What did you learn from the Wikipedia entries that might seem interesting or relevant to your current situation? How might you marry the concepts of a liberal arts education with your professional pursuits? What could a professional musician possibly get out of taking a class on, say, Botany? Or the French Revolution? Or Ancient Greek Philosophy? Or any of the other Liberal Arts Courses that we offer here? (You might want to peruse the current Converse Academic Catalogue for ideas. You can link to it from the Converse homepage.) And, finally, did you take anything away from Convocation today that might resound off of these themes?
A liberal arts college is usually a small college with a lot more interaction between professors and students. I'm not really sure how a liberal arts education will fit in with playing in an orchestra, but I'm sure it would help some if I teach students privately. Being able to help the student interpret what you are trying to teach them might mean that you have to explain it in terms that they would understand. Such as if they are very good at science, then it might help you to compare something from science to something with music. Also having more interaction with faculty members might make it easier to talk to your students and pass down information that you learned from those faculty members. Taking a foreign language might help if say you took German and you are playing a piece by Mahler. It is a lot easier to be able to understand all of the different phrases like "With slow bow" without having to go look them all up online and write them in your music, especially when the symphony is anywhere from 40-60 minutes (believe me, this can be a very long process). It would save a lot of time in that respect. Also musicians tend to travel so that would help if you knew some foreign languages. It would also help to know some history about different countries because then you would know things like when Shostakovich was around, he had a very hard time composing in Russia because the government controlled what he could and could not compose, so then you can understand the pieces by that composer more easily.
I did not really notice anything in particular about Convocation, but wherever I go, like Convocation, or just walking down the halls, it is always really neat to see students interacting with the faculty. Whether it be making jokes, or asking serious questions, it's really good to know that you can approach any of the faculty and feel comfortable asking them questions or just talking to them about any problems.
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It's interesting that you looked at the liberal arts education from a "futuristic" standpoint (sounds like we will become aliens or something). I'd just say to remember what the whole basis of a liberal arts education is - well-rounded study. While you can relate everything back to music, the point of liberal arts study (this is getting redundant) is the fact that we are going to learn about subjects BEYOND the realm of music as well.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, nice entry!
I think you are right about the teaching aspect of a liberal arts education- it is important to be able to relate to your students. Being well rounded helps. You also made a very good point about the whole languages thing. Understanding the native tongue of the composer can be helpful with score markings and in the case of a vocalist, with the text of the song.
ReplyDeleteI think that you made very good points. My blog was completely different, and I enjoy seeing how other people think about things. I totally agree with you though! As a teacher, or even a performer, it is very important to understand other cultures or even other subjects. Our lives would be pretty boring if the only thing we thought about 24/7 was music. Not that I don't love music, but sometimes I need a break. :)
ReplyDeleteNice Emma! I totally agree with you on the language front (although my language of choice will be ASL!). Sometimes I really wish that I knew what alot of our music term meant. What dose Figero mean for that matter? I hope it's not anything bad, or else I'll have to rename my cat. But then again, it is musically involved, so I hightly doubt it is anything bad...but I digress. Very good entry! And I love that you want to be able to relate to your private students! If every private teacher did that, there would be little musicians running around everywhere!
ReplyDeleteSome good thoughts, Emma. Yes, you pretty much need a bottomless well of ideas in order to teach. I was once trying to describe a desirable oboe tone to a student and had to resort to talking about different types of fabric--"Play satin, not taffeta!" And the German/Mahler connection (and all similar connections) goes much deeper--it helps to begin to understand not only German but German-ness.
ReplyDeleteHi Emma!
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed this, straight and to the point. =]
I too have suffered the long line of research to look up a rare musical term for a piece. It's very heavily weighed on the frustrated end of things.
& I too love seeing the faculty interact with all of us. I loved the faculty were just as chatty before entering Twichell as the students were. I also love that only one professor [his only music professor] of my boyfriend's knows his name, while ours are fighting to build that connection with all of us. =]
-Maggie.