What is your philosophy of music, and of course that’s meant to be a rhetorical question. The answer though, is varied from person to person. Some would say it’s one of the three art forms that shape our society and help us engage and become intellectual with our inner self and social being. Whereas some would say, it’s a primitive form of art that’s just something to keep us entertained, not to make a career of or set such high standards of learning at. It can either be dimmed down to the most simplest/ basic way of living or really entertainment, or either expanded onto new horizons that showcase the levels of creativity and responsiveness of audiences who participate and become engaged in it. But the real question behind this is why is it important?

The purpose of music education is to educate ones on the many concepts of music, then exploring it. For example, working small and establishing correct note values, identifying note names on the staff, and what some features on a staff means. Then eventually working your way up to dynamic markings, articulation, time and key signatures and how to figure out what they are and mean. Once concepts like these get established then there’s when you really get to explore what the music means. That could be by the language of the text but majorly how the composer chose to write the music to display a message. For instrumentalists, they most definitely use articulation to explain their storyline since they can’t use words like vocalists. But you’d use most of the time to describe a story as well as timbres and tonality. As a whole though, and using what was previously mentioned to add onto music’s purpose, it helps so much in expression. Whether it is music, dance, physical art, or drama/ theater, it’s key to our own human development.

Now the main way teachers are even able to get the students involved with music is to really actively engage them. You have to put forward something current that will grasp a students interest. Realistically if say a person teaches high school choir, teaching them every single chunk of music history and about different composers isn’t necessarily going to make the entire class interested, but bored. Who knows, it may get some hooked but not all. So find popular music that’s current and that students enjoy and you could find a musical concept that they can learn from it. An easy one is time signatures; most songs are written in common time, or 4, so explain that to them and you could also introduce conducting. Even if it isn’t ways like that, there’s still other techniques teachers could apply. Not only is this applicable to the students but as well as the parents who are members of the community. It’s important to get the parents involved in their children’s life and extracurriculars. They help so much with coordination of school trips and funding for them which creates many learning opportunities.

One of the main things that get overlooked especially in a public school system when it comes to classroom assessments and SOLs, is that all the weight can’t be put on the teacher. It could be one of the best teachers who’ve had their profession for years and has done great work but then say change to a new school and the students aren’t active. Of course multiple factors play into that but the case remains the same. A teacher can only put out so much information and give so many different resources to the students, but still it relies on them to put in the work. The relationship the two parties make with each other is crucial. You have to establish an understanding and respect level with one another in order to create music with each other, without it, no progress gets made.

So in conclusion, there’s so many factors that contribute to the development of a students growth as a musician and as an individual that intertwine with each other given the circumstances. And even though we’re all our own person, no philosophy of music outweighs someone else’s because we weigh our own interests and beliefs higher or lower than others. Everyone will have different opinions and different interests, not even with just music but with everything in life and everyday we learn to accept those differences. Even if someone doesn’t choose to explore their capabilities in music, it’s still up to an educator how they choose to express the art to their students. There’s always a 50/50 chance of whether or not a student chooses that path and it all leads back to their origins; so parents, teachers, community, etc, as an educator we have to set the example. No matter how big or small of an effort, one way or another we’re able to touch someone’s heart.