Everyone Matters

If every school year has a sponsoring concept - one idea that drives and unifies pedagogy for the music program in which I teach - last year's concept would have been personal identity. This concept manifested overtly by activities in Guitar 3 on one musician that influences them directly, and how that influence comes through in their own musicality. Personal identity manifested indirectly by relaxing the requirements for practice logs and sectionals in the band program, thereby forcing students to make decisions about who they are and what kind of musician they are going to be as they prepare for upcoming performances. Social justice and activism in the form of response also played into curricula direction via units on social movements in music and individual and collective responses to the election of 2016.

I've been thinking a lot about the upcoming year, the state of our society and the messages that young people are exposed to every day. I was struck last spring by a quote from Victor Hugo: "Nothing is as powerful as an idea whose idea has come." This was shared on social media by someone hopeful that the current tide of chaos, collusion, bigotry, racism, and obstruction would soon be changing. The time for the antithesis of the Trump administration has come. Perhaps this is true, but this led me to consider the idea whose time had come in order for those currently in power to assume their positions. What is the idea that enabled Trump to be elected, and both houses of Congress to be under Republican control?

A Visual Art teacher friend of mine suggested the following:

"I matter. You don't."

This makes sense to me as the idea behind much of the current national political discourse. Advancing a healthcare bill that takes coverage away from people and raises premiums while giving tax cuts to the rich? I matter, you don't. Racism, Xenophobia, Transphobia, border walls, Muslim bans: I matter. You don't. I could go on.

This leads me to my sponsoring thought for the upcoming academic year as a music educator. In music and music education, fierce individualism doesn't work. In a musical ensemble, everyone matters. Empathy is required to realize any musical idea. A musician must always consider the person next to them, the section across the room or stage, and the conductor, in addition to everything they are doing to play their instrument. Even if a musician is playing a solo piece, which rarely happens in a high school music program, he or she must consider the audience. Music played in a vacuum, without consideration of how it sounds to others, is not the point. Even if music is made for an individual's benefit only, that person is at least listening to what they're playing - an empathy with the self.

But that is not the point of collective music making, nor education. In a music classroom, the community is what matters. Listening to others, adjusting performance based on concepts of pitch, balance, rhythm, tempo, blend, phrasing, and emotional intent is what makes music work. A band, whether a 40-member wind ensemble or a guitar duo, is a family. In a way, when we make music together, we take care of the members of our ensemble, and they take care of us. It requires deep skills, both hard skills and soft skills, to play music. THIS will be the focus of my pedagogy this year. Everyone matters. Together we succeed.

This will be accomplished both through regular daily rehearsal processes, but also sectional work, musical activism and charity, and will be reciprocal between student and teacher. I will also be empathetic to the students in my class. Like music, education works best when the flow of ideas is unhindered by power structures or ego. I'm a forward thinking educator, giving my students a good deal of control over their learning, but this year I will take more steps to get out of the way and let the learners in my room own their musical development. Everyone matters.