Thoughts on Building an Audience

    I believe I heard the sentiment expressed that YouTube is taking our audiences away, or that it somehow fulfills a need for live music with today’s youth.  If this is true, than it is a sad truth indeed.  I do believe that one negative side to all the social media out there is the fact that in many instances it serves to isolate people, giving them a false sense of connection without the intimacy of face to face contact.  If our mission is to educate students in music, it seems to me that part of that mission should be to teach students the importance of listening actively as audience members, as well as how to perform effectively on stage.  In a school community it is true that we will always have a sizable audience in the parents of our students, however it would also be wise for our student body’s sake to widen the audience they play for, showing them that there are performance opportunities beyond the school auditorium.  Exposing them to such opportunities may also re-enforce their understanding of music’s unique ability to connect people in a real way.  These performances could be in nursing homes, or perhaps in churches, wherever people are getting together to share company.  One possibility may even be playing outdoors in a park or on the street.  Bringing the music out to the audience rather than always expecting the audience come to us seems to be an effective way of building a connection to people beyond the school community.  So building an audience has two important aspects to it.  It should be a part of our students’ musical education to listen actively, to learn how to be a supportive audience member as well as a good performer.  But if we want to widen the audience for our school musicians, then we also need to bring our ensembles out of the school environment and get the music out into the community.

Some Thoughts on Funding

When considering the issue of funding in a BOCJ program, and especially the issue of outside funding, including parental contributions, I feel it is important to note a few things right off the bat.  First, there are several parties that have a vested interest in such a program and how it is run; most importantly these include the music teacher(s), the students, the administration, and of course the parents.   Adding to the complexity of funding is the fact that these groups are not always on the same page as to the priorities and goals for a BOCJ program, although if the program is to be successful, the music teacher(s) will need to co-ordinate these parties as much as possible.  Second, we should look at what the goals of such a program are/should be.  One important goal is for the students to build their understanding of music through playing, listening, discussing, and otherwise actively engaging in the music process.  From this standpoint music seems very similar to other subjects, and if this were the only issue at play one might legitimately ask the question “Why should there be a necessity for outside funding to a music program?  Math teachers don’t run bake sales to get funds for books and supplies, why should music teachers need to do so?” 
                I believe one answer lies in a BOCJ program’s potential to cross boundaries in and beyond school for a connection to the community at large; a potential that doesn’t exist for most academic classes.  We can see an example of this potential in the Kashmere Highschool stage band that was highlighted in the movie “Thunder Soul.”  Outside funding was certainly an integral part of the stageband’s success as it developed under Conrad Johnson, and the positive outcome of that success lifted many other aspects of the school’s student life, both academic and otherwise.  Unfortunately when some factions of the school’s administration turned against Johnson, he was not able to navigate the waves of school politics as skillfully as he had led his band.  This shows that it is not just funding or musical talent alone that determines a program’s long-term success.  Regardless, we can see that there is a reciprocal relationship between the BOCJ program’s connection to the community and the necessity for parental/outside financial support.  This kind of connection represents the program’s potential to grow beyond a mere academic class.  Thus perhaps funding itself is not the most important issue; it is the connection with the community coming through this outside funding process that is especially important.

Thunder Soul Review

Movie Review:
Thunder Soul

I enjoyed this movie immensely, and it provided me inspiration as to what music can do for us as teenagers and adults alike.  Thunder Soul relates the events surrounding the reunion in 2008 of stageband members from Kashmere High-school, an inner-city predominantly black school in Houston, Texas.  The band members had performed together 35 years earlier as students in the mid-1970s under the leadership of director Conrad “Prof” Johnson, who turned the ensemble into a powerhouse of funk music that rivaled professional bands performing at the highest level.  The movie also artfully intertwines the story of Johnson, who had the skills in his early twenties to pursue a professional career as a jazz saxophonist, and instead followed a different path as a high-school band teacher.   The themes presented relate directly to the issues we are dealing with in the Secondary Methods class: What does it mean to teach music to students?  What are our goals as music teachers?  What exactly is it that we want our students to know?  How do we as teachers relate to our students, to our administrators, to our community at large?  These are just a few of the questions we are mulling over that I found weaving in and out of the events presented in Thunder Soul (the title comes from the name the students gave their band).  Conrad Johnson gave his own insight to these questions during interviews presented in the movie:  “My whole desire is to train and shape the mind of each individual I come in contact with from the standpoint of teaching them . . . When they first come to me, regardless as to what kind of tone they have, I work to develop that tone, and that’s the first step: learn to play the instrument, then the music.”

I recommend this movie highly; I believe it to be quite motivational, instructional, and insightful for teachers and students alike.  I know I’ll be showing it to my students at some point before the end of the year.  Here is a link to this movie’s trailer: www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-bSBqgJbTQ and here is another youtube link to a tune called Scorpio that the band recorded in the 70s so you can get an idea of their awesome sound: www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3sEW9-RVh8