in front of my students and at least try to connect with them, they will at least try to connect with me too. On December 13th, the Music Education Department at JMU hosted an event called "Celebration of Innovation in Music Learning and Teaching". This event, on the night I attended, including projects created by freshmen in the MUS 150 class, BandHub videos created by students in the MUED 206 class, poster presentations intertwining social issues and music education by students in the MUED 371 class, and finally ending with the MUED 670 debate. I will just say right off the bat that this was one of the coolest music education related event that I have been to since I have been a student at James Madison University, and seeing everything that night really opened my eyes and my mind to different perspectives and mindsets on various issues. The Projects and Posters The first thing I did when I got to event was go through the two rooms where the MUS 150 students were presenting their end-of-semester projects. The projects were extremely creative, and took 100% advantage of the modern-day technologies that we are allowed, from free 3-D printing, conductive paint, and Makey-Makey systems provided by the instructors. Projects ranged from a Dance Dance revolution sort of music creation experience, a device to allow students with lower lung capacity or physical disability to still be able to sing in the choir by having a prerecorded voice sing a pitch corresponding with a button on a tube, and a compact drum-kit created with coding, cardboard, and tin foil. The ideas they came up with were very original and creative, and I'm sure it was fun for them to see their creations come to fruition. Seeing all the posters and the students presenting them was very enjoyable. It definitely opened my eyes to issues I had not even considered, like preventing injury in beginning musicians, or having dyslexia involved in music education and music learning, or representation of music subcultures in the classroom. The students seemed very passionate about the topics that they picked, and they all seemed like they were very informed about their topics and did a lot of research. The DebateA link to a live stream of the debate: https://www.facebook.com/JMUMusicEd/videos/1620342618011341/ Debate Topic: Team A: Mandate that 100% of students to take a music class every year that they are in a public school -OR- Team B: Have public schools relinquish control of music classes, and have students who want to learn music do so in community bands or in private lessons The debate far exceeded my expectations for what was going to happen. My first thought after hearing the debate topic was "How could you even think about getting rid of music classes in school?", and it seemed like when I asked some of my other classmates, they had the same thought. We were studying to be music teachers, and now the idea of no music classes in public schools is being debated? We knew this debate didn't mean that one was going to be implemented over the other, but the thought of it even being debated terrified me. I didn't necessarily agree with having 100% participation, but I sure wasn't for getting rid of it in public schools.
Notes I took from Team A: (Denise Schultz and Jon Stapleton) This is the team I originally agreed with prior to the debate starting. Jon gave his opening statement, bringing up that community music can be isolated and that public schools can bring up intentional dialogue across social issues that community music would not be able to do. Team A believes that 100% of students should experience the eclectic feeling of being a part of a music ensemble in a public school setting, and that the students will develop respect and empathy, and not worry about mastery, but inquiry. Notes I took from Team B: (Dan Warren and Jenny Hoye) Dan brought up 3 main points in his opening statement: 1) Community music opportunities allow for the kind of individualized music learning that caters to each individual student; 2) Financial disparities, and; 3) structure of public schools isn't conducive to teaching 100% of the student body music. Team B says that music is too broad of a subject and is too diverse to teach to 100% of students efficiently. During the cross-examination, Denise asks Dan if community music groups are equally accessible to students regarding genre and socioeconomic status, but he brings up the point that public school doesn't offer that either. This is the point where I started paying more attention to Team B, and found myself agreeing with more and more of their points. Notes from Moderator and Q&A: The moderator reminded us during the course of the debate that both sides are fighting against the status quo. There was one question asked during the Q&A that really pushed me more towards Team B. This questions was asked towards Team A: "In English class, we're required to read books, and that takes a lot of fun out of reading the book. Do you think the same thing would happen if we did the same thing for music classes? What would you do about that?". My thoughts on the debate: Team B won me over during the course of the debate. The fact is that it would be easier to cut the music classes out of the public school, use the money from the budget to help community groups thrive, and not force students to participate in music classes, though I don't agree with 100% of what they said (and I'm sure they don't either). The logistics of having 100% of the student population taking music classes every year would be insane, and it's not the answer to lack of intentional dialogue. Let the students go out in the community and incite change, rather than sit in a crowded classroom talking about doing so. The conductor of the JMU Concert Band, Amy Birdsong, allowed some of the students in the ensemble to conduct some grade 2/3 pieces for the ensemble to sightread for the last two rehearsals of the semester. I was lucky enough to have been able to conduct a piece called "Tranquility" by Gary Fagan. Though I don't have a video seeing as this was a very impromptu thing, a friend of mine snapped some pictures while I was on the podium.
This was my very first time conducting a group of more than 6 musicians, let alone an entire ensemble, and I personally feel like it was the happiest 2-ish minutes of my musical career thus far. I had never previously had the opportunity to hear an ensemble from that standpoint, and it really reassured me in my career choice, and got me very genuinely excited to continue studying music. I am currently taking a class a JMU called "Brass Techniques", where students get to learn how to play and teach all of the different brass instruments (trumpet, horn, euphonium, trombone, and tuba). One of our assignments for this class was to observe a public school band program (that in some way, shape, or form included brass players) and write an observation report about the pedagogical approach of the teacher toward the brass section and the response and techniques of the brass students. I went back to my old high school over Thanksgiving break, and my director was kind enough to let me observe one of the Symphonic Band rehearsals. I'm very lucky to have gotten this opportunity, because looking back on it, I realized that I hadn't seen the band from this viewpoint since middle school. Especially now, as I work towards a music education degree, it's really exciting for me to see a rehearsal process more from the view of a director, rather than as a performer. I included the final observation report that I turned in (left), and the notes I had originally taken (right).
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