Research Assessment #5

Date: January 12, 2018

Subject: Music Education
MLA or APA Citation: “Band Director Preparation: Both Before and After Getting the Job.”
Music for the Soul, 10 Apr. 2010, michaelpratt.wordpress.com/2009/09/25/band-
director-preparation-both-before-and-after-getting-the-job/.

Analysis:
Since this is my first step into transferring topics, I thought it was only be fitting
for me to look into the realities of being a Band Director. I found this article and I
believed it would assist me in pursuing my dreams by showing me not only how to be
successful when I obtain the job, but also what the steps are to getting into the industry.

The article starts off my discuss how music is slowly dying off, especially as a
high school elective. The article threw me off guard when they took into consideration
students who take part in multiple activities. I know several students in my very own
high school who can’t focus solely on band and flourish in that area because they need
to maintain be average in all of their hobbies. It would make sense in previous years
where there were less opportunities for the younger generations, they just focused
solely on their primary activity.

Another reason the author believes the band program is diminishing was
because students are not playing hard enough music to challenge them. I strongly
disagree with this statement due to how advance the music program is in Texas. The
band program in Texas is the best in the nation, so maybe this statement is applicable
to other states. However in the Lone Star State, to be considered competitive in these
competitions where the goal is to earn a ranking of one, its required to play ridiculous
classical pieces that have been made prominent through the years due to the how
musical challenging and pleasing the pieces truly are. With this statement, there is no
way possible for the students not to be getting pushed musically enough.

The author’s next section in this article is discussing what preparations in high
school need to be done to give the students the best chances in college. Aural skills
were brought up and I immensely agree that this helps bands advance their students. At
my high school band program, we focus on these skills in order to develop that musical
ear necessary for intense music. By focusing on vocals, it helps students develop a
better sense of pitch and how to add musical to the pieces. I will use these information
and the list to take into consideration on what fundamentals I should focus on while
trying to assist my mentees in their musical journeys.

After finishing this article, I have a better understanding on how to better myself
as a student teacher. It also taught me what I could personally do to better myself as a
musician.

Band Director Preparation: Both Before and After

Getting the Job
September 25, 2009 by michaelpratt

by Dr. Michael Pratt

We should all be concerned about the future because we will have to spend the rest of our lives there.
– Charles F. Kettering

The Demise of the Quality of Band Programs

Many times over the past thirty-five years of attending and adjudicating band festivals in the State of
Michigan (considered by many professionals to be one of the stronger states in the country for school
instrumental ensembles) I have found myself asking the question “Why aren’t bands as good as they
used to be any more?” To me the simple fact of the matter is that, in general, bands are smaller, not
as technically able, not as musical, and not as enjoyable to listen to as they were in the 1970s. I ask
myself and others why this is so. There seem to be many answers.

The student’s time seems much more diluted now than it used to be. The average band member of
thirty plus years ago was just that, a band member. That was his identity. Rarely was he involved in
other activities in his school to the extent that he was involved in band. This was especially true for
girls who had many less activities to be a part of, mainly because prior to Title IX the amount of sports
activities for girls was negligible. Besides being involved in a plethora of different activities at school,
today’s student increasingly has some type of after school job to support his car, his cell phone, and
other numerous expenses. Thus the amount of available time a band member can spend on practicing,
outside of school rehearsals, private lessons, etc. is severely limited.

Another reason, I speculate, on the demise of the band program over the years is the shockingly poor
quality of literature being performed by the bands. More and more bands are spending their time on
literature which I often characterize as “cookie cutter” music. In addition they spend the vast majority
of their rehearsal time on these pieces to the exclusion of other, more worthwhile pieces of literature,
in the hopes of attaining the necessary perfection to achieve a “first division” rating from the judges.
The result is a lack of musical understanding and feeling for the aesthetic worth of the music because
the literature they perform is so lacking to begin with.

As debilitating to the overall quality of bands as is the lack of preparation time on the part of the
students and the lack of quality literature to prepare, by far the largest factor leading to the gradual
lowering of the quality of bands over the past thirty-five years, in my opinion, is the increasing rate of
band directors who do not have the skills to get the bands to perform at the levels they used to
perform at. Several areas of examination arise from this assertion. 1) Are students becoming music
majors who are ill prepared at the pre-college level? 2) Are colleges and universities doing an
inadequate job of training future music educators? 3) Are music educators on the job keeping up with,
and constantly improving on the skills required to perform their job effectively?

Are students ill prepared at the pre-college level?

Following are some criterion by Louis A. Menchaca, associate professor of music and director of
instrumental music at Concordia University Wisconsin in Mequon.[1]

Preparation at the High School Level

The following is a list of recommended experiences that will help students in high school music
programs make the transition to college music degree programs.

1. Private Lessons. Students who want to become music majors should begin private study on their
instrument or in voice as soon as possible, as experience in a band or choir alone will not be sufficient
preparation for a college entrance audition. They must also be proficient in music reading.

2. Aural Skills. Unless a student is blessed with a natural gift, these skills take the longest to
develop. Among other skills, students must be able to identify by ear the degrees of a scale being
played or sung, the type of triad being played or sung, the interval being played or sung, and the
chord factor in the bass or soprano of a chord being played. Students should also be able to tap back
rhythms being played or sung and to notate simple tonal melodies being played or sung.

3. Music Fundamentals. Learning the fundamentals of music notation in freshman college theory
can be daunting; knowledge is either assumed or is covered very quickly. The material students must
know includes meter signatures, rhythmic values, elementary principles of form, written intervals and
triads, treble and bass clefs, major and minor scales and key signatures, and key relationships.

4. Vocal Ability. All college music majors, no matter what their principal performance medium, must
be able to sing intelligently and in tune. In fact, singing is required for most college entrance
auditions. Students must be able to sing back pitches played within and outside their vocal range, sing
back notes in a major and minor triad, and sing the major scale with numbers, letters, and solfeggio,
and sight-sing simple folk tunes, among other things.

5. Keyboard Skills. All college music majors, no matter what their principal performance medium,
must be able to play and read intermediate keyboard literature with ease and fluency. Students should
also be able to sight-read one level of difficulty below their performance level and have a beginning
knowledge of I, IV, and V harmonization of simple songs.

6. The Right Attitude. If students are passionate about and dedicated to music – as well as being
aware of its rigors – then they belong in a college music program.

Private lessons cannot be stressed too much. If a person is going to be a good music educator he
must first be a good musician. There is an old saying to the effect that those who can, perform, and
those who cannot, teach. There is, unfortunately, much truth to this axiom. However, the future music
educator must be as firmly grounded in personal musical skills as he possibly can be. This is not to say
he must be a virtuoso performer, but he must understand what it means and how it feels to be a
musician and to play musically. If he cannot do this how can he be expected to train and develop
students to become good musicians, to play musically and, more importantly, to develop an aesthetic
feeling for music?

Ear training (aural skills) is not normally associated with participation in a high school band, choir, or
orchestra; or even, for that matter, with private lessons. Fortunately for the future music major there
are numerous software packages that can be acquired, and internet ear training web sites which are
available to pursue this training. The student must avail himself of these resources and become
acquainted with, at the least, the rudimentary skills associated with ear training as outlined above.

Many of the necessary skills listed in “Musical Fundamentals” above are pursued from a performance
standpoint both in the student’s band classes and in his private lessons. They are, however usually
addressed from a performance standpoint and not always from the practical standpoint of “this is how
this looks”, or “this is how this is constructed”, or “this is how this works”. This deficiency is the
easiest to correct. A simple text on notation or one of numerous online tutorials on the same subject
can by assimilated by the student (he probably already knows this material, just not from a technical
standpoint).

The last two areas (vocal ability and keyboard skills) are usually the most deficient in the future music
major in college, and usually the most critical deficiency and the hardest to correct. Vocal skills can be
sharpened again through the use of specialized software and web sites such as
http://www.choraltech.org. Insufficient keyboard skills, however, are more difficult to correct (they
may even be nonexistent). It is most desirable for a future music major to have many years of piano
lessons and have achieved some degree of proficiency at the keyboard. A lack of skill in this area will
become readily apparent to the person who suddenly finds himself with a choir as well as a band to
teach and no accompanist. The lack will also be felt at solo and ensemble time when there simply are
not enough pianists to go around. Even simple things like score study are much more difficult without
keyboard skills. If a person suddenly finds himself in high school with no piano training whatsoever
and knows he is headed for music school it is absolutely vital that he acquire a piano teacher and
catch up as much as humanly possible or he will surely regret it over and over.

These are simply basic areas of preparation and background. They are a bare minimum. If they are
utterly lacking in a student then the student should be dissuaded from pursuing a degree in music
because he is ill prepared and will ultimately either fail or produce substandard students as a result.
Beyond these areas the student is advised to soak up as much as he possibly can in the areas of
music theory, music history, music appreciation and secondary instruments. Anything he can gain will
place him ahead of the rest of the class.

Besides gaining all the background in fundamentals that the college bound musician can acquire, it is
essential that he not neglect to develop a sense of the musical and the aesthetic. This can be more
elusive. The student needs to explore every venue of music that he has access to and soak up as
much as possible. If there is a symphony orchestra nearby, or an opera company, or a college or
university giving concerts and recitals, the future music student needs to attend whatever he can and
begin to acquire some sophistication, discrimination, musical taste, and sense of the aesthetic in
music. He must broaden his horizons, especially beyond the confines of whatever school ensemble(s)
he is a part. He must not be afraid to go to a performance of a Beethoven symphony, or an opera like
Madame Butterfly, or a choral performance like Messiah. He must expand the narrow confines of how
he views the world of music. He could attend student recitals at a local college (they are usually free).
Whatever he can do to make himself open to new and broader musical experiences will come back to
reward him years later as he becomes not only a more sophisticated musician but a music educator
with a much broader background and sense of musicianship than he would otherwise have.

Are colleges and universities doing an inadequate job?

“The bachelor of music education degree program in most colleges and universities is the result of
trade-offs among the three areas in which music teachers are expected to be competent: music,
education, and general knowledge. Because of the limitations imposed by the need to keep the
program approximately four years in length, faculty members in each of these areas often believe that
not enough work in their area is included. Probably no program in the preparation of music teachers
can be developed that will satisfy each area without greatly exceeding four years in length.
Accommodations are necessary, therefore, so that students can complete the program within a
reasonable time and still meet requirements for state certification and university graduation.”[2]

There is probably more to know than can be squeezed into six or eight years of college, let alone
four, so many compromises necessarily take place and the student is left to his own devising to fill in
the gaps and acquire the knowledge and skills that he really needs on the job. As a result most music
educators feel that their real education begins the first day on the job and that they are woefully
unprepared for some of the tasks they must are asked to perform.

By way of comparison let’s take a look at what three colleges require for graduation at the
undergraduate level in music education. The first is The University of Toledo, the second is The
University of Michigan, and finally Boston University.

The University of Toledo graduation requirements – instrumental music education major.[3]

SEM 1

● MUS 1610 Theory/SS (fall only)

● MUS 1570 Piano I
● MUS 2800 Applied
● MUS (see list) Large Ensemble
● MUS 1000 Recital, Sec. 001 and 003 and 004
● Core Curriculum Class Math 1180 or higher
● Core Curriculum Class (MUS 2220 or MUS 2250)
● Core Curriculum Class

SEM 2

● MUS 1620 Theory/SS (sp only)

● MUS 1580 Piano II
● MUS 2800 Applied
● MUS (see list) Large Ensemble
● MUS 1000 Recital, Sec. 001 and 003
● MUS 2410 Music History I
● Core Curriculum Class
● Core Curriculum Class

SEM 3

● MUS 2610 Theory/SS (fall only)

● MUS 2570 Piano III
● MUS 2800 Applied
● MUS (see list) Large Ensemble
● MUS 1000 Recital, Sec. 001 and 002 and 003
● MUS 3410 Music History II (fall only)
● MUS 1500/1530/1550/2500
 ● (Woodwind/Brass/String/Percussion Classes)
● MED 3000 Foundations of Music Ed. (fall only)
● Core Curriculum Class

SEM 4

● MUS 2620 Theory/SS (sp. only)

● MUS 2800 Applied
● MUS (see list) Large Ensemble
● MUS 1000 Recital, Sec. 001 and 002 and 003
● MUS 3420 Mus. Hist. III (sp only)
● MUS 1500/1530/1550/2500
● (Woodwind/Brass/String/Percussion Classes)
● EDP 3200 Applied Psyc
● Core Curriculum Class

SEM 5

● MUS 1500/1530/1550/2500
● (Woodwind/Brass/String/Percussion Classes)
● MUS 3500 Basic Conducting (fall only) +
● MUS 4800 Applied
● MUS (see list) Large Ensemble
● MUS 1000 Recital, Sec. 001 and 002 and 003
● SPED 4020 Students with Disabilities
● Core Curriculum Class
● Core Curriculum Class

SEM 6

● MUS 3510 Instrumental Conducting (sp. only) +

● MUS 1500/1530/1550/2500
● (Woodwind/Brass/String/Percussion Classes)
● MUS 4800 Applied
● MUS (see list) Large Ensemble
● MUS 1000 Recital, Sec. 001 and 002 and 003
● *MED 3300 Elem/Sec. Instr. Meth. (sp only) +
● *MED 3310 Music for Children (sp. Only)
● MUS 3630 Instrumentation

SEM 7
 ● MUS 3580 Marching Band Tech. (fall only)
● MUS 4800 Applied (Sr. recital)
● MUS (see list) Large Ensemble
● MUS 1000 Recital, sec. 001 and 002 and 003
● *MED 3320 Secondary Voc. Meth. (fall only)+
● *TSOC 4000 Socio. Cultural. Analysis
● EDP 3230 Human Development
● Core Curriculum Class

SEM 8

● *MED 4930 Student Teaching

● *MED 4900 Seminar

The University of Michigan graduation requirements – instrumental music education major.[4]

Fall Term

First Year

● Private Lessons
● Music Theory: Aural Skills
● Music Theory: Written Skills
● Musicology
● Piano
● Band, Choir, or Orchestra
● Introductory English Composition
(English writing requirement)

Second Year

● Private Lessons
● Music Theory: Aural Skills
● Music Theory: Written Skills
● Musicology
● Band, Choir, or Orchestra
● Academic Elective

Third Year
 ● Private Lessons
● Upper Level Music Theory
● Upper Division Writing Course
● (English writing requirement)
● 2-3 Music courses as specified in the student’s degree program

Fourth Year

● Private Lessons
● 2-3 Music courses as specified in the student’s degree program
● Academic Elective

Winter Term

First Year

● Private Lessons
Music Theory: Aural Skills
Music Theory: Written Skills
Musicology
Piano
Band, Choir, or Orchestra
Academic Elective

Second Year

● Private Lessons
Music Theory: Aural Skills
Music Theory: Written Skills
Musicology
Band, Choir, or Orchestra
Academic Elective

Third Year

● Private Lessons
Music Theory/Musicology/Jazz Improvisation Elective
2-3 Music courses as specified in the student’s degree program
Academic Elective
Fourth Year

● Private Lessons
2-3 Music courses as specified in the student’s degree program
Academic Elective

Boston University graduation requirements – instrumental music education major.[5]

First Year 1st 2nd

Orientation, Concert Music 0 0

Applied Music, Level 1,2 3 3

Music Theory I,II 3 3

Ear-Training & Sight-Singing I,II 1 1

Class Instrument / Voice 2 —

Music Education I — 2

Musical Organization 1 1

Freshman Writing 4 —

Liberal Arts Elective 4 8

TOTAL CREDITS 18 18

Second Year 1st 2nd

Applied Music, Level 3,4 3 3

Music Theory III, IV 3 3

Ear-Training & Sight-Singing III,IV 1 1

Music History I,II 3 3

Class Instrument/Voice — 1

Musical Organization 1 1

English Literature 4 4

Group Piano I 1 1

Music Education Elective 2 —

TOTAL CREDITS 18 17

Third Year 1st 2nd

Music Education II,III 4 4

Music Theory V,VI 2 2

Music History III,IV 3 3

Applied Music, Level 5a,5b 2 2

Conducting (Choral/Instrumental) 2 2

Musical Organization 1 1

Educational Psychology 4 —

Liberal Arts Elective — 4

TOTAL CREDITS 18 18

Fourth Year 1st 2nd

Practicum I and II, or III and IV 8 0

Music Education IV and V 2 2

Applied Music, Level 6a, 6b 2 2

Musical Organization 1 1
Liberal Arts Elective — 4

Music Education Elective 2 4

TOTAL CREDITS 15 13

There are many similarities between the three sets of graduation requirements for an instrumental
music education major listed above. All three colleges require the music student to take applied
lessons and be in a performing ensemble every semester. All three colleges require an abundance of
classes in music theory and music history. All three colleges require approximately one year of piano
and two years or ear training and sight singing. All three colleges require classes in conducting and
secondary instruments. All three colleges require classes in music education and student teaching.

From the perspective of experience on the job several of these areas are severely lacking. Probably
the most glaring deficiency is in piano skills. If a person comes to music school with little or no piano
skills and graduates from music school with one year of piano training, he is probably not going to
have even close to the piano proficiency that he is going to need on the job. As stated earlier, the
instrumentalist may very well find himself teaching a choir class or a general music class and will find
himself severely handicapped without sufficient piano skills. Even if he is in a situation where he is
teaching strictly instrumental classes, he will need to find accompanists for soloists and will be
hampered in lessons by not having the ability to play at least simple accompaniments himself. Also
score reading and study will be much more of a chore to the instrumentalist who is only used to
reading one line at a time or one clef at a time. A music teacher who cannot play the piano is at an
extreme disadvantage. Music schools need to do more and either require more keyboard skill initially
as an entry requirement or require more lessons and proficiency as a graduation requirement.

Another deficient area is secondary instruments. An instrumental music teacher needs to know every
instrument he is going to teach. He needs to know all the fingerings and all the basic techniques for
tone production. In addition (and probably much more important) he needs to know how to teach
these basic things to the beginning student. Tuba music majors must know how to teach the first day
of beginning band class to fifth grade oboe students and explain to them everything they need to
know to produce their first “correct” sound on the oboe. Simply reading the method book a day ahead
of the students is not enough. This is a very daunting task. There are a large number of instruments
for which to acquire this knowledge and skill. Most colleges simply require a semester class in like
instruments with emphasis placed on acquiring a very minimal skill at performance on a given
instrument. This rudimentary training is not enough. It takes many years of work to acquire the
knowledge and skills required on all the various instruments a person will be required to teach. If a
person is lucky he will be in a situation where he can team teach with someone else and his skills and
their skills will compliment each other. Most people are not so lucky, however.

Another deficient area is marching band. Most colleges do not require an actual class in marching
band. Yet the most visible part of the majority of all the instrumental music departments in the public
schools in this country is the marching band. Whether you like it or not, whether you take the
philosophy that marching band is nothing more than entertainment at a sporting event, or marching
band is great, marching band is a fact of instrumental music life. Actually, in most schools, it is a
rather large part of the band program’s life. And yet so many colleges either ignore it (from a teaching
standpoint – they do not ignore it in their own programs, i.e. at their own football games) or downplay
its importance to the extent that they do not prepare the music student to teach it. Many graduating
instrumental music majors receive their marching band training from two sources; 1) participation in a
marching band (either in high school or in college) and 2) student teaching (if they were fortunate
enough to have student taught in the fall). They find themselves on the job (actually before school
even starts, since most schools have a summer band camp, marching band more than likely is the
very first thing a new teacher will do) and a football game staring them in the face (again, perhaps
even before the first day of school). Is the band traditional style marching or corps style marching? Is
there a drum line? How do I write a drill routine? What about majorettes or a flag corps? Is there a pit
or not (assuming a person even knows what this is)? These are only the most beginning and basic
questions to ask and we still haven’t addressed instrumentation or repertoire. Like piano skills, the
colleges are not doing enough to prepare the instrumental music education major to face the
marching band and know what to do. The first year on the job the new director will revert to whatever
he can remember from high school or college marching bands and try to emulate them. He will find
himself scrambling to find out the answers to questions like those above. What he will not find,
however, is that he can ignore marching band and hope it will go away. He will find it is an important
part of his band program and the most visible part at that.

Another deficient area in teacher preparation for the instrumental music educator is the simple “nuts
and bolts” of the job. How do I administer an instrumental music program? How do I control an
instrument and uniform inventory and distribution system? How do I make minor repairs on the
various instruments so I do not need to send an instrument to a repairman for minor issues and have
a student sitting for at least a week with no instrument (this one is especially important)? How do I
keep track of what the current literature is and where do I purchase it? Where do I purchase
instruments from? How do I prepare an adequate budget for an instrumental music program and what
does it contain? How do I go about getting what I need for the program? What do I need for the
program? How does fundraising work and what’s the best way to go? There are so many questions to
be asked, and so many things to know about, it is an almost overwhelming task. Most colleges are not
even addressing these issues let alone adequately. Where does the new music teacher start? He has
to get help, and quickly. Hopefully there are some local colleagues who can answer some of these
questions, perhaps a music store who calls on the school weekly. A state organization can offer
workshops and resources. However, the teacher training colleges need to do much more in this area.
An MENC article looks at how teachers felt about their own teacher preparation.[6]
In the table above from the same MENC article cited on the previous page it is interesting to note how
the largest percentage for both “best prepared” and “least prepared” was the same category; methods
class. Perhaps this points out a large disparity between colleges in this area. Also note that it was the
actual “doing” classes (methods, student teaching, performance classes) which most respondents felt
were the most valuable and the theory and history classes which they felt were the least valuable in
their training as a teacher (just the opposite of the graduation requirements in these areas as noted
earlier by all three of the colleges looked at).

Finally, this same MENC article made several recommendations as to classes which were lacking in
college music teacher preparation. Noteworthy on the list (next page) is more class preparation in
classroom management. While not strictly a music related issue it still is a skill lacking in most new
teachers of most any discipline. You cannot teach anything if you do not have the classroom under
control.

“The field of music education seems bent on requiring everyone to know and be able to do
everything. I look back on the music teacher preparation programs I have been involved with,
including one that I designed myself, and note that they tried to include everything that a music
teacher might be required to teach. As a result, these programs looked on paper to be jammed with
all the important concepts and experiences of the day. In reality, the students did not have the time,
the energy, or the capability to acquire this huge amount of material. These poor music majors, whose
schedules are filled to overflowing, simply cannot be expected to learn and experience at the depth we
would hope. This parallels my opening thesis that we are not setting up our future music teachers to
reach a high level of quality in their teaching. A large set of diverse information and rudimentary skills,
yes; but a high level of quality, no.”[7]

Perhaps we are expecting the music schools and colleges to take on too much. Perhaps we are
expecting too much from our future music educators. With the rise of world music and
multiculturalism, not only in our schools but in our music programs, there is so much to know and so
much to be skilled at it seems an almost insurmountable task for the future or current music educator.

“The subject matter of school music has changed. The nature of the people that make up the United
States has changed. Diversity is the word that reflects this change. Music education has responded
with multicultural offerings, especially at the elementary level. Multiculturalism has led to a
degradation of quality. It cannot be helped. Most music teachers are products of the dominant
Western European-based culture. Now, with a few classes and a few workshops, these individuals are
teaching music of cultures with which they have no experience. Certainly, these individuals cannot be
expected to teach Ghanaian drumming on the same level as a master drummer from Ghana.
Certainly, the singing of Chinese songs is not taught as well by someone from St. Louis as someone
from Beijing. In addition, we are asked to teach many cultures. The more cultures, the less quality.
We simply cannot expect that we will achieve quality by expanding the number of cultures
experienced. The same would be true for the number of styles, genres, etc. The broader the palette,
the less quality will be attainable.” [8]

Still the battle must be fought. Music in the schools has steadily progressed over the years since it
was first introduced in 1839 in the Boston Public Schools. We must continue to strive to expand not
only the curricular offerings to include world music and multiculturalism (as is the current trend) but
also to continue to improve on teacher preparation, not only at the music school level but after
graduation as well with in-service training, workshops, and seminars aimed at advancing the musical
horizons of all music teachers.

Are music educators on the job keeping up with, and constantly improving on the skills
required to perform their job effectively?

After the music educator graduates from school and acquires his first job it seems is the time his true
education begins. Because of the glaring deficiencies in his education the first thing the new teacher
has to do is fill in the gaps (maybe starting with figuring out what the gaps are in the first place). This
will be an ongoing process driven by events. As noted above this may very well be the marching band
and results may very well be expected by a performing ensemble even prior to the first day of classes.
Ask the new English teacher if he has to mount a production of Romeo and Juliet in a student
performance in front an audience of from several hundred to several thousand persons prior to the
first day of classes. This can very well be the scope of what we are talking about.

Besides acquiring the basic skills needed to “fill in the gaps” of his education, the music educator is
faced with the ongoing task of keeping his musical senses sharpened. This should involve staying
involved as a performer; part of a chamber ensemble which routinely gives performances or part of a
community band, orchestra, or chorus which routinely gives performances. A person needs to continue
to experience what it means to be a performer. The most effective music educator is the one who can
relate from first hand experience how an effective rehearsal is run (from the viewpoint of experiencing
a rehearsal, not running a rehearsal) and how a successful performance feels.

As with an educator in any field it is important for the music educator to maintain and increase his
professional skills by attending in-service training, seminars, workshops, and conferences as well as
continuing his education with advanced degrees. This type of maintenance of acquired skills and the
acquiring of new skills is a life-long and never ending process and a process which is a requirement for
certification in more and more states.

With the music educator, however, it is not enough. A music educator’s life needs to be an unending
cycle of events which feed his musical soul. A musician never stops listening to music. A musician is
constantly seeking to plumb the aesthetic depths and to savor the life-enriching experiences of great
musical performances. Music is like the strongest addiction imaginable. A good musician simply cannot
live without music in his life. The music educator will gradually acquire a large and eclectic collection
of recordings. The music educator will be continually attending concerts, not only in his area but in all
areas of music as well. His interest will be sophisticated and varied, ranging from band and choir to
orchestra and beyond; it will encompass opera and chamber music, jazz and Kodo drumming, ballet
and country music, violin concertos and penny-whistle music, marching bands, steel drum bands, and
mariachi bands. Music is life and life comes in unending shapes and forms. The musician loves them
all.

To other educators it is their job, their vocation; to a musician it is their life-blood. Not only does this
make a difference in how the job is approached and the passion brought to the job, but it makes a
huge difference in the amount of time and devotion spent in the pursuit of training for the job. For the
music educator it is an enormous and daunting task and a task that is not only unending but almost
unreachable. The music educator spends his entire lifetime and his every waking hour in pursuit of
fulfillment of this goal. No other educator has as much to learn or do, or works as hard, or gives as
much of himself to his students as does the music educator.
A person certifying to teach at the age of twenty-two has a potential professional life of at least forty-
three years! No teacher education program, regardless of its quality, can sufficiently prepare a teacher
for all the music teaching situations that may be encountered during that span of time. Many things
will change in forty years. New music will be composed, new technologies will be developed, new
attitudes and interests may evolve in students and society, and the teacher will probably change jobs
several times. Clearly, all music teachers need to continue their education in some form after
graduation from college.[9]