 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: clarinetwife
Date: 2011-04-20 22:35
Responding to previous threads about the state of classical music, what are some specific things we can do to be ambassadors? Of course we need to be realistic, but how can we be more positive?
One thing I notice about beginning band students is that they do not know the source of the music that is in their band book. So, I play a recording of the New World Symphony when they get to Going Home in the band book, for example. I'll play a few of Mozart's variations when they are practicing Twinkle Twinkle. Then not only can they play the notes but they know something about the music that they didn't know before.
I also find that there are many opportunities to reach out to people because they know or find out that I am a musician or ask me about something I have played at church or in orchestra. I value these moments with people greatly.
Other ideas?
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Author: Tony M
Date: 2011-04-20 23:04
Maybe it would be a good thing if, when students were taught to play the clarinet, they were encouraged to compose for the clarinet. In my experience in different fields, when someone begins to attempt to address problems of composition then they soon develop respect for those who have addressed those problems before. It sharpens the mind and the sense of history.
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Author: Bob Phillips
Date: 2011-04-21 15:34
I've just been taking a look at American education and found all sorts of reasons to look at education in Finland! The reason, of course, is that Finland (and South Korea) vie for #1 international rankings in educational accomplishment, while USA sits around 18th.
In 1998, Finland passed a regulation requiring that arts education be made available in the public schools. The wording was pretty simple: the program was to advance the students from fundamentals to being able to "create" before the end of their primary education. (In Finland, the last two years splits the students into vocational and pre-tertiary programs --the secondary programs.)
I think that teaching the kids music would go a long way toward jazzing them up for classical music.
There is no clear link between the most oft-heard "music" these days and the "good stuff" that demands considerable "music appreciation" to enjoy.
OT: my paper American Education.pdf can be downloaded at https://sites.google.com/site/incomeinequityinamerica/home-1
Bob Phillips
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Author: mrn
Date: 2011-04-22 12:15
Bob Phillips wrote:
> I've just been taking a look at American education and found
> all sorts of reasons to look at education in Finland! The
> reason, of course, is that Finland (and South Korea) vie for #1
> international rankings in educational accomplishment, while USA
> sits around 18th.
That's because they have a secret weapon---cell phones! The Finns make 'em and plant 'em in the hands of American schoolkids so their brains turn to mush. Meanwhile Finnish kids are going great guns...
:-) Just kidding.....well, sort of.
On a more serious note, I have read a little about how good Finnish schools are. The report I read credits their success to the high regard Finnish society places on the teaching profession and how competitive it is to become a teacher over there. If I can find the report again, I post a link to it, but essentially the point they made is that in Finland, top graduates compete to become teachers, while in the U.S. most teachers come from the bottom 2/3 of their high school graduating class (especially in urban schools).
That's not to say that we have bad teachers here in the U.S. as compared to other countries--I think the point to take home from that, though, is that some other societies place a high enough value on education that the most able students (those who could succeed in any field they wanted) WANT to become teachers. That difference in attitude, of course, makes a difference in the minds of other students as well as those who plan to become teachers.
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Author: Lelia Loban ★2017
Date: 2011-04-22 12:47
One day when I was 12 years old, my 7th grade English teacher, Mr. David Perrin (one of the best teachers I ever had at any level), brought a portable record player into class. He said he would like for us to listen to some music and write down whatever it made us think about. That's all he said: no telegraphing what sort of LP he'd brought in a plain brown sack. The LP he played (yes, 33-1/3 LP; we're talking about the days when a woolly mammoth pulled the school bus) was Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony.
The first interesting thing: My classmates really listened, fascinated, quiet, completely absorbed. Nobody'd told them this was great music. Nobody'd lectured about Beethoven being better or grander or more cultural than something else. The music completely spoke for itself. This was a public school (what you call a council school in England) and not a special advanced class or anything like that. Some of the kids were borderline juvenile delinquents who often misbehaved in class. Some of the kids had never heard any classical music before. None of that mattered. Beethoven absolutely grabbed them.
I couldn't write an honest spur-of-the-moment reaction because I recognized the Pastoral Symphony and that recording of it, had read the liner notes and admitted as much at the beginning of the essay, but it was fascinating later to hear the teacher read portions of essays written by kids who listened with virgin ears. They "got it." Of course they didn't track specifically with Beethoven's program, but the scenarios they invented made sense. One kid even pictured a nearby state park and several heard thunder and lightning in the storm section.
Play music for people. Just find some way to let them hear it. That's all it takes.
Lelia
http://www.scoreexchange.com/profiles/Lelia_Loban
To hear the audio, click on the "Scorch Plug-In" box above the score.
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Author: Bob Phillips
Date: 2011-04-22 15:20
mrn: There are no cell phones in Finnish schools! A local contractor was telling me that he can't get any work out of his younger employees because their "social connections" have priority over everything --including the morning briefings "this is what we need to do today."
Teaching credential in Finland requires a Master's Degree.
There may be 3 teachers in a (small --can't tell for sure, but ~15 kids per teacher??). Two teachers teaching, one tutoring.
Lelia: Great story. Maybe it is just that simple, and exposure (carefully chosen) trumps teaching.
We used the Pastoral Symphony a couple of years ago to recruit 5th graders to the public school music program. A small orch performed excerpts live. The conductor played the part of Beethoven, the grouch, tempered and dragged to the country by his landlady. There, he received his inspiration and then turned back to the orchestra demonstrated what his vision of the countryside produced in music.
We had 92% of the kids sign up for instrumental music the following fall. Maybe a couple dozen of those stuck with it after having had the cost of their instrument rentals underwritten for the 6th grade.
Bob Phillips
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Author: GeorgeL ★2017
Date: 2011-04-22 16:29
A little Google research on Finnish education (which was quick and may not be accurate) indicates their school system goes up to grade 9; the next three years are either in vocational or high schools which seem to be self-paced and require students to pass exit exams to get credit. I saw no mention of extracurricular activities provided by these schools.
There do seem to be some specialized music and (maybe) sports schools. Their school year does take appropriate breaks for skiing.
Compare that with American schools where extracurricular activities (especially sports) are more important than the educational activities, and it seems like the two systems are in two completely different worlds.
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Author: EEBaum
Date: 2011-04-22 19:19
The educational system in the U.S. is broken beyond repair. Ludicrous funding discrepancies. Cutting of valuable programs. Teachers held by the balls to nonsensical standards and not allowed freedom to teach how they want. Emphasis on structure and obedience rather than freedom to explore. Memorization and repetition rather than inquiry and understanding. Extreme politicization of the entire process. Enormous swaths of wasted time. Keeping kids sitting in rows for hours at a time to the extent of destroying their will to learn. Teaching by poorly-assembled books and methods that were decided upon by bureaucrats.
Nuke it from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.
In my experience, people will be the most interested in something when it is presented as something cool or amazing, and they are allowed to further their interests on their own. Be there to facilitate that, always at the ready to provide further depth when they want it, but not to force it, and not to suggest that someone who has not yet discovered its joys is somehow a lesser, uncultured human being.
-Alex
www.mostlydifferent.com
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Author: tictactux ★2017
Date: 2011-04-22 20:54
EEBaum wrote:
> In my experience, people will be the most interested in
> something when it is presented as something cool or amazing,
> and they are allowed to further their interests on their own.
Nah, not necessarily. Else, eg Punk never would have been invented. (and it'd be a shame if it weren't).
I rather think it's about "This is wasteland. Make something of it. But don't ask us if it's right or wrong."
(edit: clarified)
--
Ben
Post Edited (2011-04-22 21:30)
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Author: Bob Phillips
Date: 2011-04-23 03:56
I'm not at all sure that Alex's observations on inducing excitement in the student would stifle invention.
Bob Phillips
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Author: Lelia Loban ★2017
Date: 2011-04-23 11:37
>>Emphasis on structure and obedience rather than freedom to explore. Memorization and repetition rather than inquiry and understanding. [snip] Keeping kids sitting in rows for hours at a time to the extent of destroying their will to learn.>>
Imho those statements are false dichotomies. Memorizing and repetition can indeed become stifling, but I find that if I memorize the basics (scales, for instance), then I feel *more* freedom go on to be creative. Structure, obedience and keeping kids sitting in rows can stifle kids, too, if the teacher is a rigid, hostile, Prof. Umbridge type -- but with a good teacher, a controlled atmosphere, far from destroying the will to learn, can protect it. Orchestras and bands sit in orderly configurations, after all, and everyone plays from the same score. Otherwise a concert would sound like everybody tuning up at once.
In my school days, I found that sitting quietly in rows facilitated creativity and learning, by minimizing the distractions. When one of my classes became an open classroom, with several focus groups meeting all at once and kids allowed to leave their seats and talk at will, the noise and bustle drove me crazy to the point where I begged to transfer out. I couldn't learn in that environment and I couldn't adjust to it. Some of my classmates learned *better* in there and loved it. We don't all learn alike.
Lelia
http://www.scoreexchange.com/profiles/Lelia_Loban
To hear the audio, click on the "Scorch Plug-In" box above the score.
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Author: EEBaum
Date: 2011-04-23 17:02
Point taken. In many places, though, they seem to be treated as dichotomies. It's in the culture in some educational realms. I worked on some educational software at one point where the design had to be changed because it was "too fun" and therefore not enough like learning.
I guess an admission that "one size fits all" does not work might be preferable, which is often hard for educational bureaucrats to understand.
-Alex
www.mostlydifferent.com
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Author: Bassie
Date: 2011-04-24 18:01
>> He said he would like for us to listen to some music and write down whatever it made us think about.
Hmm... maybe it is as simple as 'show, don't tell'.
Certainly my Dad (no musician) would sometimes call me across to something he was watching or listening to and say 'listen to this'. 'What is it?' I'd ask. 'Just listen,' he'd say. I grew up liking all sorts.
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