Music fosters lifelong learning.

Learning is a lifelong activity that does not stop when students leave school. When you think about it, even tasks like reading an article, working out at the gym, or attending a meeting for work are all examples of learning: the acquisition of knowledge or skills through experience. When students learn music they are not only learning how to perform it. They also develop an understanding of how to learn new things, how to practice and improve their skills, and how to turn ambition and curiosity into success. In my class, it is my goal that eventually my students will become their own best teachers. By teaching students how to practice effectively in class, how to set and achieve goals, and how to analyze large amounts of information, I hope to foster their development as lifelong independent learners driven by individual curiosity. The consistent practice necessary to achieve success in a performance art such as music  can help students identify which strategies help them learn best both inside and outside of the music classroom. Whether or not students continue to study or perform music after they leave my class, they will be able to take with them a basic understanding of how effective learning strategies enhance the way they observe and interact with the world around them. 

Music teaches problem solving & critical thinking.

Problem solving and critical thinking are essential skills in studying music, and they are equally as important outside of music as well. Knowing how to identify, isolate, and find a solution to a problem is a part of everyday life for most people. Unlike an algebraic equation, life does not always provide a clearly prescribed method for finding a solution to a problem. And unlike most things nowadays, the process of learning music cannot be accomplished by a quick search online. Whereas Google may spit out an answer to 2+5(7/2)x8, it may have a harder time finding an answer for "how to know I am playing the right rhythm in measure 21 in the alto part of  Mr. Conte's arrangement of 'The Star Spangled Banner." Whether it is taking a detour on the way to work, figuring out why your email won't send, or why your cookies always come out of the oven overdone, life is all about identifying, isolating, and solving problems that we can't just always search online for the answer. In my class, I emphasize the importance of problem solving as a crucial part of learning how to thoughtfully identify, isolate, and practice challenging portions of music. Through this process of problem solving, students are learning to recognize patterns and to draw conclusions based on the solutions they find. In my classroom, it is my goal to demonstrate how the same strategies used to practice a measure of their concert music can be used to help them in other parts of their life as well. 

Music encourages effective personal reflection & self evaluation.

So much of what students do in school relies on other people providing them with feedback. Whether it is the math teacher checking homework, the science teacher grading a test, or the English teacher providing feedback on an essay, students are often told whether they're right or wrong without much consideration given as to how to make sure they are correct in the future. When students know how to evaluate their own work and assess their own performance, they are able to make countless more improvements to their work than any teacher ever could. Luckily, music is uniquely situated to provide students with infinite opportunities for personal reflection and self evaluation in ways that other subjects cannot. Whereas a fourth grader may not yet understand all that goes into writing a perfect paragraph, they can surely tell whether or not they're playing the right notes to Mary Had a Little Lamb. With music, students get constant and instant aural feedback based on what they are performing. I teach my students not just to reflect on what went well, but to also question why some things may have not. Furthermore, I encourage them to try and figure out what they can do to improve even more in the future. Learning music encourages this natural process of personal reflection and self evaluation that can provide a strong foundation for how students think about the decisions they make and the work they produce throughout their lives. Teaching students how to self evaluate and reflect helps them to become more independent and active participants in their own learning journeys.