As a Kodaly music educator, musicianship is a very important aspect of my life. I started college as a music ed major with voice as my "instrument", but switched to piano after two years. Initially I was focused on secondary choral education, but that interest quickly changed to elementary general. So, I sing and play. I still spend a lot of time teaching choral music, but to elementary students. And I began teaching recorders as a part of my curriculum to fourth and fifth grade students.
I've found that as I teach vocal production/choral techniques, and instrument techniques, my own personal understanding, approach, and experiences play a big part in how I teach. The more (understanding/approaches/experiences) I have, the better I am at teaching the students. It's amazing to look at my progress as a musician and see how my teaching has changed with my progression through musicianship. They really are connected. Every time I figure a different way to approach something as a musician, I think "wow, I need to teach this to my students!"
A year ago, I decided to take up the guitar. First, let me tell you there are a lot of differences between piano and guitar playing. One thing, guitarists don't often read music from the staff. Then you have different hand positions and finger numbering. But, the experience has improved my musicianship. Being able to pick up a new instrument gives me more experiences to draw on in teaching my students. And, of course, my students think I'm really cool because I play the guitar.
I began playing the piano for church services and their choir. The choral director made the comment last week that it was really nice to have a pianist who also sings, because my understanding of voices comes out in the way I play and helps the choir so much more. Strangely enough, I had never thought how my choral background affected the way I play.
I've also found that when I'm playing or reading music, I'm now starting to analyze the chords and progressions. Music theory was not a favorite subject in college, even though I was good at it. (Math!!) But, strangely enough, I'm now embracing it as something that explains the "whys" of music, helps with memory, and improves me and my performance on the whole as a musician.
So, musicianship improves with... experience, age, practice, time.... And performance improves with musicianship.
Sunday, September 11, 2011
How will technology affect the way we read music?
An interesting comment was made in a workshop that got me to thinking. It was in reference to how it isn't important for music teachers to teach our students to read/write music. The instructor commented that most of today's contemporary musicians do not read music, but that each musician has their own method for reading/notating music. And that the method may not necessarily be a paper/pencil method. Now I can see how some pop/country guitarists notate using tabs, or chord charts. And drummers - well... And maybe some singers just read the lyrics and memorize the melody by ear (listening to a recording). But are the pop/country musicians all musically illiterate? And is this acceptable?
Even though I'm a middle aged music teacher, I still try to think outside the box. Just because "that's the way I learned to do it, it was good enough for me, it's good enough for you" attitude has dominated education for decades, I am willing to let it go and look at what's in my future and the future of my students. Just because we have read traditional staff notation for thousands of years, that doesn't mean musicians will read music staff notation in next 100 years. And just because we have been reading "books" for thousands of years, that doesn't mean our grandchildren will ever see/touch/use a book. (Already, my husband does a lot of his reading on a Nook.) So, can I let this go? Will my teaching staff notation to my students be relevant to them? Will symphonies be playing concertos using something totally different from the last few centuries?
Over 10 years ago, I read an interesting periodical article (yes, they're still being published and read) about bands and orchestras that use a tablet inserted on a pole (similar to the base of a music stand) to read their digital music. Some of the neat aspects of music on a stick (or digital music) was the ability to backlight the music, zoom/adjust size of the music, and turn the page with the quick flick of a finger. BUT, this is still notation, just not on paper anymore.
So, if there isn't staff notation reading, will it all be by ear? Will it be by some other method of notation shorthand, maybe using something similar to stick notation (see Kodaly method)? What about communicating phrasing, articulation, dynamics, tempo, meter? Will this be conveyed at all in some alternative music notation?
I don't know if I can let this one go. I think it would be similar to telling today's teachers that teaching children to read is archaic and isn't relevant to their future. I can admit there are some successful performers (I can't call them musicians, can I?) do not need to read music to achieve their dreams. But, knowing how to read music allows musicians to pick up any instrument, be shown how to produce music on that instrument, and be able to play music. Maybe this is the first step in separating a performer from a musician.
Even though I'm a middle aged music teacher, I still try to think outside the box. Just because "that's the way I learned to do it, it was good enough for me, it's good enough for you" attitude has dominated education for decades, I am willing to let it go and look at what's in my future and the future of my students. Just because we have read traditional staff notation for thousands of years, that doesn't mean musicians will read music staff notation in next 100 years. And just because we have been reading "books" for thousands of years, that doesn't mean our grandchildren will ever see/touch/use a book. (Already, my husband does a lot of his reading on a Nook.) So, can I let this go? Will my teaching staff notation to my students be relevant to them? Will symphonies be playing concertos using something totally different from the last few centuries?
Over 10 years ago, I read an interesting periodical article (yes, they're still being published and read) about bands and orchestras that use a tablet inserted on a pole (similar to the base of a music stand) to read their digital music. Some of the neat aspects of music on a stick (or digital music) was the ability to backlight the music, zoom/adjust size of the music, and turn the page with the quick flick of a finger. BUT, this is still notation, just not on paper anymore.
So, if there isn't staff notation reading, will it all be by ear? Will it be by some other method of notation shorthand, maybe using something similar to stick notation (see Kodaly method)? What about communicating phrasing, articulation, dynamics, tempo, meter? Will this be conveyed at all in some alternative music notation?
I don't know if I can let this one go. I think it would be similar to telling today's teachers that teaching children to read is archaic and isn't relevant to their future. I can admit there are some successful performers (I can't call them musicians, can I?) do not need to read music to achieve their dreams. But, knowing how to read music allows musicians to pick up any instrument, be shown how to produce music on that instrument, and be able to play music. Maybe this is the first step in separating a performer from a musician.
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