The Students’ Perspective
There are such strong opinions about education, but do we ever ask the students?
I have recently been fortunate to have the opportunity to travel great distances for teaching and to gain perspectives from young people in different areas of the country. I was just the other day getting a ride to the airport in Indianapolis and had a conversation with a young saxophone student that reminded me the importance of listening. Not just listening to music, but also listening to what our students are telling us about their lives, their experiences, and their perceptions of the world. This young man let me know the struggle that he faces day to day trying to be a musician, to do well in school, and to meet everyone’s expectations while navigating an uncertain future in a world with social strife, economic challenges, and climate change. Those of us who are educators need to be listening to the student perspective — to empathize and connect and to make our teaching meaningful.
In the time since I talked to this student in Indiana, I have had conversations and collected written thoughts from my current students and acquaintances that address their frustrations with studying jazz in school. I wrote everyone down, and after sifting through all of the thoughts and responses, their frustration falls into three categories:
Our educational system
Poor teaching methods
Mental health issues
Issues with Education
One frequent topic of conversation in the music world is simply whether we are preparing students for the “real world.” I especially notice the cynicism amongst older adults that feel that in retrospect, they were asked to “jump through a lot of hoops” to get a music degree that did not give them the tools to get gigs. The adults feel that there is a disconnect between academic expectations and professional expectations and that academic systems need to be updated to address these problems.
Students are more concerned with things that they are not getting in school — knowledge of business, artistic goals, and creative vision. Personally, I am very weary of focusing too much on the business aspects with undergraduates because I think it is important to instead focus on quality musicianship before trying to market what they are doing. I do, however, think that music business does include the attributes that can make our students successful in the future, like knowing how to prepare for gigs and having the time management skills and awareness of the responsibility that is required to make a living.
As educators, we should contemplate whether we are giving student musicians the space to create a vision for their artistry and goals. We need to be asking ourselves:
Are we cloning students to have a sound in our own image?
Are we only presenting what we know to students? Are we also including other styles and genres?
Are we steering students toward listening and transcribing artists that are reflective of their individual paths?
Are we allowing students the space to incorporate their own interests into their courses and private study?
Are we presenting and accepting tools (like technology) that allow for students to explore their own artistry?
Are we celebrating creativity or only celebrating facility?
Are we only presenting mainstream artists to students (like Miles Davis and Sonny Rollins) and leaving out artists that are considered avant-garde (Matthew Shipp and William Parker)?
Another thing that we need to address in jazz education is how to compete with affordable educational resources that are online. Students are suspicious that there is value for an education that can be found online for a lower cost.
Are we giving students knowledge that they cannot already find for free on YouTube?
Should we start to design our teaching in a way that we are more interactive and responsive to counter what is already being presented in an online format?
Poor Teaching Methods
I would think that this is not surprising given that almost everyone has had experiences with questionable teaching approaches. There is a great deal of jazz knowledge that is learned outside of school on the bandstand, at jam sessions, and through the oral tradition, but the reality exists that academic jazz courses should adhere to the same structure as other courses. Students learn outside of school, but when they come to class, educators need to be putting in the effort to work for the students.
As educators, we should be asking ourselves:
Is there a clear syllabus?
Are the grading expectations clearly defined?
Is there an attendance policy and how is it enforced?
Students have expressed to me their frustrations with these basic communications, and one astute student stated that sometimes there is an implication from faculty that “you can’t teach students and jazz can only be learned.” The questions that I ask educators based on this student’s comment:
Are we providing a systematic approach to learning skills rather than simply asking for large project assignments?
Are we creating a safe space rather than a “battlefield?”
Are we welcoming students to ask questions?
Several students shared with me that teachers need to have compassion for students and maintain an awareness that the student may be struggling in the moment but are capable of success later. Students need to have the respect and confidence from the teacher that they are worthy and have the ability even if the student’s success is not immediately apparent. It is not at all helpful to the student if the professor is openly dismissive.
Another comment had to do with the advancement of technology given that within the last few years, the jazz education landscape has quickly changed. Streaming services make music easy to find, and there are easy to find apps that provide endless opportunities for play alongs. The student claims that while many jazz teachers assume that technology makes the learning process easier, it is in fact still difficult to learn. Based on this comment and topic, I ask these questions:
Are we embracing and encouraging the use of technology?
Are we teaching students how to most effectively use technology, whether it be a DAW or app?
Are we guiding our students with listening strategies given they are saturated with too much music to hear?
Mental health
The mental effects of COVID and other world events have had a tremendous impact on our students.
One student admitted to me that students are “lost and confused” and students tell me that they are concerned with inflation, the cost of living, tuition costs, political and cultural issues in the world, and climate change.
This should not at all come as a surprise to us, but as educators we need to ask ourselves:
How would we respond to all of these circumstances if we were the age of the students?
Are our students’ struggles with jazz or music related to these concerns?
Are we empathizing with our students’ concerns?
One student told me that we have to be careful about the “I struggled so you should too mentality” that is a part of jazz education. In my opinion, this attitude is simply not going to resonate with students, who are well aware that their current situation is much more challenging than the world that their teachers faced in the past.
Several students told me that they are not likely to share the full extent of their mental struggles because the root of their struggles are sometimes issues that are out of their control. Educators are perceived by students as not being sympathetic enough to their emotional challenges. Another student reminded me that our students today have been through more mentally because of COVID and that “mental health can most certainly make you act a way you would not otherwise.”
Given these student concerns, as educators, we need to ask ourselves whether we sometimes wrongfully conclude why a student misbehaves, shows up late, or misses an assignment? Instead of assuming that the student is neglecting their studies, should we encourage them to take care of their mental health?
Finally, will include this quote that I received:
“Students in music, especially jazz and classical, are seeing their professors careers as unattainable. Why try if it seems futile?”
This is completely understandable because I shared that sentiment when I was a student. That said, I think we can all think about these things:
How do we define “success” in the arts?
Does success mean having space to be creative?
Does success equate with profit?
Does success mean having an audience for our work?
Is it possible to mirror our own career based on someone else’s path? (Probably not!)
Do you want to define your own success or have your level of success be dictated by someone else?
If I were to have a student tell me that they think a music career is “unattainable,” I would ask the above questions followed by encouragement that great progress does not come overnight. There are the legendary tales of Duke Ellington writing his composition Mood Indigo in only a few minutes or Charlie Parker composing on the recording session in the studio, but there are even more musicians that spend a great deal of time crafting their work.
Another aspect of this conversation is simply timelessness—staying power. We are working to have music that stands the test of time and can be fresh and relevant in the future.
Yet another layer of this conversation is what I tell students all of the time — learning the fundamentals of an instrument and how to play jazz is a wisdom that sticks with us throughout the rest of our lives. Students go to trade skill to learn a skill, master it, and then go and replicate the skill for money. The goal of the arts is different, because the school plants a seed for a skill that is replicated by students in later life but also is the beginning of a lifelong process of learning and discovery. It would be disingenuous to say that there is an endpoint to the study of jazz (or music) because the discovery and learning is endless.
I hope that all of these current discussions lead everyone to a greater amount of empathy for one another and an ability to move forward in positive ways.