Do you have to be a musician to teach music?

In thinking about the question for this week's live Twitter chat on Wednesday #mufuchat - I found that for once I truly did NOT have a quick answer.  The question posed by @MusicalFutures is a question I have been struggling with for the past few years, "do you have to be a musician to teach music?"  At least once a week I work with teachers and adult students who are becoming teachers, to help them gain some skills in teaching music.  Most of them are self-described "non-musicians".  If I didn't truly believe that music could be taught by "non-musicians",  I would not be investing so much of my time and energy in this process.  But, to come up with a well-constructed answer to this question seems a daunting task.  

Instead, I decided to share the questions that plague me as I try to construct an answer. Even as I read it back, more questions are emerging...

Do you have to be a musician to teach music?

How do you define musician? 

Am I a musician because my parents put me into piano lessons when I was 5 years old and I stuck with it and am trained to play the piano?

Does that make me a musician?

Is being proficient at playing the piano proof that I can teach students?

What does it mean to teach music? 

Does it mean training students to sing? play instruments? read and write the language of music notation? understand the rules of musical composition? listen and interpret music? 

What are the essential qualities of musicality that we need to teach? 

It ALL comes down to the essential question – what does it mean to be musical?

Can you be a weak musician and be a good music teacher? (Definitely Yes – I have seen it)

Can you be a great musician and a terrible teacher? (Absolutely – I’ve seen that too)

So, maybe the question is, what does it take to be a good teacher, no matter what the subject content?

And to refine it – what does it take to be a great music teacher?

Is the teacher who calls him/herself a musician and commits to learning about music alongside their students the best teacher?

Is being a musician a self-imposed definition?

Or does our society and culture define who is a musician?

Have we allowed only the elite, trained musicians to carry that title?

Will we also allow popular musicians who have acquired fame and a following to use the title,  “musician”?

If I sing to my baby and make up songs to calm her cries and help her fall asleep – am I a musician?

If a child picks up a toy and repeated plays a rhythm with it on the floor – is that child a musician?

At what point does one become a musician?

Are we ALL musicians, since music is so primal?

Can a musician simply be someone who makes music?

Do we need to understand the structure of music in order to call ourselves musicians?

Or is every musician who shares his or her music, in a way, teaching us something about music?

Can ANYONE who makes music, TEACH music?

Oh, gosh – I think I’m back at the beginning…

What We Learned from the Process of Recreating a Song

Last Wednesday, Teacher Candidates in the Junior/Intermediate Music class sorted themselves into groups based on friendships or interest in a particular style of music and worked for one session to recreate a song to present to the class.  They were encouraged to use their voices and any of the varied instruments available in the music room.

At the end of their performances they took a few moments to write a reflection about the process of collaborating in a group to do this task.  I usually give them a hard time about their reflections and the need to think more deeply and specifically, but after this work they had lots of worthwhile things to say.

Here are just some of their wonderful statements about their work:

• it really brought out the complexity of the music
• really made me appreciate all of the layers and textures that make up a song
• made us deconstruct songs to their skeletons and rebuild them back up one instrument at a time
• a challenging activity that requires thought and critical listening skills
• made me appreciate all that goes into creating music
• made us listen in a different way than "casually listening"
• felt like we were dissecting a frog - we dissected the song
• the song choice was definitely an important part of the activity
• when we thought we were finished, we realized we had to refine our song even more
• then I heard 4 more notes in the glockenspiel section that we decided to incorporate
• having one individual keeping the beat was important
• the song grew and changed as we spent more time rehearsing
• my respect for songwriters and all performers has greatly increased
• each performance was so unique
• helped me to face performance anxiety
• showed us how creative we all are
• working collaboratively was a complex task
• working collaboratively takes patience
• in the end you can really be proud
• an amazing experience 
• fun yet frustrating
• creative differences make for a creative masterpiece

Here's a link to our sharing wall to see our group work:

http://padlet.com/wall/yec2zmjz7

What can we learn from rhythmic chants?

Last Friday I worked with a fantastic group of teachers from DSBN who have committed to working together over the next 5 months to learn more about teaching music at the Intermediate (Gr. 7 - 10) Level with the Musical Futures, Find Your Voice approach.

What struck me the most was how we learned so much from a vocal warm-up written by Gitika Partington.  At first glance, the rhythmic chant, "Lift Off!" seems musically very simple - in fact most of it is spoken rather than sung.  But it is so much fun to perform that it launched us into creating our own rhythmic chants and performing them for each other.  When we discussed "what worked well?" from our performances, the feedback led to some very interesting discussions about what it means to be musical.

Here's just a sample of the big musical ideas that came out of this and what this process made us think about:

• Music Notation - these creations could be written down, including notating the rhythms/pitches of each part.  This opened a HUGE debate about the importance of music notation and when it is best introduced.  Most students can create more complex rhythms than they have the capacity to notate. So, if students limit their creativity so they can successfully notate a rhythm - is that beneficial? or do we want them to explore the full range of their music capabilities? What does our curriculum say? What does our good musical judgement say?
• Timbre - most groups made serious use of the varying qualities of sound of the voices in their group and worked to exaggerate differences and create interesting and unique voice timbres. 
• Form - some groups created interesting beginnings and endings, others had all parts starting and ending together, etc.
• Beat/Rhythm - almost every group talked about the challenge of fitting the rhythms together and maintaining a steady beat
• Movement/Music connection - we noticed that when we had at least one person in the group moving to the beat it served to keep the whole group working together at the same tempo. Also, when people performed a movement to fit with their part, it really helped the audience pick up on their intent and enhanced their message.
• Language/Rhythm connection - we noticed that it's easier to remember and recreate a rhythm when it's connected to words
• Syncopation - when a little bit of syncopation was introduced it added interest to the rhythmic chant (e.g. heart beat rhythm in the Valentine's chant)
• Repetition v. Change - finding a balance of the familiar and the unexpected makes for a great rhythmic chant 
• "Space" - finding that feeling of openness in the music, so our ears can appreciate everything that's going on
• Drama - one performance was referred to as "installation art".  Adding elements of drama enhanced the music and made for a richer performance.
• The Creative Process - What did we start with, a theme, an osinato?  Did we individually create our own parts and then try to fit them together?  Or did we all work together to create all of the parts collectively? How does it feel to collaborate in a group to create something musical? How can we use feedback from our audience to improve and enrich our creative work in the future? 
• Balance 
• Ensemble performance skills
• etc.

Wow - that's a lot of musical thinking from simple rhythmic chants!  Listening to all of the feedback made me think that the elements and concepts of music are so inextricably linked.  We often do students a disservice by trying to teach lessons to isolate and artificially manufacture music with an emphasis on only one of the elements. Even this lesson that seems to emphasize rhythm and vocal timbres is rich with ALL KINDS of music thinking and understanding.

Video examples on our sharing wall:

http://padlet.com/wall/erde8036az