As the semester begins, I am reflecting on the great things that we as educators can learn teaching. I firmly believe that we are never done learning new things and expanding on what we already know and do. Perhaps it even makes teaching even more fun to explore with the students instead of merely overseeing their activities. For instance, I have always wanted to dive deeply into Kenny Werner’s book Effortless Mastery, so I added it to my Graduate Pedagogy course this semester and we will have a deep reading and discussions about it in class.
Here are some things that teaching has taught me
Being a musician is more important that being a _____ player
Jazz is a holistic art form that demands that the players can connect the ear, mind, and body at once to create music. In other words, jazz improvisation comes from a well trained musical ear, a knowledge of theory, and capability to play an instrument well. Many of my students come in identifying themselves as “guitarist” or “drummer"or something else. As a young musician, I identified as a “sax player” but I have learned that to truly be a musician, one needs to be more than a “_____ player.” I now prefer to be a musician, because being a “sax player” could too easily suggest that the ear and the mind are not of prominent importance in music making. I really try hard to explain this to my students: the depth of musicality comes from being a well-rounded musician. We have to refine our ears and minds as much as we need to move our fingers quickly.
Deeper understanding of subject material
As a teacher, I have to be able to describe concepts in multiple ways. I often need to be able to demonstrate something on saxophone and/or piano. We need to be able to write examples and talk about concepts in multiple ways so that students can hear us. All of this has given me a deeper knowledge of harmony, arranging, improvisation, or whatever is being taught.
Jazz Piano
I studied classical piano piano from elementary school through high school and the training has been helpful. At some point, when teaching young students, I realized that accompanying them on piano not only made music more fun but it also provided a harmonic and rhythmic context for music in general. It is hard for me to imagine trying to teach without using the piano. I am constantly working to expand my ability to voice chords, play melodies, and hold it down on piano.
Repertoire
I have used teaching as an opportunity to explore and memorize more repertoire. The amount of material that I know increases each year. Instead of having all freshmen play the same repertoire year after year, I have rotated pieces to keep things fresh.
How to play clarinet/doubles
I would encourage everyone to use teaching as an opportunity to learn new things. I can attribute most of my clarinet proficiency from playing duets (long tones with beginners!) with students.
How to conduct a large ensemble
I got ZERO experience conducting ensembles as a student and learned how to run a large ensemble as an adjunct professor at a university. Conducting an ensemble includes choosing music, deciding who takes solos, kicking off the bands, giving cues, and keeping forms in the music. This is a skill that most of us have to acquire as teachers and it is fun to constantly expand on the knowledge and ability to do so.
I am curious what skills that others have acquired as a teacher? In what ways does a teaching job afford us the opportunity to expand on what we do on a day-to-day basis?