Teacher Interview
The teacher that I chose to interview was my old private piano teacher from home. She has had a great deal of influence on me, not just because I’ve known her for seven or eight years, but because of her positive outlook on life and her personal and attentive teaching style. In the following interview her compassion and love of music infuse everything she says, making it easy to grasp her teaching philosophy.
A: To you, what does it mean to teach?
B: Teaching ... to pay it forward by sharing what has been given to me.
A: What should it mean to your students to be taught?
B: My hope has always been that my students develop into being even better than I, and recognize the opportunity, through music instruction, to learn more about themselves through self music therapy.
A: Do you feel an obligation to teach? Or is it more for the reasons you just mentioned, or something else?
B: No, not at all. For me it has grown into musically nurturing, mentoring, and assisting students through some of their most turbulent transitional years from childhood, to young adulthood, through music, being the constant grounder for life. I've had many students tell me I'm better than a therapist [laughs].
A: Was there anyone like yourself for you when you were a young musician? And who are your influences if you have any?
B: No, unfortunately not for me. Fortunately though, on the other hand, that caused me to search… and obtain, and share what I saw was missing musically—personal interest repertoire and personal selection of your own musical interests of study, including closer student and mentor relationships. My influences were…from a childhood of exposure to all genres of music including sitting through very long musical theatre and operetta rehearsals from infancy.
A: So I know your had a long teaching and performance career, but what was your relationship with music as a student like?
B: As a student, from age seven to fourteenish, I only went to my weekly lessons because it was expected and I was made to. I hated it. The old school of teaching was very rigid, classical RCM only, no pop or personal interest…and definitely no instruction toward learning about yourself musically and using music to feed your soul through what you really want to play.
I was the teachers "nightmare" student [laughs].
A: So you’re like the foil to your old teachers?
B: Totally opposite to my old teachers [laughs].
A: Well I guess that’s it. Oh I have one more question. Is there anything you think is missing in music education today? I think I can guess.
B: Absolutely. What do you think it is?
A: Sort of like student agency and allowing creativity?
B: Yes. Nurturing personal creativity. Teaching students how to learn about their soul journey though music and use it to their advantage in managing life skills…most importantly the bonding of close relationships between students and caring teachers-not the assembly line like processes that are being used today. Music matters. It feeds the soul.
My teacher’s response when asked what it meant to teach was one I expected—she is a very generous person, and this seems like the type of response that many teachers might give. However her general philosophy I believe is more unique. She wants her teaching to encourage self-exploration and creativity through music instruction, and that by nurturing, mentoring and assisting students in attentive music instruction, a teacher is providing a therapeutic resource throughout ‘turbulent’ years in a student’s life.
Her comment about helping “students develop into being even better than [herself]” is quite telling to me. It provides the image of lifting the student up, instead of driving dogma into them, using her authority abusively. From experience, I know that she educates by building on the students knowledge. and takes their ideas and feedback into consideration when she is giving instruction. After interviewing her, it is clear that this method of instruction is in rejection of her own student experience. It is unique that she used her relatively poor experience as a music student to develop a teaching style that promotes “personal interest repertoire and personal selection of [one’s] own musical interests of study, including closer student and mentor relationships”, instead of just simply passing the negative experience of “assembly line teaching” onto the next generation of students.
Another unique feature about her philosophy is her vision of music as a form of self-therapy. Throughout her interview, one gets a sense that she truly believes in music as a spiritual art form, that can be taught and has structure, but is not able to be taught like math or biology—she believes that there is no rote or one-size-fits-all way of instructing music. She believes that each person has a unique experience with music and therefore needs a unique and accommodating learning experience.
As an art form, creativity in music is essential for her philosophy. When I recall being her student, I remember her insisting that I play things I enjoy, that if there was ever something I wanted to learn or wanted to know more about, that I should bring it to her and she would do her best to help me in that regard. If there was ever a question I had regarding a piece I was playing or theory that I was doing, regardless of how long the answer to the ‘why’ might be, she made sure by the time I left my lesson I had an answer to my question, or a least a better understanding of the concept from which I could reach my own conclusions.
It is interesting that much of her philosophy points to ideas about teaching that have been explored in the this class. Primarily I'm thinking of encouraging, positive, and constructive teaching that builds on a student's musical experience, promoting creativity and decision-making in the lesson, and being a positive influence and role model for students. What is more interesting is that it seems this style/philosophy of teaching arises from the rigid teaching style my teacher was exposed to as a student. Clearly, however, not all music teachers growing up with the kind of teachers she did had the same reactionary change to their own teaching styles. Many teachers today use an 'old-fashioned' way of teaching, perhaps because they feel there is not another option, or because for them as students they liked it or found it effective. It would be interesting to be able to ask a bunch of music teachers how they felt about their own teacher(s) style and then compare it to their teaching style today, to see how much of an effect it has.
Student Interviews
When finding peers to interview for this assignment, I looked to members of my ensemble who are not music majors but are clearly still involved in music making and make time for it in their busy schedules. I talked to three people: Glen, Sam, and Julia to try to get a sense of their relationship with music and why they still are active musicians even though it is not relevant to their education or career paths.
First was Glen. Being my first interview, it was the least thorough of the three, however his answers helped me to formulate questions for the next two interviews. A nursing student at Western, Glen is involved in the symphonic band, marching band and jazz ensemble as a trombone player. He started music lessons at age eight on piano, and continued until he was thirteen. He dabbled in guitar, but eventually settled on trombone. He continues on playing music because he “likes it” and calls in his stress reliever.
Next was Sam, a student of the Ivey Business School. Sam is heavily involved in both music playing and instruction. She’s been in the Western jazz ensemble since first year, she conducts two jazz bands outside of school, and gigs at the Richmond once a week. Starting on piano at age five, she is a highly proficient pianist and trumpet player. She hopes to use her business degree in combination with something music-oriented to incorporate her love of music into her future career. This decision to keep music in her life she says was because of a music teacher she had in high school whom Sam believes changed her life. She also believes that many skills she acquired from music and teaching music are transferable to business and other areas of life and study, yet they are still very different. Describing music as “more of an escape, than anything” and Sam says it keeps her sane.
Also a student at the Ivey Business school, Julia was the last to be interviewed. At age six Julia began piano lessons and picked up the tenor saxophone in grade nine, and continues to play both here at university. She has acquired her Grade ten piano certificate and plays tenor in the Western jazz ensemble. Julia’s family seems quite musical, which she says inspires her, but she says her biggest encouragement was, like Sam, her highschool music teacher who was helpful, kind and supportive. She also describes music as a relief, a place where she can let out her feelings and put her energy into something that is beautiful.
There are three areas of interest I feel echo the sentiments of my teacher interview, namely creativity, self therapy and mentorship. All three students have a love for music and making art that my teacher claims is so important for teaching music. They genuinely like music. They describe it as a stress-reliever, an escape and a relief, which I found interesting. When my piano teacher suggested that music should be a form of self therapy, I wasn't sure that that was a feeling fostered in music education, as often rehearsals, exams, etc. are high-stress activities. To hear all three of these students announce music as their escape is eye-opening. They either love making music so much that it feels only natural to play, or that they had teachers in their lives who put music in a light that was positive and therapeutic. Perhaps this is something I should have elaborated on during the interviews. When asked about an influence, both Sam and Julia could name a teacher who they felt made an impact in their life and their musical journey.
As an educator, it is important to draw from these interactions the effect that music has on these students lives and why they continue to turn to it. Teachers must try to foster the belief that music is a positive addition to life and encourage students to continue to make art an enhance their own life the lives of those around them.