Teaching Music

Mentioned in a previous post titled “Musical Classroom” I mentioned that the elementary classroom has instruments and how much I enjoy that being present in the classroom. It was this realization that made me want to have my next lesson music based. I did know that several of the students in the elementary knew some parts of music, but I did not know the extent of that; however, I learned pretty quickly that it was a small amount. I had expected that, with Stephens being a liberal arts school, they would be more versed in music, but that inaccurate for me to assume. They didn’t know notes, rhythms, tempos, or most anything technical. But I soon realized that that did not matter. 

Watching the children try to pay attention to the technicalities was almost painful. It was obvious they were not interested or understanding what was being discussed. So, I insisted to them to get an instrument and find the note on the instrument. This spurred them on, and it made me realize something; people don’t play music for the technicalities or to make it perfect, they do it because it is fun and fulfilling. After this realization, I actively stopped being technical and instead let the children teach me some ukulele notes. While they were playing, they were all so excited and happy to be messing around on an instrument, and it caused me to learn something else; something that we, as adults, are constantly told but I have a hard time seeing regularly. That is that children tend to teach us more things than we teach them. 

I forgot how freeing it can be to play music. To just go wild with random notes and rhythms or to play an instrument as loud as possible. Sure, I may know how to count in a time signature of 6/4 (which means there are 6 counts in measure with 4 beats) and how to play three different instruments, but they know how to have fun with music, which is something that I haven’t been able to do since I was in middle school. I hope that these students keep that enthusiasm with them as long as possible, and get reminded of it as often as they can, because over the entire span of a lifetime, everyone often deserves to feel like a child who is having fun.