Midterm Paper

What are three important skills or traits for any music teacher?

Reference the Battisti and Boonshaft. 

         Three important skills or traits for any music teacher would be their

knowledge of the subject matter and other related subjects, their ability to teach and their ability to inspire. Music teachers need to know their subject matter otherwise they will be unable to teach it. They must choose the literature their students study. They must help student interpret the material through various lenses modern eyes, period performance, historical and cultural contexts. Teachers must know how to teach. Teachers cannot just bark out information. As our work is with music textbooks are not enough to teach with. We must give demonstrations of the subject matter, explain it as the students our taking in the sound and adjust performance techniques so that students learn from their errors. Finally, music teachers must teach to inspire. Music teachers ask much of their students, practicing for long hours after school and at home. The work is voluntary and performances are live in front of an audience who may judge them. For music to continue to be a part of our culture, we must also inspire people to continue with their musical pursuits beyond the classroom.

      A music teacher must have knowledge of the subject matter and any other matters that can be drawn upon to add further depth to our art form. As we music teachers often work alone in schools, we are called upon to be the first and last reference or expert in our field in the building. Furthermore, the field of music education in America does not have a required curriculum like the other fields like English or Math. Those teachers have textbooks that they are required to use by the school system and often have no choice or say in the curriculum whatsoever. As music teachers we are given the opportunity to decide what to teach, when and how with broad latitude. Therefore, it is vital for teachers to have both a broad and deep knowledge of music. 

       Author Frank Battista, writes in his book, On Becoming a Conductor, that real conductors are music educators as well. In chapter one of his book, pgs. 3-4, Battista writes that conductors must have basic musicianship skills, sight reading, the ability to hear a score mentally without sound, error detection hearing skills, knowledge of theory, harmony, music history and historical practices, composers and performance practices, score reading, the basic performing skills for singers as well as those needed on each instrument in the orchestra, their ranges and transpositions, etc. He further states that all conductors must have knowledge not just of period music but also of current music including popular music and knowledge of jazz as well. Peter Boonshaft also takes this view in his book Teaching Music with Promise, when he writes, “Knowing the score like the back of our hands is the first step,…surely the study of music theory, music history, performance practice orchestration and the like will bring a wealth of information to the table.” pg. 44 

        The ability to teach is also vital to being a good teacher of music. It is important to know how the human mind works, how it stores, processes and then transforms information as one does when making music.  Boonshaft comments on this in his book on page 174, “we have…new philosophies of how to assess learning, new ways to accommodate different learning styles, new designs for merging diverse educational content and the like.”

        Every conductor (and every teacher must be one) must communicate their evaluation of the music and their vision of it to the ensemble.  As this communication during performance often comes in fractions of a second Conductors must be clear and concise in getting across to their musician/students what they want them to learn. Battista when he writes of conductors must communicate ideas to the ensemble clearly through, “representative gestures, expressive mime gestures and explanation by word of mouth.” page 67.

     Furthermore, the music teacher must learn such subjects as muscle memory, how the body’s basic functions such as breathing work, how muscles interact with one another and the human body’s and their instruments limitations. Boonshaft writes about the need to instruct students on these topics on page 93 of this book. Concerning warming up, “Time spent getting students mentally and physically limber…It helps them ready their musculature…for lifelong literacy.”

     The ability to inspire others is a character trait that can be honed through reading psychology books, experiences in leadership as well but  not everyone who can read such books can become a good leader. Music teachers have a special kind of leadership. While they do inspire their students to work toward a specific musical goal such as playing a piece of music well in a concert they must do more.   

        With learning, we hope that our students never stop learning. For the health of their minds and souls we hope that they are learning until the day they die. Battista on p137 quotes Goya who said, “keep on growing…don’t go to seed!” Battista takes this further by writing: The choices in life are simple either one grows or dies.” CEOs do not need to inspire their workers into lifelong goals that extend beyond their work lives they merely inspire the best work they can from their employees for the duration of their time working for their companies. Military commanders do not need to inspire their troops for a lifetime just for the duration of their service in battle. Eventually every soldier’s service comes to an end. Boonshaft quotes Pericles in his book on music education on page 217, “What you leave behind is not what is engraved in stone monuments, but is woven into the lives of others.”

        A real music teacher inspires a lifetime of learning in the student for the arts. The student internalizes goals and sets up their own and works with their own discipline towards goals that far accede the scope of a class or a performance. They are self directed students. As the author, Boonshaft, writes on page 217, “the goal of our own planned obsolescence, teaching students as much about how to learn and why the joy of learning is as exciting as the subject matter itself.” Many including Harold Taylor who is quoted by Frank Battista in his book, On Becoming a Conductor, believe that music heighten the human experience and teaches us what it means to be fully human through an exploration of our emotions. Battista   page 142.

     To sum up the three most important skills and traits of the music teacher, we must have a broad education both in music and related fields, we must be able to teach effectively and we must inspire so that music does not die as a subject of human endeavor. Music teachers must know before others can learn from them. They must be able to express what they know in such ways that students will understand the new material.  To do this the teacher must know how others think, the general processes of the human mind as it learns. They must also know how that people’s  mental strengths and weaknesses vary so the teacher must be able to relate the material in such ways as to capitalize on students strengths. Finally, the music teacher must inspire for art to exist we must know how to create it and to appreciate its value to our souls so that we may better understand our own feelings and for the emotional connection we have with others in our culture.