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4. You don’t need to travel to Africa to find “culture” in music.

The most frequent polite-small-talk ques- tion I get upon telling a stranger that I am an ethnomusicologist is some variation of “Oh, so you study ethnic music?” I know a teachable moment when I see one, so I usually try to stifle the cringe and reply “Yes, but all music is ethnic.”

The ethno- in ethnomusicology comes from the Greek etnos, meaning (roughly) “culture” – we study music as culture. Ethnomusicologists study Hungarian folk music, Mandinka griots and gamelans. But they also study Wisconsin polka bands, heavy metal, karaoke and You- Tube. Music is important to the people in your community, and if you take them seriously you will find something worth taking seriously in their music, too. Seek

out the local sources of music making in your community – professional, amateur, religious, secular, electric, acoustic, “tra- ditional” or new. Most of us want nothing more than to share with our students how meaningful and important music can be. The more different examples of that we can share, the more likely they are to take that message to heart.

5. Use the technological tools at your disposal.

At the risk of sounding like a telecom cli- ché, the Internet brings the world to your classroom. I have introduced students to a wide variety of music in my university classes that would have been impossible even five years ago. It ranges from archives of ethnographic video and field recordings distributed by universities and scholarly presses (and there are many) to home- made videos available through YouTube. Students singing a Zulu choral piece can easily find not only professional perfor- mances by groups like Ladysmith Black Mambazo, but also homemade video of amateur performances by isicathamiya groups in small townships without Paul Simon to help them to popularity.

There is nothing easy about engag- ing critically with the idea of music as culture. As a classroom teacher you are often not given the training or resources to know where to begin, and with all of the curricular demands placed on you it is tempting to look first and foremost to the pre-packaged “translations” (or arrangements, if you must) that fit most comfortably into your classroom routine: your rehearsal techniques, your ensemble instrumentation, your concert schedule, your musical aesthetics…in short, your music culture. I would challenge you to think critically about whether you are teaching your students music as culture, or merely adopting other repertoires to your own music culture.

Michael O’Brien is a Ph.D. candidate in ethno- musicology at the University of Texas at Austin. He has taught strings in Wisconsin, Washington, Texas, Haiti and Argentina. His compositions have been published by Ludwig Music, Latham Music and the National Cello Institute.

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