Questions for A Music Educator

Interviewee: Kelli Salisbury, music educator

1. What do you do? What's a typical day for you? 

I am a 1st and 2nd grade music teacher, private oboe teacher, and semi-professional oboist. A typical day entails 8, 40 minute classes with two 10 minute breaks and lunch. After school two-three days a week I teach private oboe students. Some evenings I have rehearsals. 

2. In your job, what do you have to write?  

I mostly write emails. Occasionally, I write recommendation letters for oboe students and student teachers. Also, in the past, I have taken classes working toward my master's degree. I wrote papers for these classes, ranging from philosophy papers to research literature reviews. I am currently in the process of writing my thesis proposal. 

3. What audience do you write for? 

E-mails: typically colleagues and students/parents
Recommendation letters: Depends on what the letter is for...college admissions or job interviews
Papers/Thesis proposal: Professors or general public.

4.How do you write it? (i.e. Do you have a certain process or format you write things in? How do you deliver what you have to write)  

E-mails: I typically start an email thread by addressing the person by name. Sometimes I will add a "hello___" or "Hey____," but if the e-mail is more formal or to someone I do not know, I will typically begin with "Dear____." I will then try to keep the e-mail light, but short and to the point. I usually close the e-mail in a friendly but professional manner.
Recommendation letters: These are usually more formal. I begin with the date at the top and address the addressee formally. I will then begin the body of the letter by stating what kind of recommendation I am giving. I follow with how I know the person I am recommending and the basics of education and working with this person. In the second paragraph, I try to elaborate on the person's accomplishments. Finally, I try to wrap it up with some summarizing statements about the student.
Papers/Thesis proposal: I almost always organize my thoughts with a brainstorm first. Sometimes I make a list of the points I want to make, sometimes I will do a bubble chart or concept map, and other times I will use post-it notes to organize my paper. I will write an outline of what I'd like to write and make first draft using the outline I have made. I will proofread (sometimes reading out loud) and continue to draft until I'm certain it is in the best form I can possibly hand in. I also ask others to read my papers and give feedback.

5. What other communication skills are necessary in your job besides writing? 

I have to be able to communicate with parents about student learning/behavior. It is important to make sure that if I have something that a student needs to work on, that I communicate it in a way that will well received. I also need to be sure that I communicate any issues I have with colleagues in a professional manner. 

A purely personal experience

This open blog post reflects on the fact that music is a field that makes one work a lot harder than some other life options. It seems I learn this anew again and again.

I think this may be most of all because music is a field that requires passion and zest. When you care about something, you're willing to put yourself through a lot more to make it work.

An example of how much harder you have to work can be seen in the credit value of the Michigan State University classes I'm taking. Most music classes are one credit. However, you do just as much work for that one credit as a higher level credit class. On top of that, you have to take a lot more classes. As of now, I am enrolled in 7 different classes totaling 13 credits. This writing class is a 4 credit course, but the course I probably work hardest in is my weekly lesson with my professor, which is only worth 1 credit. I practice around two hours a day specifically on material covered in my lesson.

With music, you have to keep the ultimate goal in mind: being a musician. This means working harder at both what you have to do to sustain your dream as well as working for the dream itself. While I was in high school, and even still now with these general eds, I see a divide between music and academics. I have had an awful feeling that music just doesn't count in some regards. In high school, though I worked hard at academics and maintained above a 4.0, I was still not considered for or selected for most scholarships because I did not take enough AP classes or enough academic curriculars. I was always working hard at music. I remember my senior year in the fall where I'd have something nearly every day after school music related. Monday was marching band practice for a few hours at night. Tuesday I had a piano lesson and an orchestra rehearsal an hour away. Wednesday I had an oboe lesson. Thursday I tutored a beggining oboist. Friday I taught piano. Saturday was a day of rest from formal musical commitment. Sunday I had a three and a half hour rehearsal with a youth wind symphony. On top of that I still maintained my grade point average and was accepted to MSU, a college with a music program where I can really benefit.

Music really wears you down, but in a way it's a reminder of what you really want to do with your life. When I look around and see people who are just coming here to enjoy the "college life", I am glad I am spending my money on something I am confident I want to do and see a real purpose in coming to a university to study for. It makes me feel as though I am truly living as myself, doing what I want to do, benefiting from it, and not just going along with the typical.

The Brain and Music: Dyslexia

There are currently theories that music could help children cope with Dyslexia.

Professor Goswami, director of the centre for neuroscience in education at Cambridge University, claims that music can aid in the learning process for reading:"Having an enriched musical environment in nursery should prepare the child for optimal ability in reading because a lot of this rhythmic learning is much more overt in music than language. We now want to see if interventions can train this system in the brain." 

The idea is that strengthening musical abilities gives the brain a better way to latch onto symbol reading and sound comprehension. However, there is some controversy with this theory, because it is possible for people to be successful musicians while being dyslexic. (A well known example being John Lennon.) It is also noted that dyslexics, while having trouble with written and spoken language, can still latch onto other sounds quite well. 

In May 2006, the Chicago Weekend did a report on Daryl Duncan, a musician\jingle-writer living with dyslexia. Despite living with dyslexia, he has still managed to live a successful career. In a sense, music has helped him cope. While Duncan has a hard time reading or performing his own written music, he says,  "While I don't perform live, I'm able to create things from scratch because I hear the entire piece in my head before I compose it." 

Duncan's dyslexia seems to be limited to written symbols -- such as letters or music notes on a page. However, he does not mix up sounds, and this may reinforce Goswami's theory that music can help cope with Dyslexia: Duncan may still suffer from dyslexia, but it is limited to visual comprehension -- his auditory comprehension seems to be unimpaired. 

Works Cited: 

Lesley, R. C. "Dyslexia Doesn't Stop the Music!" Chicago Weekend: 1. May 17 2006. Ethnic NewsWatch. Web. 15 Nov. 2012 . 

Ward, Helen. "Sense of Rhythm could Hold Key to Overcoming Dyslexia." The Times Educational Supplement Scotland.2226 (2011): 8. ProQuest Sociology. Web. 15 Nov. 2012.

Music and the Lizard Brain

This week in my theory class, my theory professor brought up something called the "lizard brain". The lizard brain is the primitive, decision making part in our brain.   

The best way to understand this part of the brain is outlined in an article written by Sherry Chiger, "Selling Online to the Lizard Brain".".. this sector of the brain thrives on familiarity. It equates familiarity with safety.." Chiger also brings attention to the fact that the lizard brain makes quick decisions, is emotional over intellectual, and likes beginning and ends. 

Though this article relates to marketing\advertising, it helps bring light to how the lizard brain affects our everyday lives, and how important of a role it plays in influencing our decisions, intuition, and feelings. 

How does this apply to music? What my theory professor brought up was how the lizard brain plays a part in our anticipation of music -- For example, a dominant, or V, chord naturally wants to lead to the tonic, because it contains the leading tone. When it doesn't lead to the tonic, or I, chord, the lizard brain is unsettled. There are general conventions in music that dictate certain sounds lead to a certain set of others, and these are tied into the expectations of our lizard brain.  

This connection to the lizard brain may just describe why music is very often described as indescribable  and why music is an emotionally engaging activity for most people. 

Works Cited

Chiger, Sherry. "Selling Online to the Lizard Brain." Direct : Magazine of Direct Marketing (2010)ABI/INFORM Complete. Web. 11 Nov. 2012.

RAIDS Analysis

In my WRA class, a process called "RAIDS" is used to analyze a source's content. It stands for: revision (What ideas, attitudes, etc are being changed by the views of the source?),  arrangement (what in relationship with one another?), invention(what ideas, atttiudes, etc, are being suggested by the text), style (i.e. formal, scholarly, etc), and delivery (how the source is presented).

This week's post will use this process to analyze the "total technique training" (copyright Supremo 2009) chart my professor created to, well, improve technique. It has nine levels of technique training:

• Major and minor scales
• Major and Minor thirds
• I, IV, V, V7 chords in major and minor
• chromatic scales
• diminished 7th chords
• scales with neighbors
• lower neighbors to chords
• whole tone scales
• bartok exercise 

These are listed in a flow chart style on the front, and the back has a description of how to practice each of these areas.

Revision: The chart revises how to practice and improve technique. It provides ways of  scales and how these scales can be put into various patterns, all of which will improve the technical abilities of a player. Technique is a crucial element to any player, but this learning process has a very focused, exact way of learning technique to improve playing.
Arrangement: The chart puts the relationship between notes into the various musical patterns\relationships they can have and labels them accordingly.
Invention: The chart portrays that learning total technique is only a matter of learning, recognizing, and memorizing these relationships between notes in these patterns.
Delivery: This material is in chart form -- it is a laminated sheet of paper. There is a chart on the front covering the main ideas of the chart, and a list on the back describing each area.
Style: Informitive, and not formal, the chart is based a lot upon visual observation as much as reading: there is music notated to demonstrate each of the patterns, and the text takes a visually appealing form to organize the material.


Two more details may also be noted about this chart:

Purpose: To provide an organied, straight-forward guide to significantly improve the technical aspect of playing.
Audience:  Oboists -- especially those studying with my professor as the material ties in with her other teachings. 

For me, the chart is easy to read and understand. Technique is not the most exciting thing to me, but the chart puts the information in a way that's easy to grasp and not be overwhelmed by. It also provides new and focused ways to practice technique -- a lot of musicians, or at least begginers, assume all their is to practicing technique is simple scales. But this chart helps define expand the definition of technique training.

Works Cited:

Eberle, Jan "Total Technique Training". Supremo. 2009. Print. 

Instrument Care: Swabbing v. Feather

Part of being a solid player is knowing how and when to maintenance your instrument -- if your instrument is not performing at its top ability, how can you?

I've already covered topics that have covered some issues of repair, but this post will focus on the issue of cleaning out the inside of a wooden oboe using a swab or a feather. This past week has  sparked an enlightenment on how important this issue is. 

At my studio class this week (when everybody who plays oboe meets for a class), our professor performed a demo on cleaning out the octave vents on an oboe.

Taking a step off to the side, for those who don't play oboe, the the octave vent is a piece of metal (often brass, but not always) that has a hole in the middle -- in other words a vent. It is placed under the octave keys. One of the octave keys is shown below. This octave vent must be removed with a special sort of tool, which is also shown below.

The reason why one must clean out the octave vents is that a lot of, well, crud gets stuck in it. If you don't brush your teeth before you play, food waste can be a culprit of this crud. However, another and often times bigger cause of the crud is lint. Where does this lint come from? The use of a swab.

At the above mentioned studio class, it was evident that the owner of the oboe being used as a demo was a swab user. There was a matted clump of gross, greasy lint, food and moisture caught in the octave vent. When our professor asked what color swab this girl used, she confirmed it was the same color as some of the very small pieces of the swab that had been stuck together in the octave vent.

Mostly, crud stuck in an octave vent is gross. More importantly, it prevents certain notes from sounding correctly. Luckily, this can be prevented through teeth brushing and using a turkey feather to clean the inside of your oboe instead of a swab. Feathers will not leave behind lint, and help to clear water and condensation out of the oboe more effectively.

Socialization and the Importance of Music

In a 2002 article, Kristen Ferguson, reporter for the Metroland, highlighted some of the importance of music in an article titled "Songs for the Soul: The Carondelet Music Center Stresses the Importance of Music Education in Nurturing Childhood Development and Building Community". The article supports the claim that  music has an alleviating power to the effects of melancholia, or what Ferguson states is a "natural Prozac for the soul".  The report uses the Carondelet Music Center, to exemplify this concept among others. 

The center, which is located in Latham in the provincial house of St. John's church, has a mission statement that aims to"foster, preserve and improve the state of music education for all people aesthetically, socially and spiritually." The article quotes sister Patricia St. John's testament to the power of music: "[Children] walk away from here with so much more than being able to play the piano. Music is important for building confidence and self-esteem. It helps [children] with discipline, it's a healthy outlet, and it promotes engagement rather than passivity. It's wonderful to see a child skip out of here." The Carondelet Music Center, however, is not the first to comment on the positive effects of music. Another article supporting this claim, titled "Making Music Can Help Overcome Depression", in The Telegraph reported on a study led by Professor Jaakko Erkkilä at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland, which tracked the progress of adults diagnosed with depression when given music therapy sessions. (It may be noted that this the music therapy was in combination with other treatments the patients had been receiving). Overall, the research showed that the adults had fewer symptoms of anxiety and depression  

 Both articles also noted music's importance because of its ability to socialize. Patricia St. John (from the Carondelet Music Center) testifies that "One of the neat things that happens here is that this whole wing [houses] retired sisters. The sisters come down [to the center] and the old and the young meet. It's been a wonderful interaction and benefit for everyone." The study of the depressed Adults in Finland also implied that music was a socializing factor: out of 20 sessions, at least 18 were attended by most of the group, which would suggest that music holds people's interest, bringing them together on many occasions.

 I can also testify, from firsthand experience, to the fact that music is a strong socializing force. Being a music major at Michigan State University, a university of over 50,000 people, I see examples every day of how music brings people together. Generally, the music school at MSU has a small town feel, where everybody knows everybody, and people look out for one another. It's a community thriving with connections inside and out. Though all professional musicians must learn the ability of being a soloist, working with a group and coming together are much more important skills -- especially considering that is what any ensemble must do to perform. Music socializes in this way, but as much as it brings people together on the inside, it does outwardly too: an individual does not have to be part of the music school at a university to witness how music socializes. Go to any concert, and the ability of music bringing people together can be viewed in the array of people sitting in the audience.

Why is this socialization aspect so important? In the most extreme cases, lack of socializing an individual can deplete a human of the ability to perform civilized actions and interactions. This can be seen in the case of a 16 year old girl who was named Genie and had suffered severe social isolation. The effects of her isolation resulted in only being able to retain a miniscule vocabulary. Of course this is an extreme case, but it certainly highlights the basic human need for interaction and socialization. Though many things have the ability to socialize, music is a particularly effective socializing force because it has a positive, enjoyable impact. As noted above, it lifts spirits and lessens the effects of depression. At the Carondelet center, music improved attitudes of children as well. Ultimately, music is not just a pastime, but a highly functional agent in improving the life quality of those who participate in it.

Works Cited: 

          Ferguson, Kirsten. "Songs for the Soul: The Carondelet Music Center Stresses the Importance of Music Education in Nurturing Childhood Development and Building Community." Metroland: 36. Feb 07 2002. Alt-PressWatch. Web. 24 Oct. 2012 .

"Making Music Can Help Overcome Depression," Telegraph.co.uk. Telegraph Media Group Limited. 01 Aug, 2011. Web. 24 Oct. 2012.     

Fromkin, Victori. "The Development of Language in Genie: A Case of Language Acquisition Beyond the "Critical Period."." Brain and language 1.1 (1974): 81-107. PsycINFO. Web. 31 Oct. 2012.