Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
I found this course to be extremely challenging, but in the end very rewarding. Growing
reading music and executing polished and accurate performances for most of my life. Most of
my musical experiences involved practicing notated music, and then performing it. Although I
had an appreciation for vernacular musicianship, I did not have many experiences playing
music by ear (Gordon), and I did not feel comfortable improvising (Elliott). I have to admit that I
still have many nerves about playing by ear and improvising because it is not something that is
easily learned through one experience, however I have been encouraged to push myself to
experiment with learning by ear. Lucy Greens book Hear, Listen, Play! mentions the
strongly identified with the reasons for this. It was very nerve-wracking and uncomfortable to
play without any written notation, so the encouraging comments and helpful tips from my
rehearsing vernacular music with a small group of students. This type of experience is relevant
to real-world, organic musical experiences (Dewey). We were tasked with picking a cover song,
Kokomo by the Beach Boys as our cover song, Ho Hey by the Lumineers as our arrangement,
and to play a 12-bar Blues composition. For each song, I had the unique opportunity to
experiment with playing a different instrument (Bruner). I was very nervous and reserved at
first, but I soon found that I enjoyed learning by doing on a new instrument (Pestalozzi)!
I played drum set for Kokomo, which felt like a lot of pressure at first because I could
barely coordinate a simple rock beat. However, I started to feel more comfortable after a few
rehearsals, so I added some simple variations to the basic rock beat and challenged myself
further by putting in a drum fill. I really enjoyed the experience of playing by ear and informally
learning how to play drum set (Gordon, Bruner). It encouraged me to continue to push myself
outside of my comfort zone throughout this year. I became the drum set player at my new
church, and sometimes rehearsed without any music, just relying on my ear. It has been a very
rewarding experience, and is making me a better teacher because it has taught me how to relax
and not be as uptight about playing without notated music. It has also helped me develop my
For our groups arrangement of Ho Hey, I had the opportunity to play string bass. This
was very exciting for me because I have always enjoyed string bass, but I have not had a
chance to play it. I was able to let go of my concerns and just have fun. I was also able to learn
from my peers, which was a fun and different experience than learning formally from a teacher
(Lave & Wenger). Working and learning with my peers helped me understand that informal
music-learning experiences can encourage students to feel more ownership of their playing, and
My groups final song was our blues composition. This was by far the most challenging
part of this course. I did not have a lot of involvement or experience with jazz when I was
growing up because my high school cut the jazz band, and I only had the opportunity to play in
a jazz band for one year in my Undergraduate experience. I was very nervous about playing by
ear, especially on trumpet (Thorndike). I felt that listeners would expect me to sound good
because it was my primary instrument, so I did not have the excuse of playing on an unfamiliar
instrument. I was not comfortable playing without written music, and I did not feel ready to play
even a short improvised solo. At times I felt very overwhelmed, but in the end, it was an
affirming and positive experience (Vygotsky). My group members were very encouraging, and I
was determined to give it my best (Thorndike, Skinner). I was relieved and excited after our
band setting pushed me outside of my comfort zone in many ways, but I grew both as a
teacher and as a musician. I learned how to relax and open myself up to the process of playing
by ear. I trusted my group-members, and enjoyed our teamwork when I was encouraged and
challenged by them (Lave & Wenger). I also learned to appreciate the flexibility of informal
learning. Instead of being overly focused on strictly following the rules and conventions of
accurately performing a piece of music, we were able to adjust and make changes to the music
so that we could have fun and create something new together. Personally, I want to work on
developing my own aural skills and challenge myself to play by ear more often (Gordon). In
order to help my students develop a well-rounded musical experience, I want to stress the
students to develop their aural skills by offering more listening-based activities (Clark). I want