INTERVIEWS
Influential Teacher Interview
My influential teacher had two mentors who influenced her to pursue music education. She met the first mentor when she was in Grade 8 when she decided to enroll in private clarinet lessons. This private teacher was not only the conductor of multiple orchestras, but he was also the principal clarinetist in the local orchestra. One year later, she met her second mentor in secondary school. This mentor was the music teacher at her high school, and my influential teacher stated that “from the minute [she] met her, [she] wanted to be that teacher.” In Grade 9, my influential teacher was enthralled with the positive music community that the second mentor created, so she took music courses in an effort to sharpen the performance skills that she was acquiring with her first mentor. However, in Grade 10 and 11, she realized that she should listen to the original feeling that she had about following in her high school teacher’s footsteps by pursuing music education. For this reason, while reaching the end of her high school career, she also began studying conducting music with her first mentor during her private lessons. Conducting gradually gained prominence within these lessons until it was the only thing that she was being taught in Grade 12 by her first mentor. Her first mentor was a purist, so he always taught my influential teacher to conduct in private lessons without recordings since it was not live. However, she also never ended up conducting ensembles since she was intimidated about the way her first mentor critiqued his other youth conductors. She vividly remembered one of his student asking him, “How was my tempo?” during a steady piece, to which he responded, “Which one?” Thus, all of my influential teacher’s conducting experience had been acquired by pure score analysis. My influential teacher continued to study with her first mentor through post-secondary as well, since he was the clarinet professor at Wilfrid Laurier University. While she was formally enrolled in the music education stream, she made a deal with this mentor that she would also take on performance stream repertoire during her private lessons at university.
When looking back on her undergraduate years, my influential teacher thought that it would have been important for herself to know that everything was going to work out in the end. She thought that while undergraduate music students in general have to deal with a lot of work and high stress levels, all students need to know that everything will be okay. At the time, it is extremely disheartening when things do not go to plan, such as performances and grades. Even though this causes most undergraduate music students to second-guess their passions, they still need to know that they are in the right place. This is because no one is accepted into a music program by default; people end up in music programs because the faculty at a particular school saw that music speaks to them in a way, and that they are incredibly passionate about it. While undergraduate students may encounter discouragements a lot, they must keep their anxiety in check and also be open to the discouragements, because they end up leading the student in successful paths that they may have never imagined they would take.
When recounting her first years as an educator, my influential teacher felt that she planned out her courses too systematically. She thought that in general, newer teachers seem to suffer early within their first years because they believe that their classes would be successful if they stuck to a well-planned course outline. However, she found that this tactic would always easily fall apart when certain variables change. My influential teacher learned that the most beneficial way of teaching a course was to analyze the strengths and weaknesses of each class, and tailor the course to what needs to be worked on. This way, the students will all have opportunity for immense growth as they progress through the course. She also learned that strengths and weaknesses not only differ from class to class, but from person to person as well. To her, the range of students’ experience in music has become more diverse and spread apart over the years. This gave her the new perspective of being flexible within a course plan, meaning that every single time she teaches a particular course, it changes based on the knowledge of the group of students. In terms of trying to keep all ends of the knowledge spectrum engaged, my influential teacher implements the strategy of tailoring the course to the different levels of students. She would always help the students that would need more review on specific concepts of the curriculum, while also providing more challenging materials for higher-level students.
My influential teacher believes that it is not her job to convince her students to pursue music in post-secondary school. While some teachers may feel that they are failing if they do not inspire their students to pursue music, my teacher thinks that pursuing music is an intrinsic thought. Her purpose is to introduce some of the intricacies that encompass music, and then the students can decide if they would like to pursue learning more about it. The decision of the student does not dictate her failure or success; my teacher believes that she is successful if she has simply shown what music has to offer to her students. However, if the student does decide to pursue music, she considers it her job to continue to encourage these students and provide help for them in class as they may prepare for processes such as auditions or placement tests. My teacher found that within recent years, some of her students who have decided not to pursue music end up taking small music courses in university, or end up playing in local or school bands. With these cases, she sees success in the fact that the foundation that she set has provided her students with the desire to continue to actively immerse themselves within music while also pursuing their selected degree.
When looking back on her entire music career, my influential teacher regrets that she was not as much of a music advocate as she would have liked to be. When she decided to enroll into music, her parents encouraged her to do otherwise, which was odd because her grandmother was a music educator. Based on the difference in opinion with her parents and other instances throughout her journey, she feels that sometimes people overlook the importance of music in their lives and within their community. Also, over the recent years she has noticed a general decline in music enrollment in educational systems. This caused her to wonder if she did her part in advocating for the importance of music within her community, and she wondered if she could have changed some of the perceptions about music. For instance, she regrets not playing and advocating music in her local churches and schools when she was younger, and today she often feels that she has not done enough to advocate for music within her own school.
My teacher feels that there is a lot of stress associated with being a music educator within a school, often since questions such as “Are students learning and enjoying themselves?” and “Am I doing all that I can as a teacher?” arise. However, she says that it is all worth it when she is able to make connections with students and their growth. Her favorite aspect of teaching is being able to tell students that they are performing really well, creating beautiful music, and also learning and growing in the process. She enjoys this because eventually, the students begin to see this growth and feel encouraged by their own hard work. However, the most rewarding aspect of becoming a teacher for her was the fact that she was able to realize how small her metaphorical bubble was. She felt that when she was younger, she lived in the bubble of her own home, and as she got older that bubble slowly expanded. However, when she became a teacher, she was introduced to all different kinds of students in different situations, such as students without beds or students who are unable to eat hot meals. Teaching is an incredibly humbling experience for her, since it helps her appreciate and be thankful for the smaller things that she often overlooked. Another rewarding aspect for her is that she can tell herself that she has made differences in people’s lives. Often, the times when she felt the most valuable was when students came up to her years later and said to her that they looked forward to her class every day because she was always nice to them. While it is a simple task to be nice, she finds it rewarding that her small actions and connections with students can affect their lives immensely.
Student Interviews
Student #1:
The first student I interviewed is a Medical Science student at Western University. His exposure to music consists of daily recreational listening, and also recently taking up the ukulele on his free time. He has recently been more acquainted with music students at Western as well, so he has received more exposure to music that way. He usually does his daily recreational listening during studying, especially when he is doing tasks that require less concentration. While studying, he prefers to listen to a multitude of genres from alternative rock to hip hop music. This music preference mostly comes from his mother, since she played a lot of this type of music around the house when he was a younger kid. However, he also finds music that he likes through browsing through music platforms and songs recommended to him by his friends. He usually has particular songs or albums that he prefers to listen to when he feels specific ways, such as when he is sad or when he wants to get excited. In terms of formal training in music, he took Indian classical singing lessons for a total of 9 years, starting from Grade 3 to the end of high school. His mom saw that he expressed interest in singing from a young age, so she decided to enroll him in lessons. He enjoyed this from the start, and decided to keep doing this for a long portion of his life. He also enjoyed the fact that it would help his singing for modern Western music as well, since he says he is often complimented on his singing voice. A big reason that he liked taking these Indian classical singing lessons is because he felt that there was an even amount of respect between him and the teacher. He feels that often, teachers seem to believe that they are superior to their students and act condescending towards their students. His Indian classical singing teacher was not like this; he treated him with respect, but also was able to tell him whenever something needed to be fixed. Even though he had this same teacher for 9 years, he felt that every year he would consistently grow and evolve in his singing abilities because his teacher would adjust his teaching style based on his growth.
Student #2:
The second student that I interviewed is an Engineering student at Western University. This student listens to music daily for about an hour each day, typically when he is studying and whenever he would like to relax. He usually listens to rock music from the 60’s and the 70’s. Both of his parents played a role in forming his taste in music, since this was the music that they grew up with. In terms of finding songs in other genres, he often browses YouTube to find more unique music, and he also finds out the names of songs that he hears when watching TV or movies. When listening to music, he thinks it definitely has a large emotional effect on him. The music that he listens to is especially good for whenever he wants to relax, cheer up, or block out certain things that seem to be causing him stress. He has been taking piano lessons for about 12 years, yet he never considered the lessons to be completely serious. Throughout the years, he has gone through 3 piano teachers, and he remembers the last one the most since she taught him for the final 8 years. He particularly liked this teacher because she understood his situation; he was an International Baccalaureate student who did not have time to take piano very seriously, yet he still wanted to take it for fun and to destress. Because she understood this situation, she did not instill a large amount of stress on him, and while he said this was not good for the progression of his piano playing, it was better for his specific situation in the long run. Based on the way that he is taught, he sees piano playing as a form of entertainment instead of a burden. He plays piano whenever he feels he needs to destress from studying for example, and while watching TV may end up with him getting distracted, he sees playing piano as a fun way of still being productive, since he is still working towards his goals. In high school, his teacher also introduced him to concert band. He felt that he would not have joined the concert band if it was not for this teacher, but she pushed him to continue. Throughout the years, he felt that this small challenge was one that he particularly liked, since he enjoyed playing the more difficult music of the concert band over the years.
Student 3:
The last student that I interviewed is an Engineering student at Western University. On average, he listens to about 3 hours of music per day, typically while studying, while going to class, and even during lectures. Usually, he listens to calmer music when studying, but he listens to almost all genres of music while doing his work. In order to find more music that he likes, he subscribes to YouTube channels that support underground artists so that he can have variety in the new music that he listens to. He would also sometimes finds songs by listening to the radio and finding the particular songs that he likes. He particularly likes listening to music during lectures quietly, since sometimes it helps him remain engaged in the lecture. He says that he often has trouble with remaining awake during some lectures because some of the content is not appealing enough. By listening to music quietly, he finds that it is easier for him to remain awake, and thus pay more attention to the lecture. His experience with formal music education included elementary school music with trumpet, drum lessons when he was younger, and a guitar class in Grade 10. He feels that he would not take more music classes in the future, but he could see himself taking up instruments such as piano in his own time, since he already has a general background in drums and guitar. One of the people who have influenced the role of music in his life was his mom, since she always sang in church, and he enjoyed singing. His dad also inspired him to take guitar, since his dad played guitar around the house. When asked about his individual music teachers, he said that he did not like his guitar teacher, since a lot of that class was theory-based and there was less performing. However, when playing trumpet in elementary school and taking drum lessons, he thought this was more tailored to his desires, since these teachers primarily focused on the practical performing aspect of music. He particularly appreciated how they would listen to him play, and they would be able to critique him and tell him what needed to be fixed. However, in his eyes, the guitar class went by slowly due to the lack of performing within it.
