comprehensive musicianship through performance
Dear Doctor, My high school choir has been invited to perform a little Schubert Mass with a local community orchestra. Cool opportunity, but here’s a confession: my students don’t have a lot of experience with hardcore classical music, and it’s not my strength. I’ve built a large and popular program doing songs kids already know and love – I’m afraid kids will quit if I try to push something else. How to proceed?
Signed, Schubert Happens
Dear Schu Happens, CMP to the rescue! First of all, a little secret: if you have a large program of happy kids, it’s not because of the reper- toire. (That’s kind of a myth.) It’s because of you and the vibe in your choir room. Second, giving kids an experience with significant historical repertoire is not something unusual – it’s just good music teaching. It’s true that if we see ourselves as primarily concert producers (in the entertainment industry), it doesn’t really matter what repertoire we choose – any repertoire can teach skills. But if we want to get kids thinking about larger musical ideas – things like counterpoint, or why
sacred music is in Latin, or how a piece of music can be a window into the past, like a work of great literature or a primary document in history – well, then we have to commit to historical repertoire.
With CMP leading us, we commit to choosing it (Music Selection), to studying it for what it can teach (Analysis), and focusing on three long-term, transfer- rable goals that go beyond the concert (Outcomes). Don’t worry about Schubert not being your forte – the CMP model will coach you, and remind you to employ all the creative tricks you know, to sell kids on the piece (Strategies). Your kids will love it. They’ll be grateful (even if not at first) that you are giving them music of substance that will stick with them their whole life.
Dear Doctor,
I am the only music teacher in my build- ing. I appreciate the autonomy but mostly I feel like I would grow more as a teacher if I had a community of music teachers to connect with. Where are the music teach- ers like me?
Signed, Sitting Alone, Discouraged ~ Add That Special Touch to Your Fundraiser ~
WSMA Logo Available for Licensing! In response to popular demand from schools and private vendors, WSMA now offers its logo for a variety of licensing opportunities:
• Festival Shirts • Music Folders and Programs • Almost any commemorative ware…
Share your pride with the special touch of your Wisconsin School Music Association. Learn more at
wsmamusic.org/logo.
Information about sales event pricing and non-fee qualifications available at website. Wisconsin School Musician 27 Dear SAD,
A CMP Workshop is the “booster shot” you need. These lively workshops not only will connect you with a network of real teachers who face the same issues you do, but will remind you of why you chose to be a music teacher in the first place. That’s why many teachers keep attending, year after year – they love the camaraderie, but they also appreciate the depth of thinking, and the invigorating energy. It really is a music teacher “Spa for the Mind.”
CMP Winter Workshop, Friday–Satur- day, February 3–4. Wisconsin Center for Music Education, Waunakee. Visit http://
wsmamusic.org/cmp-winter-workshop- feb-3-4/.
CMP Summer Workshop, Monday– Friday, July 10–14, 2017 at Concordia University, Mequon.
Visit
wmeamusic.org/CMP/workshop.
Randal Swiggum is artistic director of the Elgin Youth Symphony, conductor of the Madison Boychoir and current chair of the Wisconsin CMP Project, celebrating its 40th Email:
rswiggum@wisc.edu
year!
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