Teaching and Engagement
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As part of a project in my Intermediate Conducting Methods class, I had to write an analysis of Stravinsky's "Dance of the Devil," from L'Histoire du Soldat. This analysis included general history of Stravinsky's career to provide context to the piece, as well as rehearsal techniques for the piece. I focused on techniques to battle challenges for the performer, as well as challenges for the conductor. The project culminated with me conducting the class through a performance of "Dance of the Devil." One of the highlights of my Beginning Methods class was the opportunity to facilitate a JMUke event. This was admittedly the first time I had ever attended a JMUke event, but it was extremely rewarding for me. JMUke events invite everyone from the JMU community, the Harrisonburg community, and beyond to jam informally on ukeleles. All people are invited, even those that have no musical experience. The event that I facilitated was on Halloween, so most of the pieces in our jam were oriented around Halloween, like Monster Mash, The Addams Family, and more! Not many participants showed up for this event, which is expected during a pandemic, but the few people that we had made the event so much fun. With an informal experience like this, there was no pressure for me to play the right chords all of the time or sing well. I also learned more about technologies that can aid rehearsals should social distancing last a few more years. We set up this event in the model of David Newman's choir rehearsals, where everyone participating used a microphone that transmitted the sound through a speaker and through their car radios. This was really cool for me to see in action, and we had similar participation issues as our Zoom class meetings, but instead of people leaving their cameras off, the participants in their cars turned off their microphones. This meant that the only sounds being transmitted were the facilitators, but we were all still having a lot of fun.
Another engagement opportunity that I had this semester was developing materials for in service teachers to use in asynchronous lessons. This was a really interesting experience as I knew one of the teachers, but I never met any of the students that I was making materials for. I also never got to see these materials in use, so I have no idea how the students interacted with it. This was a very different experience from anything I was used to as I have always been able to see directly how students and teachers respond to my work. Despite this, I really liked the experience as it gave me the opportunity to engage with music in a way that was different from my usual experiences. This experience also gave me many ideas on how to interact with topics in improvisation, a topic that I have little experience with since my primary instrument is not a typical jazz instrument. As part of my Woodwind Techniques class, I was assigned two projects: present a more complicated topic on your primary instrument, and teach something on your rotation instrument. As part of my project on my primary instrument, I presented on the different fingerings for B-flat on flute. I had to introduce the three different fingerings for B-flat, and I made a handout as an aid in explaining the uses for each individual fingering. Because this was presented in the Fall of 2020, I had the added challenge (but also advantage) of presenting this via Zoom. This past August, I had the opportunity to return to my high school and work with the marching band. Many people generally return to their high schools to assist with the bands, but it never happened at my school while I was there. I really wanted to gain some extra experience though, so I talked to my high school band director back in the spring and he was very excited for me to return to help out. During my time with the marching band, I mostly observed during music rehearsals and roamed the field, helping students when they were learning drill. I got to experience a whole different side to marching band, and it gave me a new love for it. I was able to gain experience working with new sections of the band, as well as teaching on the field, and it was so exciting for me. I even had the opportunity to write music to replace a few measures in one of their pieces to help with their goals for general effect. It was so cool for me to see the difference between being a marcher and a teacher. I have always had a love and hate relationship with marching band, but the time I spent with my high school band made me so much more excited for the potential to run my own marching band someday. My excitement from this experience even rolled over to the beginning of my second season with the Marching Royal Dukes, and so far I have had the best marching season I have ever had. Experiences like this continue to inspire me and prove to me that I am on the right career path.
Reflection
In my interview with Holly, I learned that you don’t need to know much about music in order to think beyond the surface qualities of a song. Holly has very limited experience with music and doesn’t remember how to read music from when she performed 10 years ago, but she still finds ways to analyze the artist’s intent. Holly had some really interesting insights on the role of music in our lives, as well as the role of music in the healing process after a loss, whether large or small. I also learned a new perspective on the meaning of music.
While creating this podcast, I faced challenges from technical difficulties with the microphone I used, so I learned problem-solving skills to ensure the audio had decent quality. I also learned a lot about the DAW I used, which was GarageBand. I had to teach myself how to cut certain sections of audio from the middle of a recording, and how to fade in and out audio tracks. It somewhat hurt me to edit the conversation, because I had to cut many sections of really interesting conversation. I had a lot of fun overall on this project, and it was really cool to learn about Holly. She showed me that people don’t need a music education to appreciate the value of music education and music in general. I also learned about some artists that I didn’t know about and looked up afterwards, leading to me getting hooked on more music. |
Lexie Rowland
Here I will share examples of my community connections and experiences. Archives
March 2021
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