Each Monday evening at 8PM EST, music teachers get together and share ideas about important topics within music education. It’s a great chance to interact directly with educators from all over the world and to get new tips and tricks to help you succeed in the classroom. The entire #musedchat discussion is organized and moderated by Joe Guarr.
It's #musedchat time! Our topic tonight: competition and music education. Be sure to introduce yourself.
In a GIF, share your feelings about the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday.
It's #musedchat time! Our topic tonight: competition and music education. Be sure to introduce yourself.
In a GIF, share your feelings about the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday.
Glad I can finally participate with you all tonight because it is Thanksgiving break. Reahna from Jacksonville 17th Junior in hs future chorus t #musedchat
A1: It’s a big part, but not for the reasons you would think. I love performing in a great space and getting good feedback and adjudications for my students. That’s what I want from any music competition. Not the award/trophy/etc. #musedchat
A1: Chair Tests for 7th/8th Grade Band, Band Ninja (similar to karate), and then some more laid back competitions like "Longest Note" competition #musedchat
A1.1: Also, I've noticed that the bands that don't get all-consumed by the COMPETITION aspect of things are also the ones that are consistently performing at the highest levels. #musedchat
A1: It’s a big part, but not for the reasons you would think. I love performing in a great space and getting good feedback and adjudications for my students. That’s what I want from any music competition. Not the award/trophy/etc. #musedchat
A1: As we are a small district and Ss are involved in everything, we don't do any competitive performing. They compete individually in festival auditions, but that’s about it #musedchat
We rotated chairs in college ensembles...not uncommon to play 3rd/bass bone and first on the same concert cycle. Really stretched my chops in a good way #musedchat
I recently participated in solo and ensemble. I was upset that I didn’t receive a superior rating, but it’s the feedback that matters not the Score. #musedchat
A2: The students compare what belt level they are at compared to their peers. They want to test for the newest belt as soon as it is available. Ss study and practice so they can earn the next belt before their friends. #musedchat
Hopping in late. Miki, K-5 Gen/Orch/Choir (this year), IL. I experienced solo and ensemble, marching band, and talent grant (it's totally a competition). #musedchat
It also teaches our students that every part is important. Kids often try to switch parts to try to play first because they think it is more prestigious. #musedchat
But honestly: the learning experience and realization that it isn't the ranking but the rating; the cliche that you are only competing with yourself...when the judges give you that high score that says "yep, you totally earned it" #musedchat
A1: We enter our spring musical in a local theater award program (modeled after the TONYs), but I always tell the Ss it is for exposure and the community-building not the score. #musedchat
A2: Great adjudications, a chance to play in a different setting, exposure/publicity for your program, helps develop next steps for development as both a band and a program. #musedchat
True! When i grumbled about being second chair AGAIN, my roommate said "Maybe it's not that you're best at second chair parts, but THE best at second chair parts." It was part ego boost and also somewhat wise words. #musedchat
A2: hearing feedback to know how to improve. Also, learning that it is OK to fail because it’s just another learning opportunity, and it would be boring if you got perfect scores all the time. It makes being at the top worth it. #musedchat
I feel like, for the most part, it holds kids accountable for knowing their stuff. For some kids, it is one of the only things that motivates them. #musedchat
Sometimes it takes work getting students to understand that we want strong players on ALL parts though. Third bone isn't an insult - play the **** out of it! #musedchat
In reply to
@JarvelaMused, @dan_austin76, @SamuelFritz
How many times do they say "oh man, I suck" but never explain why? The fact that specific parts of their performances are judged independently gives them an opportunity to see how much they are doing RIGHT #musedchat
YES! I create the tests new every year. I base it on where they are at as a class so that it's attainable for everyone, but they still have to work at them. I have definitions, individual notes and exercise lines from the book as benchmarks. #musedchat
A2: The adjudication that comes with competition has been really beneficial for us in the past. As a student, feedback at S&E helped me polish my solo for college auditions #musedchat
I was thinking of using some of the extra bulletin board space in my room as a brag board (like, brag about anything, stealing it from a HS choir teacher). Anybody do it before? Any advice or warnings? #musedchat
A2. Festival rankings and awards are often a necessary evil. They give us something to brag about to our community, administration, school boards, etc. I have a giant trophy case displaying all our awards. I don’t love it, but you have to do it. #musedchat
YES! That's fantastic your Ss have bought into it. While it is a bit of a competition for the whole class, it's also an individual competition. "Be better than you were yesterday". #musedchat
A2 I have been in countless chair tests, marching contests, honor band auditions, and solo / ensemble festivals and encourage my Ss to push themselves to do the same. #MusEdChat
A2:2 competition in an art form is, at times an exercise in futility. Judges wave away subjectivity by saying “on a different day …” I want Ss to know exactly what to do to achieve excellence because that’s what “we” do, not for any extra reward #MusEdChat
YES! That's fantastic your Ss have bought into it. While it is a bit of a competition for the whole class, it's also an individual competition. "Be better than you were yesterday". #musedchat
I misread your tweet and thought you were giving them a board to brag about stealing from a choir teacher and I giggled. I don't have a board though. #musedchat
I always played 1st trumpet in high school because my T saw me as a good musician even though my chops were very limited. In college, I discovered I am a top notch Trumpet 4! #musedchat
In reply to
@jguarr, @JarvelaMused, @dan_austin76, @SamuelFritz
One of the things I love about good composers is that they often given melody parts to 2nd and 3rd parts. Shows the kids that all parts have value. @BrianBalmages does this often. One of the many reasons I love his work #musedchat
In reply to
@jguarr, @JarvelaMused, @SamuelFritz, @BrianBalmages
YES! We have reached the Fall slump with my beginners. They are now realizing learning to play an instrument takes "work". I remind them that they are better than when they started 2 months ago. #musedchat
The one I saw, it was things that the chorus Ss did that were good outside of the classroom. In the paper for winning a XC meet, making Honors choir or Tri-M. Getting a college acceptance letter. And one kid put up a math quiz he got a 92 on. #musedchat
I complimented my beginning orchestra kiddos for practicing and they all admitted that they weren't. In front of my principal. During an observation. Whoops. #musedchat
A1: I’m at school that is just building the program back to sustainable numbers, and I do not bring students to competitions. Kids that want for that find it in other avenues. #musedchat
A1: tons from MB to solo festival to ensemble festivals. It’s about employability to us. You must be able to deliver under slight pressure (auditions anyone) #musedchat
HA. Mine wanted to play the 'poison pattern' game (don't echo a certain pattern) in an observation and asked me "Can we play that game where you kill us?" #musedchat
In reply to
@msmusiced, @dan_austin76, @TubaChic, @jguarr
Right, I kind of already started it too because one of my flute players was very proud that she practiced every day for a week. Gotta keep that train rolling! #musedchat
A3: I would love to see others response to this. Our only competition is band karate and longest note. As beginners, I try to instill a community of working as a team. #musedchat
Q3: you aren’t competing against anyone else- you are competing against a standard. Once it becomes less personal, there are tons of gains do Ss #musedchat
A3: Wanting to win can get them to have a perfect performance/find their flow state/get in the zone, but then once they get there they understand how good that kind of performance is and want to keep doing it. #musedchat
A3: I was an athlete, and a very competitive one, before I shifted to music full time. I always tell students to try to beat their personal records- least notes missed, most minutes practiced in a week, etc. #musedchat
I use something with my students I call the “Practice Incentive Program”. I have monthly prizes (movie passes, gift cards, etc). Any kid who posts a video of themselves practicing on social media is entered into a draw for the prize. #musedchat
A3: Competition against self. You can't control what your classmates are going to do, but you can try to be better than you were a day/week/month ago #musedchat
A3: With individual auditions, trying is key. “What’s the worst that can happen? Not getting in/the part? That won’t happen if you don’t audition!” #musedchat
Beware the trap of “trying”. It has to be an actual effort or it’s just another way for students to feel good about themselves without actually achieving anything. #musedchat
A3. I like the fact that competition holds students to a certain standard. They understand that we don’t accept performing poorly. It builds a healthy level of commitment and pride. My students take pride in our reputation and want to live up to it. #musedchat
A3: I really don’t promote competition between members overtly - more like the principals of mild pressure and continuing to raise our acceptable performance standards. #MusEdChat
A4. I don’t like it when my kids get upset if they don’t “win”. I often don’t tell my kids our results until days/weeks later. The experience is about performing, getting feedback, and improving. It should never be about winning. #musedchat
A4: No one's self-worth should ever be based on a medal, trophy, banner, or lack-thereof. I have a gold medal from indoor percussion junior yr that I am proud of having, b/c of all the hard work it represents. However... #musedchat
But don’t you define winning? That’s where the education comes in for me. Winning Amy not mean the highest score. Defining winning ahead of time helpsnoht a ton. #musedchat
...others in the group with me were more about the quantity and composition of said medal and prospective future medals than becoming the performers that would win those. I chose not to do indoor percussion my senior year of high school.... #musedchat
Kids can be very competitive, and, to be honest, so can I. But I have had to change my approach. Do I like getting gold medals? YES! Is that why I do it? NO. It’s a tough mindset to build with kids. Have pride in their performance not their results #musedchat
...that next year wasn't as enjoyable for them, because they didn't win all the time. (Because winning mattered most). And I am using 'they' broadly because I know I wasn't one saint in a group of sinners... #musedchat
...a few more years down the line, and it all festered into something much more toxic within the performing ensembles themselves. Ss thought they were SO necessary to the band they could do what they want. That sort of thing. Hardly anybody wanted to join.. #musedchat
...there were only going to be about 20 some students in the competitive marching band. It was discontinued and is just a pep band for football. It now has around 50/60 members. End of rant. Sorry everyone. #musedchat
