Reflection on Reading One

Important questions in music education that this article raises are the following; Do all children learn the same? How do children interpret improvisation and composition? Are composition and improvisation closely related? They suggest addressing them by looking at the children's musical rivers and musical experience. One thing that highly interested me in this article was the fact that I can relate to many of the children in the research. First of all, I relate to Tim because he wants to be able to play music without the pressure of exams. I connect to this because when starting University all I wanted to do was play my instrument without the stress of classes, assignments, and exams. Secondly, I relate to Diane because she is very creative and easily gets bored with playing the same thing over and over again. I also get bored very easily and always like to try something new when I am practicing. Lastly, I can relate to Sidin because she doubts herself a lot and believes others would have better tunes than her. I am very much the same because I always doubt my playing and my work. Something that surprised me in this article was the drawing Diane drew to represent improvisation, particularly Figure 4. Diane states, “The ‘roller coaster ride’ reflects the momentum of a short-lived and fast-paced experience in which ‘you just play’ and ‘it keeps going until you finish’”(Burnard 15). I found it quite surprising that Diane used this analysis to represent improvisation because it is unexpected. Before reading this article, I assumed that most kids would not connect improvisation and composition as one idea because I have not ever thought of these concepts as one idea. My thoughts were definitely challenged throughout this article again because of Figure 6 (16). This challenged me because Burnard states, “Drawn by Tim, Figure 6 conveys visual images that are conceived largely as a journey toward a composition which is generated through improvising” (16). This is an example of where improvisation and composition relate to one another. When I am a teacher, I will use this concept to my advantage because it is a great way to teach children two things at once. Another thing that relates to teaching and learning in this article would be the fact that all kids think differently. For example, Sidin thinks that there is no connection between improvisation and composition but Tim and Dianne have a different view. It is important while teaching to keep in mind the fact that no kid will be like another so keep your mind open. I would like to congratulate the author on coming up with the idea to do this research. It was a really smart way to learn about how children interpret improvisation and composition.

Works cited

Burnard, P.B. 2000. How Children Ascribe Meaning to Improvisation and Composition: rethinking pedagogy in music education.

University of Reading: Music Education Research. It's easy on the eyes and a great go to font for titles, paragraphs & more.

Interview with Non-Music Majors

For the non-music interview I chose 5 different people who were my mom, my friends; Andy, Emily, and Erica, and my pastor from church, Heather. These five people are all at different points in their life and are not music majors but they are still all very involved with music. The first question I asked the group was “What is your experience with learning music?” and it was shocking that everyone had a completely different answer. For example, Emily started learning music at age seven through her church but Erica learned by singing songs with her parents and interacting with them. Knowing someone's history with music is so important because then you can start to understand how they learn and how their musical journey is very personal to them. The second question I asked was “How were your music teachers differen’t and what type of teacher do you prefer?”. I found it was interesting that everyone agreed that they learn in a positive environment and from a teacher who is always stable and encouraging. This was interesting to me because some people like hard music teachers who challenge you and I thought it was strange that none of these people enjoyed this type of teaching. The third question I asked was “ What are your thoughts about music as a career?” and the people I interviewed all thought that music is a great career if it is something you are passionate about. My mom and Heather agreed that music performance would be a hard life because it is not always stable and then they both said that if it is something you are passionate about then the money aspect should not affect your decision. I think it is really encouraging that so many of my friends and family support music as a career because often people think it can be a joke of a career when in reality music is such an important thing to be learning and an outlet for a lot of children, adults and students. The fourth question discussed in the interview was, “What type of music do you listen to?”. Everyone I interviewed loved brass band music and worship music and then Andy and Emily liked rap and hip hop as well and my mom, Heather and Erica also enjoy mainstream music. The follow up question to this was, “How does this music make you feel”, everyone being interviewed said that they love worship music and brass band music because they feel connected to God and very inspired. The other genres they liked because it made them feel happy and positive. All interviewees agreed that music makes them very emotionally and spiritually connected. The final question I discussed was, “How is music a part of your life even if you are not a music major?”. My mom and Heather said that they have kids and husbands very involved in music and that it is a way to connect to their family and they also listen to it when they want to be spiritually connected to God or are in a happy mood. The others said that they are involved because they all play in bands, outside of school of course, and they listen to it for the majority of the day when they are alone or working. I think this clearly shows that music is around us all and even if we do not think music is a part of our life if it is not our career choice but it truly is. Music will always be a part of everyone's life even if they do not realize it. This experiment really showed me the different sides to everyone's musical journey and how every musica background is totally contrasting. Even though musical backgrounds are different it does not mean that the peoples views on music are different. Most of the people I interviewed had completely different stories but they also had similar views on music as a career or listening to music or even how it is a part of their lives. I think it was very eye opening for me to do this experiment because I have a new perspective on different aspects of musical journeys and what not. I believe it is important to be open and aware of what other people go through with music. To conclude, I am very excited about where music takes people in their life and how people are so connected through music. This interview was a total game changer for me because I thought about music through a new lense.

Video Clip Write Up

The first clip I chose was teaching the listener “How to Funk”. This was the music clip I chose and its context was teaching the audience how to play and create funk music without being a professional in this field of music. I chose this clip because I thought it was very unique and that I have never learned about funk music in this way. The video gave instructions with text on the screen instead of speaking the information to the listener. I have never seen a video that gives written text instruction instead of speaking in it and I surprisingly enjoyed it. I think this is related to teaching and learning articles because all the articles have been very unique thus far. This was also interesting because I am not very involved in funk music so it was nice to see that side of music. The second clip I chose was a video on how to teach a dog to roll over, clearly this was the non music related video. The context of this video is explaining a dog to roll over and the steps of how to do so efficiently. I chose this clip because I have a little puppy at home and I am teaching him new tricks so this video is very applicable in my life as of right now. I see this relating to our articles and readings because this video was about the development of a dog and quite often we talk about the development of students, teachers and ourselves in class and the articles.