I was beyond excited to work with Dr. Watson and take part in his Improvisation workshop. As a guitarist, I thoroughly enjoy improvising to slow jazz/blues music and so being able to do such with my peers was an incredible experience. I found that Dr. Watson's approach to teaching students how to improvise in a way that allows them to feel comfortable and confident was beautifully well done. He was able to have students who seem to be shy in social situations and may have difficulty trying new things like improvisation in front of a large group of people, however, Dr. Watson provided them with enough tools to successfully improvise for what may have been their first time ever. Watson began by playing a few songs of varying jazz genres and had us identify which instruments we believed to be improvising in the recording. After that, we listen to find the melodic theme the improvisation was based upon, it was here that I began to understand the method to the madness that is improvisation. Finally, Dr. Watson began playing a few notes from the B flat blues scales and had use play back in a sort of repeat after me style. after we were equipped with a set of 3-5 notes to use, Dr. Watson had us each play a short 4-8 bar improvisation solo. The whole experience was new to me, despite having some experience improvising, never had i done anything with such a large number of peers. The whole experience was probably my absolute favorite part out of my entire time in music education and could have sat in that class all day. I will be forever grateful to work with Dr. Watson and do hope I am able to work with him again.
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It was an absolute pleasure to have Wright come to our class and speak with us. She walked us through brilliant tactics for setting up a positive, nourishing work environment for students and teachers, discussed pedagogical methods to utilize and realize a students full potential through group work, creative assignments and activities, adapting to the separate needs of individual students and creating an atmosphere that promotes "wrong" answers and allows for growth and learning. I thoroughly enjoyed the exercise we did as the class where we broke off into sections and worked together to create a rendition of any song we wish to cover, provided you are playing an instrument foreign to your affinity. The activity was one of my favorite moments in the music education course and was delighted to see all of the creative talents within my class by watching and listening to all of the other arrangements. truly an eye opening experience.
Having Allsup come to our music education classes was easily one of my favorite experiences as a student through the year. Allsup discussed methods of teaching students of all ages, whether it be infants, adolescent or even adult students going into the field of education. One of my favorite things about the event is something very dear to me. As an aspiring music educator, I dream to be able to bring the true phenomena that is music back into the lives of students, to provide them with the ability to utilize music to the full scope of its potential. Allsup placed a huge emphasis on the importance of the music and more importantly the connection between the student and the music. I feel that many educators today focus to much on the curriculum, the end result the test marks, the tone qualities and the instrumentation and they sacrifice the most important piece of any music and that is the emotional, intuitive involvement. Moreover, when students connect to the music individually, it allows for a much richer experience when the students collaborate together, for there is a much more personal engagement with their classmates which provides a far more sincere connection than anything reached with a class project that only somewhat engages a students emotions. When Allsup had the class break off into groups and create a rendition of an old song from Iceland, the final product ws nothing shy of a miracle and was the closest thing to magic I've experienced since Chris Angel's Mind Freak. Too see the creativity of 20 some odd minds coming together to create a piece of music was more than incredible. I would be shocked to find that a single student in that class at that time was not moved by the music at some point. Each group created a work that was intuitive, creative, impactful and the entire experience was vulnerable and intimate in the best ways possible. connecting with an entire class at a single time was one of the most inclusive experiences I've felt in my life and gave me a sense of hope for the future of not only music education but music itself as my fellow colleagues seem to be driven by the financial gain from music education, rather than the life changing possibilities it entails. The world of music educators are looking for a teaching job, a salary and a pension. They want a good job so they can have a nice house, and retire at 60 living a lifestyle of fiscal comfort. this is very disheartening for me, for though I will admit, i am driven by the pursuit of money, I am more driven by the ability to enhance the way people live simply by allowing them to take part in the absolute magic that is music. I thank Allsup for showing me that music educators can also look to provide students with enough maturity to intimately invest in music.
On January 18th, 2017 our music education class was blessed with the presence of a renowned music educator; Mark Hopkins. Direct from the School of Music at Acadia University in Wolfville, Nova Scotia, Mark provided our class with an insightful and surprisingly introspective look into the changing tides of the sea of music education. Mark brilliantly tackled the pro's and con's with following a method book to teach a class as well as using the 'elements' of music to direct the students learning. Mark brought forward the notion that using a method book, especially going page by page is subjecting the students to a curriculum designed by someone else. This is problematic because as Mark mentioned, it has "lots of emphasis on notation" which can deter students who struggle with reading or writing music. Another issue presented was the "few opportunities for personal expression" and the fact that there is "virtually no creative activities" as he said in his lecture. I thoroughly enjoyed the company of Mark and found he was an excellent educator capable of entertaining and keeping the interest of the audience. It was a pleasure to be apart of the lecture and I do hope to have him speak for us again in the future.
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AuthorA student of music education providing my insights and opinions on the guest lectures we have through the course Archives
April 2017
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