I am noticing the tide shifting. The early 2000's saw the No Child Left Behind Act, a re-authorization of the ESEA that placed heavy emphasis on testing. This created an environment in which schools felt pressured to perform; efficiency and results on the "important tests." It was important that schools made "AYP." Compliance was more vital. Arts classes were asked to find ways to better serve the scores of math and language. In my own unscientific analysis I find schools to be recognizing the dangers of a narrow-minded education. Of course educators of the arts know that the latest re-authorization of ESEA is the Every Student Succeeds Act. This act clearly calls for students to receive a more well-rounded education inclusive of the arts (with music mentioned specifically). In my own school district, school district and building leaders work very hard to balance the needs for student achievement with students' needs for a well-rounded education inclusive of the arts, sciences, humanities, character, physical education. In fact, this upcoming school year we look to go "all-in" on Carol Dweck's research in Growth Mindset, an important concept which helps all persons understand that skills and intelligence can be grown or developed. We hope that teachers will work to help students develop a meta-cognitive understanding of how they process setbacks and successes. Growth Mindset is gaining in popularity, and rightfully so - students need to be emotionally available for learning, and strategies to help students become less "fixed" helps with that emotional availability. Coupled with helping students to develop "grit" we can help students to dig in and reach successes that surprise themselves. It is exciting that more schools are adopting this "whole-child" approach. In the video attached to this post, Scott Barry Kaufman briefly shares an important idea that reminds us that students are individuals; they reach success and are motivated differently. He briefly touches upon the difference between Grit and Creativity. Gritty students and Creative students will both ultimately progress in their skills - but they will do it in different ways.
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12 Steps to becoming a music major2 RepliesMaking the choice to be a music major is pretty exciting. There are, however, a lot of things that apply to students intending on majoring music that might not apply to someone pursuing a degree in other liberal arts or sciences. The most common interest shown from High School students that I’ve found is in a Bachelor’s degree in Music Education. Of course there are other degree paths, but for the purposes of this post, I’ll stick with Music Ed. Here’s a list of things to think about and things you might want to do to prepare
What do you think? Did I miss anything? Here are some links to get you started: http://www.potsdam.edu/academics/Crane/admissions/general_info.cfm http://www.fredonia.edu/music/aud_reqs.asp http://www.hofstra.edu/Academics/Colleges/SOEAHS/TLL/MUSED/MUSED_bsed.html http://www.liu.edu/CWPost/Academics/Schools/SVPA/Dept/Music/AdmisAudReq http://www.ithaca.edu/music/admission/undergraduate/ http://harttweb.hartford.edu/admissions/audition/undergraduate.aspx http://steinhardt.nyu.edu/music/education/auditions From time to time students bring up the idea of being a professional performer, they generally want to know what it takes, and if they have the stuff to make it on Broadway. I was a music ed major, and that’s what I know best. So after a student came to me the other day, I started trying to find ways to help.
It goes without saying that in order to make it on Broadway, or any other professional stage, you need to be the best possible musician/performer you can be. This is a serious commitment of time and money. You’ll be taking dance, acting, and voice lessons. You’ll be auditioning and more often than not, the auditions will not yield parts. It won’t be enough to be the best in your high school. You’ll probably need more experience performing than the two or three shows a year that your school does – look into community theater opportunities. Join an organization like TDF; really cheap to join, and show tickets can be significantly discounted, usually making up for your membership costs after one ticket. See lots of shows! I found this link to be really comprehensive and concise with advice to increase your chances of making it on Broadway. Check it out. The thing, however, that most other people fail to explicitly mention is that you can’t neglect being well rounded. Don’t just say “I’m going to be a performer, I’ll never need this.” Don’t ever do the minimum to get by, in any area of study, because if the performing thing doesn’t work out (and all statistics point to the fact that it won’t) you’re going to need to have marketable skills to pay the bills! Additionally, you’re going to need to get into a good college before you get into the theater department. Music education for the sake of music education is of course our goal! But we need to advocate for it in so much more of terms of the warm and fuzzy “making kids want to go to school.” “Joy” in school is of COURSE important, but we are doing so much more than creating joy and opportunities to be proud of. Music education friends, this argument that we have been using is failing.
Also, it’s not enough to talk about how music helps kids to do better in math and science – it’s a weak, cliched argument that doesn’t talk about how important MUSIC is. While actively engaged in Musicking (v. actively participating in music. Listening, watching, performing, organizing, analyzing etc. – this term was coined by Christopher Small) our brains are bilaterally engaged – forging connections, creating and strengthening pathways between all of the important memory centers, language centers, the anticipation receptors, pleasure/fear/emotional receptors. NO other activity lights up the brain like music. Tons of research points to how music actually changes the landscape of the brain. More here and here It’s dramatic to talk about how a left hemisphere stroke victim with a damaged broca’s or wernicke’s area and how music helped their brain to rewire pathways and enable the right hemisphere to create speech. But then, what of the implications for healthy brains! Strengthening these areas in developing brains will help our kids to become able problem solvers, mathematical, linguistic, scientific, musical, spatial or otherwise. Really what it’s all about is the manner in which we go about advocating for what we do. By no stretch of the imagination do I intend to take away from the importance that music has for social development, for providing the family experiences of which students so often speak. Nor should we take away the pride in having a kid feel good about a performance. What I am saying, is that we need another prong to the attack. Schools are constantly being forced to reduce or eliminate the things that make students “feel good,” so my argument here is that music makes kids feel good is not enough. Music is vital to the neurological development of our students. Music lays the foundation for increased abilities to solve problems, to be overall more intelligent. If we approach this from all angles, the only option is to offer our kids more - not less. Check out the last video link on the page for the science behind these things (Start at about 23:00 for the meat of the study). I’d love to see/hear what you think; comment below. NYSSMA is the acronym for the New York State School Music Association. It is perhaps the largest most powerful organization of subject area teachers that is focused on the music education of young people in New York State from ages birth through college. NYSSMA is a comprehensive organization that provides a wealth of professional resources and development to all of us music teachers. NYSSMA is the sponsor of the All-State festival concerts to which the top achieving music students and performing ensembles are accepted (these concerts happen annually in Rochester during the first weekend of December). NYSSMA is also an advocacy powerhouse for arts in education, frequently grabbing the ear of state legislators and school administrators to help them understand why what we do is so important. What the general public knows best about NYSSMA is likely the solo and major ensemble festivals that they send their kids to every year. This post is intended to shed some light on what the big deal is.
My mom would always say “I thought you sounded great, how and why can/should you grade something like music?” (In fact, she still says it). Well in the interest of helping our students to develop an attitude of self improvement and growth in achievement, an objective assessment free of “American Idol” type opinions can be invaluable. Solo festival: Students, along with their music teacher (or private lesson teacher) pick a song from a preselected list of pieces that have been evaluated and classified into levels ranging from 1-6. Some contributing factors to the level include range, hand positions, harmonic complexity, meter. Students are evaluated using a rubric geared toward their instrument and scored based on best practices of that instrument and overall musicianship. Students also perform scales and then play or sing a melody that they have never seen before without any help from anybody. Music educators who are trained to provide reliable feedback and follow consistent scoring guidelines in order to evaluate students (mostly current or retired music teachers who seek this additional training). Levels 1-4 are graded on a scale of 0-28 points Levels 5-6 are graded on a scale of 0-100 points. Major Ensemble Festival: Pieces of music are also placed into levels based on their overall difficulty in levels 1-6. Pieces are listed in the “NYSSMA manual” that meet both musical and pedagogical standards. Teachers wishing to take their groups to Major Ensemble festival must follow strict guidelines to ensure that students are eligible to be rated at specific difficulty levels. Ensembles perform three selections. Two of which from the Manual and one is a free selection as a “warm-up.” Ensembles are rated by music educators who are certified by NYSSMA to evaluate bands, orchestras and choirs of every level. These are kids who are meeting all of the standards for the solo festival, but with the added complexity as doing it at the same time while communicating musically with about 50-70 other students. Possible ratings include: Bronze: For groups meeting basic technical and musical standards. Some issues detracted from the overall performance Silver: For groups achieving excellent levels of performance with any issues not detracting from the overall performance. Gold: For groups achieving outstanding levels of performance with minimal issues that do not detract from the overall performance. Distinction: For groups achieving a Gold rating with exceptional performance on all three selections. NYSSMA is just one of the tools that we use to assess the musical skill development of our students. We work very hard to provide a meaningful musical experience for our students and are proud to present them for adjudication at the state level. Our students are motivated by “showing off their skills.” Well over 150 students from our district choose to go to solo NYSSMA year after year – a decidedly nerve wracking experience for most – because they know that it is one tool that will help them be a better musician (all the while developing a discipline and strength of character). |
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