Allison Griffiths Professional Development Activities Report Music Education Lab Fall 2013

Part One: Hours 1-10

During the summer of 2013, I taught private vocal lessons to three young girls. The youngest, Maggie, was nine years old; Abby and Hannah, two sisters, were twelve and fourteen respectively. While the structure of all of my lesson plans was essentially the same for each girl, the lessons I taught and the lessons I learned varied from girl to girl. I can honestly say that I have never learned so much about teaching. Even though I was thrown in head-first and had no experience teaching actual children, I learned very quickly the scope and gaps in my ability as a music educator. My youngest, Maggie, is a little spit-fire and loves every second of her musical studies. An enthusiastic and extremely creative child, Maggie is the quintessential Type 4 on McCarthys 4MAT Cycle. Being a Type 2, myself, there were definite challenges in teaching Maggie. None of the difficulties I faced had to do with the student, I realized; all of my hang-ups originated from my own reluctance and self-consciousness. Once I was able to embrace Maggies way of looking at the world we hit the ground running. Together, Maggie and I learned four pieces (Amazing Grace, In My Own Little Corner, Where is Love, and The Girl I Mean to Be) and prepared for her roles in two summer theatre productions, one of which was at Camp Broadway in New York. Maggies constant energy and speed of learning kept me on my toes in so many ways. We covered numerous vocalises each lesson that worked on registration issues, vowel shapes, and breathing mechanics. Additionally, she wanted to learn to sightread so we began basic sol fege exercises that strengthened her reading ability. In order to keep her motivated and energized, I would often call out theatrical directions while she sang and I played. One

of her favorite warm-ups was one in which we simply hummed and chewed, but I asked her to walk around the room during the exercise and whenever I called out a musical theatre character (from the shows she was in), she would have to start moving and acting like that character. Over the course of the

summer, Maggie grew immensely as a singer, musician, and actress. I, myself, grew as an educator, pianist, and motivator. The lessons I learned from Maggie constantly inspire me and will never leave my bag of tricks. My next youngest, Abby, was an equally gifted and motivated singer who whole-heartedly embraced her work with me. Not wholly unlike Maggie, Abby was a Type 1 learner and again presented me with a challenge in how to approach teaching her. Once I could let go of some of my Type 2-ness and tap into Abbys unique abilities and perceptions, we accomplished quite a bit. Like Maggies lessons, Abbys lessons always began with a physical warm-up, vocalises, and a breathing exercise. Being a saxophonist and experienced stage performer, Abby brought a lot to the table and was very focused and inquisitive during lessons. We sang primarily theatre pieces and worked quite a bit on sight-reading skills, as she wanted to be better prepared for future vocal and instrumental festivals and competitions. Abby, being a diligent and curious learner, presented me with different challenges than the ever-excited Maggie. Abby, while motivated and studious, was at times harder to get out of her shell than Maggie was. Once I realized this, we began doing more and more silly physical warm-ups to get both of us out of our comfort zones. I myself am not one to get silly easily, especially in a lesson situation, but Abby forced me to grow by pulling me out of my own shell. Together we grew more confident in our unique skill levels and learned a lot about losing inhibitions. Finally, Abbys older sister Hannah was my busy bee. Always asking questions, always selfanalyzing, Hannah was the Type 2 that I had been looking for. With Hannah I knew more about the way she learned, so in many ways I knew more about how to bring her out of her comfort zone. Her lessons followed the same format as all the others, but what I loved working on with Hannah more than anything

was her self-confidence. Like my other girls, Hannah had all the potential in the world but was often afraid to let it shine. So, while we worked musical skills, I was also zeroing on how to help Hannah shine for who she is. Seeing her grow as a musician and as a confident young lady made my whole summer and constantly reminds me of why I love to teach. The experiences and lessons I gained from teaching these three very different girls taught me so much about myself as a musician, teacher, and person.

Part Two: Hours 11-15 For my final hours of Professional Development for the semester, I participated in Vitamin D. Being a lover of world music and a complete ignoramus in the world of percussion, I thought joining the drum circle would be an opportunity for growthI was right. Going in to Vitamin D, I knew quite a bit about the pedagogical tool that grounds the group. O Passo came onto my radar last year and has definitely influenced the way I learn and teach. Being so immersed in this method taught me a lot about my own strengths and weaknesses as a performer and as a teacher. In the beginning, it was very difficult for me to embrace the multisensory aspects of the Step in addition to the notational style. After a few rehearsals, however, I found myself just naturally walking and using the key movement principles of the method. Learning to play some of the various instruments in the drum circle was my next challenge. Being a singer and a brass player, drumming has never been my strong suit. However, through experimentation and an ounce or two of embarrassment, I became more and more comfortable with the instruments and more importantly learned to let go of my hang-ups and just play. In my own teaching in Music Education Lab with the multicultural ensemble and now in the early stages of my own group, Satyagraha, I find myself naturally incorporating O Passo into my teaching. We always begin with the step and I try to emphasize improvisation and self-exploration. My experiences with drum circle have already and will continue to influence the way in which I learn and teach.