comprehensive musicianship through performance


Dear Mr. Napoleon: Laura Sindberg, WMEA State Chair, CMP


The focus this issue is on administrators. My “article” is addressed to the principal, a particular species in the administrator chain. We have all known principals who were intelligent, forward-thinking, compassionate leaders, as well as principals who may be unable or unwilling to take a longer view of teaching and learning. I’d share my letter with any and all principals. While constructed from the perspective of the band room, readers are invited to make any modifications for relevance to their own setting or situation.


Laura K. Sindberg is assistant professor of music education at University of Minnesota in the Twin Cities.


Email: laurasindberg@ gmail.com


Dear Principal:


I wanted to thank you for attending our concert last night. From the standpoint of everyone involved, including parents, students, teachers and community folks, it is an indication to all that our concerts are of value. Thanks for cleaning up after Melissa, I guess she was more nervous than I realized. Fortunately, plenty of paper towels were readily available. Anyways, now that the concert is over and we have a few moments to catch our breath, I wanted to take some time to reflect on the concert as well as the role of our music program within Cliffordville High School and beyond to the larger community.


I realize that your days are filled with a myriad of events and tasks informed by shifting demographics; increased pressures due to high stakes testing; budget constraints that have endured (and worsened); dealing with widely varying constituencies, including parents, students, district personnel and school board members, and an increasingly diverse student body. One barely has the time to sweep the hallways, much less attend musical performances, athletic events and so on.


At first glance, our music program may look more like an activity than another academic area. I would like to argue that we are, in fact, both. Our presence at selected football games helps generate audience enthusiasm (which is why we are partial to classic R & B tunes by artists such as Sam & Dave). We perform at parades to mark distinct occasions, such as Veteran’s Day. This year, our band students will perform holiday tunes as part of the Salvation Army’s Red Kettle Campaign. These events contribute to our community, and that’s important. And while a lot of what we do looks like fun, particularly at a concert, that is only part of the story; the experience is a culmination of much study and effort over time.


Beneath a surface of activity, there are a number of substantive learning events that comprise our main course, so to speak, and I’d like to share some of those things with you. In the band room, our goals include performing at a high musical level as well as learning to understand music through having students participate in all kinds of “musicianly” activities, such as composing, improvising, analyzing music and evaluating performances. My philosophy of music teaching and learning is informed by Comprehensive Musicianship through Performance (CMP), the planning model we use in our curriculum. The five components of this model are listed below.


1. Selecting quality music. Really, the repertoire forms the basis of our curriculum in band. 2. Analyzing the music to discover what it might “teach.”


3. Writing outcomes or goals based on the music being studied. (By the way, these outcomes go beyond skill development to include knowledge and affective dimensions of the musical experience.)


18


January 2011


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