Music, Education, and Technology

With more than 14,000 unfulfilled music education positions in the United States today, there are lots of opportunities for aspiring music educators.

Non-conventional career opportunities beyond the classroom also abound. They include starting a private teaching practice; licensing a music education franchise like Music Together or Kindermusik, writing and arranging instrumental or choral music; authoring music education methods and materials for music education publishers; writing articles on new approaches to music education; writing reviews in trade publications for new products and services in the field; serving on music industry boards to forge innovative partnerships; presenting sessions at State and National music education conferences; consulting and advising for music industry manufacturers and publishers who develop music education products but are removed from the daily classroom experience; and the list goes on.

The late Sandy Feldstein, CEO of PlayinTime Productions and a well-known luminary in the field of music education, shared his thoughts on opportunities available to aspiring music educators in this interview filmed in August of 2006.

As Andrew Surmani, Vice President of Alfred Publishing explained in his interview with Artists House Music, there are many kinds of positions a music educator could fill at his company including sales, marketing, finance, production, editorial, and licensing. Click here for Andrew’s interview.

Music educators are skilled, resourceful and very effective communicators. These traits combined with a strong foundation in music and music education is a powerful set of attributes that will open the door to many career opportunities along the way. Be open to these opportunities—in the classroom or beyond—as trained music educator, you have the skills to succeed!

2008 TED Prize winner and renowned author, Dave Eggers has found a way to make a difference for kids in public schools. His 826 Valencia tutoring center has inspired others around the world to open their own volunteer-driven, creative writing labs.

Watching this clip, I couldn’t help but think this same volunteer and mentoring approach can be applied to public school music programs in need of advocacy and support. If your local school music programs are struggling and you’d like to find a way to help, this video clip is sure to inspire some exciting ideas.

Please share your thoughts on how this approach could work for music and the arts.

For students and parents who may be stressed out over testing, here’s a lullaby for the times. Grammy Award-winning children’s artist Tom Chapin offers the “Not on the Test” song and video to raise awareness about the importance of music education in all classrooms and to express concern about what is missing from American public education. “Not on the Test,” with music and lyrics by Chapin and his long-time collaborator John Forster, and produced by PST Records, can be downloaded at www.notonthetest.com.

Additional information and advocacy links can be found here.

What does teaching, writing, arranging, authoring, performing, recording, consulting, and publishing music all have in common? For me, they are entrepreneurial endeavors that have become branches in a diverse career firmly rooted in Music Education.

Attributes of Music Educator

Music educators are skilled!

We are trained to teach all aspects and genres of music. We are usually well versed in any number of musical instruments, and teach in a variety of music educational settings including classroom, ensemble, and private lesson. As educators, we are constantly striving to develop fun, interactive, age-appropriate lesson plans and outcome-based assessment goals for music education programs K-12. This command of the language and practice of music, and its application to the educational development of students, is a powerful foundation that will support a wide variety of entrepreneurial endeavors in music for the entrepreneur.

Music educators are resourceful!

We have to be. For many of us, the weekly is daunting: teach 500+ students weekly, eight classes a day, going room-to-room with only a pushcart, and many times doing it all with no budget to purchase instruments or music. This common scenario taps into one’s resourcefulness and begins to set the stage for innovative, entrepreneurial pursuits.

Music educators have effective communication skills!

As a music educator, you’ll get very good at public speaking, crowd control, and “thinking on your feet.” You’ll gain the ability to read your audience, anticipate questions, identify needs, and make appropriate adjustments to your performances and presentations—in real time. Effective communication skills are critical to articulate entrepreneurial ideas and advocate support.

Music educators have what it takes to be entrepreneurs. The combination of expert skills in music and music education, resourcefulness, and effective communication skills provide fertile ground for the development of an aspiring entrepreneur.

Over the course of the past 20+ years, the opportunities that have come my way and the preparedness I have felt to pursue those opportunities are due in large part to the years I spent as a classroom music educator and choral director.

So, What Is An Entrepreneur?

Simply stated, an entrepreneur is someone who identifies a “need” or a problem, and then figures out a solution. Of course, comprehensive goals, strategies, and execution plans must be developed and implemented in order to achieve success with any entrepreneurial endeavor, but it all begins with a “need.”

What Are Some Entrepreneurial Opportunities in Music Education?

Entrepreneurial opportunities available to music educators abound. They include writing and arranging band or choral music to serve a program’s needs; authoring music education methods; writing articles on new approaches to music education; writing reviews in trade publications for new products and services; music industry board work to forge innovative partnerships; presenting new approaches to the profession at State and National conferences; consulting and advising for music industry manufacturers and publishers who develop music education products and publications; and the list goes on. These entrepreneurial activities provide professional development opportunities for the music educator-entrepreneur, service to the profession, and potentially, additional streams of income to fund a program, cause, or additional entrepreneurial endeavors.

Where To Begin?

Look at your current teaching situation. What are some of the needs not being met? What can your experience, insight, and skill set offer to address these “needs” for your immediate situation—and potentially—for hundreds of other music educators? How far can you take it? How far can you take it? Start by making a list: “Immediate Need” followed by, “Entrepreneurial Opportunities.” Here is an example:

Immediate Need:
A third grade teacher is planning a 100 day celebration at school and would like to do some cross-curricular planning and activities with the music program.

Entrepreneurial Opportunities:
a. Write a “100 Day Song” for the class, arrange for two-part choral, seek a music education publisher to make the piece available to schools.

b. Write a short musical for the third-grade class incorporating elements from the 100 day math curriculum. Seek a music education publisher to make the work available to all schools.

Take stock of your skills and address one of your program’s immediate needs with an entrepreneurial spirit. Find a solution to your immediate need and then and take it as far as you can. Remember, as a music educator, you have a solid foundation and the skills needed to branch out successfully in many different directions. Have fun exploring the possibilities and becoming a music educator-entrepreneur!

Three “M”s to maximize the experience!

Do you remember the very first concert you attended as a child? Whether it was a symphony orchestra, a rock band, or a sing-along with your favorite children’s artist, your first-time concert experience was probably a memorable one. There is nothing like the sound of a live musical performance, the excitement of the crowd, and the connection felt between the performers and the audience. If you are getting ready for your child’s first concert, here are some fun things you can do—before and after the concert—to help make it an even more meaningful experience.

Prelude
Three “M”s, to focus on before the concert: Music, Milieu, and Manners.

1. Music: Getting to Know You!
The best way to maximize the concert experience is to listen to the music several weeks before the show. Buy the artist’s most recent CD and actively listen to it together. Familiarity is bliss! Although the saying isn’t an elegant one, it’s true. (Can anyone say “oldies” collections?) Take some time to help your child get to know the music she will be hearing at the concert. Dance to it, sing with it, and discover your favorite pieces together. Read stories or articles about the band or composer. Draw pictures of what the band might look like on stage performing. Your child will feel more connected to the overall concert experience if she’s gotten to know the music ahead of time.

Talk about the band, the musicians, and their instruments. What kind of group will it be? Is it a concert band, orchestra, jazz band, folk group? What are the names of the instruments will you be hearing? What instrument families do they belong to? What styles of music will the band be playing? Do you have other recordings in those styles? Listen to them together and compare.

2. Milieu: Here at last!
What is this place going to be like? Talk about the concert/theater setting. It is a very different place for first-time concertgoers. Explain that there will be musicians on stage. They will be playing and singing through microphones that are connected to a sound system with speakers. Explain that the sound system enables vocalists to use their regular singing voices and still be heard by everyone in the audience; even the ones seated way back in the last row.

In addition to the sound system, talk about the show’s lighting system. The lights will project different colors on stage to support the songs. Speaking of lights, be sure to share that they will probably flicker on and off when it’s time to be in your seats, and they will dim as the show begins.

Talk about who you will see on stage. (conductor, instrumentalists, singers) Who will you interact with before the show? (ticket-taker, the usher, the snack vendor) Explain that there will be other people there to see the show sitting in front of you, behind you, and on either side of you. Being aware of the surroundings ahead of time will help your child to relax and enjoy the show.

3. Manners: Excuse me, Pardon me, Excuse me…
Talk to your child about concert-specific manners known as “concert etiquette.” The time to clap, for example, varies by the style of music being performed. Some of us have learned the hard way that you don’t clap in between movements of a classical piece, but in a jazz concert, you clap in the middle of the song each time an instrumentalist finishes a solo. Talk about what’s appropriate for the concert you’ll be attending. There are other concert etiquette considerations such as when it is ok to talk and move about. Will there be an intermission? What is a standing ovation? Why does the band come out and play another song after they’ve already said goodbye? The more your child knows about the rules of the concert game, the more comfortable she’ll be, and the better the overall experience.

Postlude: The Reviews Are In!
Once the show is over, it’s time to put on your critics hats and review the performance together! Talk about your favorite part of the show. Was there a least-favorite part? Were there any surprises in the show? Would you recommend the concert to your friends? Why or why not? Compare/contrast the concert to the recordings you listened to at home weeks before the show. How was the live performance different from the recorded version? Which did you like better? Why?

I hope these tips help you to maximize your child’s first concert experience. Studies show that experiences in music are important to developing the whole child. Attending musical performances are an important part of those experiences, and so much fun to share together.

Enjoy the show!

Chat can provide an excellent environment for education, especially when used in conjunction with other forms of communication including asynchronous discussion forums. For many of us, text-based chat is a very different way to communicate. Read any chat archive and, at first glance, it looks like a bunch of random thoughts without rhyme or reason. As you take a closer look, however, the threads and themes begin to emerge and you can see a number of productive exchanges taking place at the same time.

Crowd Control
For those of you involved in chat as part of an educational experience, there are a number of ways to reign in the randomness and engage a class in a more focused exchange. Here are some tactile approaches that can be used.

“h” can signify that someone would like to “speak.” The instructor can go back and invite that person to participate when the current discussion topic is complete.

“d” can indicate that you are finished saying what you wanted to say.

“…” an ellipsis is a good way to indicate that you are in the middle of what you are saying and currently typing more information to contribute.

Planning Ahead
Set the meeting time and the agenda a week in advance. If you give folks enough time to plan, they might be able to attend. Knowing the topic of discussion ahead of time will help to make the exchange more informed and productive.

Say it with Symbols
Chat symbols are short abbreviations, (think shorthand) for chatting online.

Say it with Emoticons
Emoticons are a good way to clarify the feeling attached to a message. If you are going to joke with the other party, a smiley is a good way to clarify humor rather than sarcasm. Think of emoticons as facial cues that you would make for clarification while talking.

Of course, the best use of technology in education is when the tools of technology are invisible to the experience. For more good tips on how to use chat as an instructional tool, please review this article by Ruth Reynard.

Happy Chatting!

Email can be a challenging way to communicate for business. It’s an informal, fast-paced, text-based form of communication and can easily be misread.

In an online education environment, text-based communication can be challenging too. Constructive criticism can be difficult to read objectively when presented as text, and sometimes, what’s intended to be “constructive” can often be perceived as merely criticism.

At Berkleemusic, many of our instructors supplement text-based assignment critiques with narrated MP3 files, as a way to offer feedback and suggestions related to a student’s assignment post. For example, “You played it like this, [guitar] but if you changed this chord and that voicing to this, it would sound like [guitar].” Not only does the MP3 file help to further the student’s understanding of the lesson assignment, but it also conveys the helpful and encouraging tone of their instructor’s voice. This not easy to convey with text-based communication. A picture is worth a thousand words, and I believe an audio/MP3 file with spoken words and (in this case) music, is worth a thousand more!

This not only holds true for business and educational correspondence, but for important interpersonal communication as well.

Here’s an example.

Last week, at a holiday gathering, friends and family were upset about a very sick family member who is in the hospital in England. Communicating via phone was not an option. We decided to send her an MP3 greeting compilation. I set up a portable digital recording device called the Edirol R-09 in a quiet room, and family members took turns going in and recording heartfelt get-well wishes. They said what they needed to say, then I assembled the dozen-plus messages in Garageband, adjusted levels, added a background track of my own instrumental music, and sent the 10-minute MP3 file as an email attachment to England, where it was played at the patient’s bedside. The whole project took no more than an hour, and the effect this audio-based communication had on everyone involved was immeasurable.

With a portable digital recording device and/or a simple, free, cross-platform desktop recording/editing tool like Audacity or GarageBand (ships with the Mac), you can communicate effectively with audio files to colleagues and students, and perhaps even “say what you need to say” to a loved one.

Happy New Year!