My Music Education Story

In this post, I hope to give you an idea of my background in music education, from my early years to my current status as a Music Education Major at Brigham Young University, emphasizing as an Elementary Music Specialist.

The Early Years:

Last Christmas, I was watching some home videos of our family opening Christmas present from years ago, when I was maybe 4 or 5 years old.  In the video, I noticed that I got a toy tambourine for Christmas, my little brother got a toy saxophone, and one of my older brothers got a Beach Boys CD.  A few minutes later, the video cut to a family recital we had where my three older siblings played Christmas songs they had practiced on the piano while everyone sang along.

From a young age, I was constantly surrounded by music.  Many activities were part of my early music education including weekly primary music time, my mother and siblings participating in community choirs, musical toys, older siblings' piano lessons, Christmas recitals and caroling traditions, music class once a week at school, and my dad turning on Classical Rock Radio on Saturdays.  My first formal training involving music was dance lessons starting at age 5, and then beginning piano lessons at age 8.  I loved music class and I remember loving my piano lessons (most of the time).  During my last year of elementary school, the 5th graders could participate in beginning band and chorus, and I choose to do both.  My mom encouraged me by putting me in private flute lessons, which helped me be more confident and allowed me to help the other young flutists who were struggling.

After entering middle school, I had the opportunity to accompany the choir when my mother got a job as the school's choir teacher.  The previous teacher had used CD's to accompany the choir, but my mom practiced with me at home, and helped me learn the pieces so I could accompany the middle school choir.  The school band needed an additional trombonist, so I volunteered to learn trombone, which was successful.  The next year, a trumpet was needed, so I learned trumpet too.  About this same time,  I began accompanying the choir and soloists at church.

The High School Years:

In my last year of middle school, the mother of a younger student at the school approached me after a choir concert to ask if I would teach her daughter piano lessons.  I agreed, and to my delight, I absolutely loved it.  I continued teaching throughout high school and had 14 students my senior year.

I participated in concert and marching band my first two years of high school, playing flute, mellophone, and trombone.  I auditioned to be the accompanist for the choirs at my high school and was admitted into the class to be the rehearsal as well performance pianist.  I even lead sectionals during the in-class rehearsals.  I learned so much from accompanying the choirs and learning from wonderful choir instructors.

Meanwhile, I continued taking my own private piano lessons.  I participated in both local and state competitions.  My senior year, I won 2  scholarships based on my performance for local music associations.  I participated in these competitions in preparation for applying to the BYU School of Music.

BYU

After applying to the School of Music, I was shocked to learn that I wasn't admitted.  I was devastated, mostly because I felt like I knew I would be a good music teacher based on my experiences teaching piano lessons, leading sectionals school, and learning  and arranging pieces for my friends and I to perform at church.  After applying a second time, I was admitted into the Music Education program and my formal education could begin!

My music education at BYU has consisted of theory, sight-singing, and dictation courses, piano lessons, choir, and specified courses for Elementary Music Education.  In these latter courses, I have received an education about children's musical and cognitive development, and several teaching/learning theories such as Kodaly, Orff, and Dalcroze.  I have learned how to create lessons based on the concepts we wish students to learn and the skills they can use to learn them.  I have had opportunities to go to elementary schools and observe music teachers, and I have even been able to teach a few 10-15 minutes lessons. 

Of all the music education I have received throughout my life, I believe that my formal education courses at BYU will certainly be the most helpful to me throughout this Arts Bridge experience.  Although I had a lot of music education as a child, I wasn't always aware of it and was definitely not aware of how my teacher was guiding my learning.  In my classes, I have learned techniques and processes to follow that create an engaging learning environment for the students.  I am still learning about how to best implement these processes and facilitate learning as a teacher, but having previous experience doing so under the guidance of my own teacher is invaluable.  Although learning how to manage a classroom is hard to do without experience, having learned how to format my lessons to be engaging and objective-driven before coming into the Arts Bridge experience I think will be very helpful.