Thomas J. West Music

One of the topics that I have pondered the most as a professional music educator is the role of music-making in our modern culture. As a young man in college charting my future, I had an epiphany during a bowl trip with the Penn State Marching Blue Band that this, indeed, this marching and concert band thing, was what I wanted to do. But how does one do that professionally? The best answer for me was to become a band director. There really are very few opportunities out there to be a professional marcher, and those mostly involve enlisting.

It  became very apparent rather quickly that school band, orchestra, and chorus programs were a musical microcosm. They, of course, do much to help shape American youth in their formative years, but their impact within their communities and on American culture is limited to Friday nights at the football stadium and cliche stereotypes as dated, dorky activities on tv programs and movies. It is this perception in the court of public opinion and the vast popularity of rock bands that led to the formation of educational programs like School of Rock.

School performing ensemble programs only account for 20% or less of a student body. The reasons for this are numerous, but include the fact that wearing a band uniform and committing as much time outside of class as the sports teams do is a difficult sell for a lot of teens. The other 80% are left with little options for music-making in an educational environment, and we are left with a culture of under-educated music consumers.

Programs that bridge that gap between popular culture and the in-depth study of quality music-making are desperately needed. Quality music, despite it's genre, incorporates all aspects of music into its performance. Melody, rhythm, meter, harmony, texture, timbre, dynamics, phrasing, and so on are present to varying degrees in all music of depth. Some genres of music lend themselves more to the expression of those aspects than others, but all music-making should strive to communicate with all of these tools. Students of music of all ages need to experience these aspects and their impact on communication.

School performing ensembles as a microcosm are possessed with public performances and the pursuit of excellence. 95% of their instructional time is spent preparing for the next public performance. The quality of music performance in our schools has continued to climb, spurred on by "musical sports" such as competitions, ratings festivals, and the like. Students in those ensembles perform their part at high levels of proficiency, but often lack experience in other areas such as technical proficiency outside of their concert repertoire, improvisation, theory, and composition. The microcosm of school performing ensembles has "performed itself into a corner" in terms of the program's relevance and value to the community it serves. Striving for excellence in these ensembles is addictive activity for both the students and their instructors, and it leaves students with a desire to be involved with that kind of a program after their school days without a place to go do it. The days of the community band and drum corps are waning.

Instead, school music programs produce ensemble musicians who can't stand on their own. They are unable to make their own music without a director. Or, their attempts to make their own music are superficial and technically flawed. This kind of education does little to bring depth of musical knowledge and quality music-making to our greater collective culture. So what can bridge that gap, if not school bands?

Music Technology As A Bridge

One of the most exciting educational pushes right now is the increase in secondary schools offering electronic music, music production, and digital music composition courses. With the advent of the iPad and affordable yet versitile programs like GarageBand and Mixcraft, students who do not have a traditional background in performing music can finally get a high school music education along with their performing music classmates that is actually worth something.

Students in these courses are learning the basics of melody writing, simple chord progressions, form, texture, meter, and more. They are also learning basic studio techniques such as microphone and mixing console basics, signal processing and digital effects, and basic mixing and mastering of musical content that can be published legally online. Music technology courses are exploratory and creative in nature, allowing students to learn the basic music concepts from their instructors and then use the technology to explore and experience it first-hand.

Contemporary A Cappella Singing As A Bridge

Another emerging art form that helps bridge the gap is contemporary a cappella singing. With roots going back to barbershop harmony and the doo wop groups of the 50's and 60's, today's contemporary a cappella scene celebrates popular music of the last fifty years. Contemporary a cappella is, indeed, its own microcosm, as is barbershop singing. It has grown over the past twenty years into a form of music performance and music education that can be found on virtually every college campus in the United States. As those a cappella singers graduate and become professional music educators themselves, more are turning to contemporary a cappella to augment and modernize the traditional Western European choral programs in thier schools.

Contemporary a cappella is a mcirocosm that has momentum right now, with the general public actually beginning to take notice of the skill and creativity of these vocal "bands without instruments". In a mass media culture with superficial pop, hip hop, and country music (most of which will not stand the test of time), contemporary a cappella's quirky, yet skillful and expressive demeanor is gaining ground with television programs like Glee and The Sing Off and with the success of groups like Striaght No Chaser.

The Bold Frontier Of The 21st Century Sonic Artist

All music education has value for the microcosms they serve. People quite simply become better human beings by making music of any kind, especially when that music goes hand-in-hand with learning more and honing your craft. The days of the average Americans making music recreationally are long gone, made obsolete by the rise of the mass media industry. We let "the pros" provide us our entertainment now rather than making our own.

And yet...

We are on the verge of a new expressive frontier. With the internet's ability for anyone to share anything they produce, musicians everywhere have an important role to play in the shaping of our culture for the mutual benefit of all. Education and the creative spirit will keep our culture from spiraling into complacency and entropy. We need brave souls like Jonathan Coulton and Paul and Storm who are willing to give up their day jobs to pioneer their own blend of cultural influences into a different musical expression. We need people like Deke Sharon who understand the value of education and the importance of performing quality music that isn't 100 years old.

Musical styles will always have their own following. People's taste in music is as personal as their choices in attire. Musical microcosms will always exist. It's time, however, for a return of the musical artist. In an era when musicians no longer have to wait for a record label to "choose them" for distribution, we need bold moves and hard work from musicians who are willing to give their all to making sonic art. And since anyone can put themselves out there now online, never has there been a more important time for music educators to lead the way with the knowledge and skills they possess.

This article (c) 2012 Thomas J. West. All content on ThomasJWestMusic dot com is licensed under a Creative Contributions Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 License. Please contact the author before publishing on or off-line.

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