MARTIN, from p. 14
more connected. “Middle School and High School Student”- Audition for the musical, audition for the solo, go on the choir trip, but also, think less about yourself and more about other people. “Elementary School Student”- Snuggle with your parents, beg for piano lessons, join a choir! “Beginning Teacher”- Get help immediately! Creativity is great, but guidance from an experienced director would have saved me a lot of problems my first year.
Response #5: Advice to my “Younger Self”- One concert is not the end all be all. Keep focused on the bigger picture, the preparation is often more important than the performance. “Beginning Teacher”- You don’t have to do everything yourself. Involve the students in some parts of the decision- making process; it gives them ownership and provides them with the opportunity to gain responsibility.
Response #6: Advice to “High School Me” and “Undergraduate Me”- Take advantage of every opportunity presented. Try it! Pay attention to your music teachers. That seems obvious, but it’s easy to become accustomed to your director and just sing for them on autopilot. If you really pay attention and keep asking yourself, “why” your director makes each decision in rehearsal, you will be much more prepared for the decisions you will have to make as a beginning teacher.
Response #8: “Undergraduate Student”- develop better piano skills. “Beginning Teacher”- devote more time to literature selection, especially Tried and True pieces. Foster relationships with successful veteran teachers. Ask for help. Go see other concerts from other schools in your area.
Response #9: “Undergraduate Student”- Learn from your teachers what isn’t “TAUGHT” in the classroom. Study abroad if you can! “Elementary, Middle School and High School Student”-Have fun, be a kid. Be kind to EVERYONE! And, most importantly, if your parents give you advice, TAKE IT!
Response #10: “Undergraduate Student”- Actually purchase the hard copy textbooks listed in for your music classes. You will need to reference them later. Practice solfege sight singing every single day for just five-minutes and it will make you a better musician. Take piano lessons, and then practice your lessons.
spring 2017 |
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“Elementary Student”- You will grow up to be smart and talented. I would tell my “elementary self” this because I was very shy and had problems with self- confidence as a young person.
Response #11: “Undergraduate Student”- I always wish that I could go back and tell myself to stop worrying so much.
Response #12: “Undergraduate Student”-Sing in a church choir; direct a music group. Get as much podium time as possible. Go to every conference possible, yes, you can afford it- budget for it. Make that a real priority. Hold tighter to your water bottle than you do to your cell phone!
Response #13: “Beginning Teacher”- Trust your training. You’ve been given a bag of skills; use them. Trust your instincts. You’ve chosen teaching, or maybe it chose you. Nothing else feels right. That’s true. The instincts to teach, to guide, to lead are born within you, and you have spent years honing them. Trust yourself. Despite your excellent training and your well-honed instincts, you don’t know everything. Play your strengths, and ask colleagues for assistance in the areas where you lack experience or expertise.
Response #14: “Younger Self”- Always find the time to sing for pleasure. It’s easy for focus only on the technical tasks of the music in front of you and to forget why you started singing in the first place. So find the time to sing just because you like it. That will help you keep your passion.
Response #15: “Undergraduate Student”- Find a choir and sing! (Choir in my younger years helped make me the person that I am today.) Remember that the person who has average talent and practices is better off than the big talent who does not work to grow his/her gift.
Response #16: Advice to my “Younger Self”- You (almost) never know something so well that practicing isn’t useful. Ask to lead warm ups, sing in a church choir, visit and observe in schools, volunteer to help a music teacher, watch master conductors specifically to observe their patterns and gestures.
Actual experience teaches you way more than what you can learn in a book and it builds confidence. See MARTIN, p. 21
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