Are you familiar with the music in all of its complexity or are you simply reading one note following another? This level of situational awareness is huge in creating an artistic performance. As teachers, we need to be bringing our students up to this level of awareness and providing them the tools needed to research, study, and practice on their own to this end. . . . → Read More: Life Lesson #6: Situational Awareness
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 Mr. Ahrens teaches band at Bear River High School in Grass Valley, CA.  @MrAhrens 
 MUSIC QUOTES:   www.davidahrens.us & Sound Education are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. |
You can not successfully perform music without constantly observing and reacting to your band-mates. Even the lines and phrases within the composition are a conversation; a cooperative narrative being spun for the audience. Our communication is with the composer (living or dead; present or afar), the audience, and with each other. . . . → Read More: Music Life Lesson #5: Getting Along In 8th grade, my band director, Mr. Hansen asked for a volunteer to play the sousaphone. He said that whoever was interested should come see him at lunch. I was the only one to show up. I had no clue what a sousaphone was. Mr. Hansen brought out this huge white thing and I quickly told him “I can’t play that! It’s too big!” He reassured me that I could and that he would teach me. . . . → Read More: For the Love of Tuba I am resolute to better reflect all of the national music standards in my bands. I am making the time to teach theory away from the rehearsal; in desks with pencil and paper. My students are or will be listening to, analyzing, arranging, and composing music in my ensemble classes. Our performance level may suffer for the shortened rehearsal time but I don’t think it will. My leap of faith is that I believe my students will become more engaged, more aware, and will be better musicians. . . . → Read More: Finding the Musical Balance The musician must make constant critical judgments regarding pitch, tone, phrasing, and many other considerations in bringing the music to life. Changes are made from moment to moment based on these judgments to bring the produced sound into alignment with the artist’s perception of “correct”. In life, being able to think on your feet and make crucial decisions correctly and with confidence is a strong trait of leadership. . . . → Read More: Music Life Lesson #4: Critical Thinking Listening improves performance. Honestly if one had to choose between only listening or only playing, the best choice would be to listen. (Because uninformed playing is bound to produce music not worthy of an audience. Thankfully we can do both, though!). . . . → Read More: Music Life Lesson #3: Listening
I wrote in a recent post about my Student Leadership Team working collaboratively online to write a vision and mission statement for the ensemble. We have never done this before, but I feel it is important to define ourselves by reflecting on and setting goals regarding our purpose and direction. Here are the final versions: Vision . . . → Read More: Band Vision & Mission But the valuable lesson of sticking with it and feeling the joy of the eventual payoff is not something to be understated. There will be a time in her life where this lesson learned in band will play a pivotal role in her success over adversity. . . . → Read More: Music Life Lesson #2: Perseverance
Performing, listening to, and enjoying great music are their own rewards. But most people recognize that there are many additional life lessons learned while studying music. We discussed these lessons in a recent #MusEdChat session on Twitter. This series of blog posts contains my reflections on that discourse. Thank you to those who participated in . . . → Read More: Music Life Lesson #1: Work Ethic / Discipline The topic chosen for discussion recently on the Twitter hashtag #MusEdChat was: “What innovations in Music Education have occurred over the last 10 years? What impact has it had on teachers/students?” There have been PLENTY of innovations recently. I thought I would write a reflection on the topic in a forum that allows more . . . → Read More: Tech Innovations in Music Education |
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"I shall seize Fate by the throat; it shall certainly not bend and crush me completely." - Ludwig van Beethoven, 1801 |
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