Piano fears and teaching a choir

So anyone who knows me knows that piano is not exactly my instrument of choice. Sure, we've have our up's and down's in the past... but I feel the piano and I have come to better terms with our relationship. We're not in love, but we respect one another. I can bang out simple things on the spot, and with enough practice time I can play basic songs. So when I was asked to do a mock choir warm-up lesson, I decided to focus it on stretching the body, more so than the vocal chords. Good choice on my part? Not so much. If I did that in a real life classroom not only would my students trample me and start complete chaos, but I'd lose me job and fail my students for being a shotty teacher. I avoided the piano, since singing isn't exactly my forte either. I know what you may be thinking. Not fond of piano, or singing? But you want to be a music teacher? Now I didn't really mean that either. Singing and playing in front of your own students in your own classroom, well that's fairly different from playing and singing in front of a class of your fellow colleagues. While it's a warm, inviting environment, I freaked! I'm getting over that though the more I get used to it. Playing some scales, chords and notes on a piano? Well that's easy-cheesy stuff. Singing, not so bad either (so long as my throat isn't all tensed up!) How can I expect my students to belt out those lovely notes if I don't first make myself vulnerable and show them what is it we do in a choir! Lead by example, that's the key.
So if I didn't have my 'students' sing, or stretch/warm-up their vocal chords, then what did we do in our mock choir warm-up? I applied some basic things I learned body stretches for singing, playing an instrument, and utilized some of my dance background for what I felt was applicable to the situation. We did some shoulder rolls, head rolls, neck stretches, chest and back stretches, touch your toes, some basic 'get the blood circulating' stretches. We did some breathing exercises. Deep inhales through the nose, out through the mouth with a hissing sound, and each time we did so we increased the duration to help develop and control the breath.
What else did I learn? Well not only did I have the luxury of playing teacher, but of playing student! I have to say my first 'real' experience as a choir member was in this mock trial of one. I was in choir in elementary school, but we didn't read music, learn how to breath, or stretch, or anything really. We just squawked out words loudly, sometimes we read lyrics off of a typo-ridden page, and most of the time instead of singing the students would huddle in the middle or the back and just talk amongst one another. So needless to say, that was a very unproductive experience. It deterred me from choirs, until I was older and realized that real choirs actually do stuff that is musical! So being in this mock choir I learned a few things.
One thing I learned was, if you're going to count, then count. If you're going to conduct, then conduct. Don't do both. Maybe in the beginning you might need to, but eventually let the training wheels come off. Also, try not to sing (or mouth the words) to your students. Same applies, in the beginning you're probably going to have to sing quite a bit with them, but eventually momma-bird is going to have to let the chicks fly and let the song birds sing!
As music teachers we tend to stress the importance of sight-reading and sight-singing. Yet many of our warm-ups omit sight-reading. Why is this? Sheer malarkey I believe. While it should never be the entire basis of any music class, it still has it's place. Especially when it comes to warm-ups. At least try to incorporate one sight-singing warm-up for your choirs. It'll help get their eyes and brains better at deciphering that secret code we call music notation. Thinking back to my first guitar lessons, I always warmed up with sight-reading. I remember playing a series of E notes, then F. Then alternating. Changing the duration. Then learning more notes and adding those to the mix. I'd warm-up with sight-reading scales, until of course they were memorized. It helped not only my sight-reading skills, but helped my technique as my fingering got faster and more precise. No reason why we shouldn't train the vocal chords that way too.
I took a lot from this experience. It's a really great opportunity to get to study with and explore these various approaches to teaching music with others just starting out like myself, and with people who are veterans at it. Everyone has their own special flare that they bring to the experience and I feel we're all gaining so much from working collaboratively and trying things out. If it crashes and burns, we talk about why and how to turn that around. Now, I'm not so scared of teaching a choir or popping on a piano. I think I might wear a cape the first day I teach a real choir. Okay, so maybe it's going to be a mental cape. Either way, good things will happen.

Must have trades/skill sets of a Music Educator!

"Let's face it, one can't dedicate one's life to teaching without being an optimist. We take those who don't know, and believe that we can help them to learn." (Boonshaft, 'Teaching Music with Purpose" p.217). Being optimistic does not mean that you without a question of a doubt, 100% of the time, believe that the world is comprised of rainbows, unicorns and puppies. Oh no. That's just nauseating and no one wants that. No one. It's certainly a key component to teaching with purpose. This optimism is applicable to you (as a teacher, human being, lifelong learner, etc) and also to your students, ensembles, choirs, bands, and fellow musicians. Optimism gives us the mindset in order to move to the next level, it helps us grow and to celebrate even the 'smallest' milestones. You as the educator, need to have that positive mental outlook on life, especially when you have that student who is stuck in that rut and needs that nudge to get out of it. I remember my first Aural Theory I class at the University of Bridgeport. I felt extremely confident in my level of expertise in music theory, and music in general. (Singing was never my forte). Sight-reading reading, oh yeah, I have the skills for that. Solfege syllables, I pretty much knew as well. So here I am, first Aural Theory course ever, Junior year of college. It was a small class, and everyone seemed nervous about singing. Some did not know how to sight-read, others had no notion of what solfege is, or how to read a note or tell a time or key signature. So I felt pretty confident that I'd do well in this class, and be able to help teach some of my peers. Well I was the third person to sight-sing on the spot. First person who went, sung on the syllable 'loo' and it was pleasant and beautiful. Next girl who went, was weary because she did not know solfege.... but when she sang it was gorgeous. Absolutely gorgeous. (Come to find out later, she was taking private voice lessons, specializing in an operatic style) So now, that was the act I had to follow. Last 'singing' experience I had (omitting singing in my car or the shower) was seventh grade choir; which had no warm-up, no music, just some lyrics, and a bunch of adolescents screeching and screaming to a poor accompaniment on an out-of-tune piano. So here I am, about to follow up the up-and-coming opera singer, and I panicked. Needless to say this was not a good 'performance' on my part. After class, I had an emotional break down! I actually cried. It was a pitiful sight. Luckily, he (Prof. Frank Martignetti) is a phenomenal teacher. He was calm and collective, had me take some deep breaths, showed me some basic breathing techniques and worked with me. He was optimistic and I saw an instant result as I echoed what he sang and played on piano. It truly helped settled me, and (although I am still not an exemplar singer) I feel more confident in my ability to sight-sing. He always kept an optimistic attitude and would point out the things that I sang in tune, or if I finally was able to sing certain intervals, he truly embraced even the smallest milestone with constant encouragement. Always embracing the growth that I made in my sight-singing abilities. For this reason (and many more) I will try to emulate these skill sets and personality traits that make him an exemplar teacher.

"When I think of excellence- true excellence- I think of the drive to do more than what is required, to do better than what is needed, and to go further than what is necessary." (Boonshaft, 163) It is implausible to think that it is possible to be a master at everything. Besides, what fun would that be? To be a 'know-it-all' at anything and everything? 1. You wouldn't be able to learn anything new and 2. Most people would probably really dislike you, especially if you had a constant arrogance about you. It's the strive to exude excellence. To always be grow and be better. Excellence comes in a plethora of forms. It can be proper posture, good breath control for a singer, utilizing proper stretches and muscle warm-ups, developing aural skills, sight-reading abilities, proper embouchure for brass and wind players, accurate body map, and so on and so forth. But the mindset of excellence will be the true driving force to get carry you through life with purpose. Excellence is not about gauging your skill sets to those of others, striving to be up to par with another, or better. Oh no. Excellence is linear, and based on you and your personal gains. No steps backwards, either stagnant lack of motion, or expelling that motion forward. It's about your own personal gains and triumphs! True triumphs of your students is not your doing as the educator, it's their strive to learn. That's their accomplishment. You giving them the basic skills and knowledge to help propel their inner desire to learn and grow, that's your doing. You as the educator plant the seed, you may need to tend to that seed and help it along, but it's only going to grow if it has the willpower to do so. True excellence cannot be taught. You can (actually, should) emulate it for your students through yourself. Let your students see you fail, bomb and go down with the ship! Then let them see you swim to shore, jimmy-rig another ship and succeed! Let your students see your practice, point out when you mess up, and let them see you figure it out. If they ask a question to which you are not very knowledgeable about the answer, let them know that you do not know. But then follow up by telling them that you'll figure it out for them, and encourage them to do the same. I learn the most about myself from my students. After all you're only human and no one can know everything, and that's one of the beautiful things that makes life so great. Just because you're the teacher does not mean your students are the only ones that get to experience the joy that is learning! Do not deprive you or your students of that constant thirst for knowledge. Excellence in a nutshell.

I feel that a lot of educators (while good and with the best of intentions for their students) forget what it is to be a student. We've all been a student, for me all I've ever known is how to be a student. I was in school since I was four years old, I'm 24 now and I'm still a student. While I'm excited to soon have my Masters, I never to stop learning, whether I'm in a classroom setting or not. I've had more experience being a student than being a teacher. So that's my strong skill. I don't want to forget the feeling of being at the receiving end of learning, asking questions and developing critical thinking skills, those late nights of little to no sleep perfecting that paper, hours of practice time until I fall asleep with the guitar in my arms, nestling it like a newborn child, having your hands and fingers fatigue from pages of note taking, and dreading every and any power point presentation, being perplexed and wondering 'why on earth is this teacher having us do this?' and trying to apply it to real life situations. I can't even begin to explain how many teachers I've had tell me 'you'll use everything you learn in this class', "the $175 mandatory book you buy will be a staple in your library" and we probably went over one chapter in that book during the duration of the course, and the book serves better as a shim for a wobbly table than a good read. I vow to have my students be the top priority. Now note taking, papers, hours of practice, and yes, even pricey books may all be necessary at one point or another, but I will only utilize these options when they are pertinent and applicable to the needs of my students. For the students that need to work two, three jobs to just be able to survive or pay tuition, I feel you. I've been there (am still there) and I will applaud their valiant efforts to stay in school and better their lives. For the students who do not have to work to live, but apply themselves and focus on their education and bettering their lives, I applaud them too. Good work ethic comes in many forms. I swear, if you cut my veins open in my undergraduate pure caffeine would've oozed out, for coffee is my college drug of choice and was my saving grace to get me through triple shifts and a course overload. I intern at an elementary school and let me tell you, those 4-12 year olds work incredibly hard. Their life is a series of post tests, tests and pre-tests. Learning how to read and write is incredibly hard, especially for a five year old. But it is such a necessary skill set to have. Multiplication and division, golly. It's easy for us now, but for the kids just learning it, it takes a lot to master these skills. It's easy to lose sight of where you came from. Kids need to learn certain things (like basic math, reading and writing) in order to be productive members of society, of course. But be sure to allow creativity and time to be a kid! Some kids have such a difficult time using their imagination, if it's not on a note card or in a text book, they've been brought up to believe it isn't pertinent to know. How horrible! Luckily as music educators, we have that ability to incorporate creativity and imagination in our lessons! We also incorporate math, science, English, history, etc (mwahaha, our students will be none of the wiser! And when they do realize it's all related, it won't be so scary for them). It's extremely difficult to make memorizing a multiplication table fun, but sneaking in fractions in music, oh man, now that sounds like a party to me.

I vow to teach in a way that is inviting and encourages a learners' growth and confidence.

So I taught a 5 minute mock first trumpet lesson to a '6th grader'... I thought my objective was how to breath, for the trumpet of course. Whether that was conveyed to my 'student' or the observing class, is another story. It was certainly the main focus point of the lesson, but then it went into actually making a sound on the trumpet. Anyone who's had the misfortune of hearing me play a brass instrument knows that it's not exactly my forte, but I tried going into the lesson excited and eager to teach. Now the hypothetical student actually knows way more than I do when it comes to trumpets, but it was still nice. What I did realize is that if you have to choose the 'easiest' student to teach, it would have to be one that knows basically nada, zilch, zip! It's a 'fresh slate' so to speak, no bad habits to break, no time spent trying to figure out what they know/don't know as of yet. Now of course in real lessons, I'll have students that know nothing, or a little, maybe even more than me. Now the latter of those, is an issue. While it's impossible to know everything, you at least need to know more than your student. Otherwise, how can you teach them the subject matter? Now while it's perfectly acceptable to own up when you don't know something, you need to make sure you follow up by learning it. Set that example.
To be completely honest, band instruments used to scare me! I took my first instrument in the fifth grade, it was trumpet. It was also the last time I played an instrument, until I was 15 and took guitar lessons. My elementary school band teacher scared me, I remember her just yelling and shrieking like a banshee in class. She wasn't the music teacher for the school, and none of us knew how to read music or play instruments, because we were never taught. So when she tried teaching band, it was a mess. I wanted to be the student who could figure it out, after all it was only three valves. I thought, 'How hard could it be?' Hah. I learned how hard when I was practicing at home and my mother asked me very sweetly, 'Sweetie, why don't you practice outside?' That would've been a lovely option, omitting the fact that it was pouring outside! That's how awful it sounded. Without the right guidance and a teacher with no patience, I soon thereafter quit the trumpet and evaded any situation involving an instrument thereafter.
I have since then learned a lot more about music, how to play instruments and so on. It's not scary to me anymore. I did not take up band in high school, because that same teacher was the director there. As I go into my student teaching next year, I refuse to work with that teacher, although the school is literally down the street from where I live.
So what did I learn from her? Well, I learned that I never want to be that kind of a teacher, or scare my students. So when I went into this mock lesson, I tried to treat it as though it was a real lesson. I felt I was positive, friendly and patient. I hope that was conveyed to my 'student' and future students. I don't want to scare students, or make them feel as though they can't accomplish anything or learn. Who wants that? I had a teacher who failed me, but it was because of good teachers that I found my way back and guess what? The trumpet, not so scary anymore. I'm no Louie but I can play that thing. I can play it because I was taught the SKILLS to play it. I wasn't told to 'blow like this and push that' in any order, essentially memorizing songs and not knowing why it works like that. I learned how the instrument works, how to breath, stretches, how to sight-read, music theory, aural skills, etc etc. So now I can pick up the trumpet, fidget around with it and make something happen. I no longer need a teacher by my side holding my hand.
But it all starts with that first lesson, which can either make or break the students interests. Most importantly, I learned that it's vital to get students to learn how to make a sound as quickly as they can, otherwise they might become easily discouraged. Even the squawking of a saxophone is better then vacant huffs of air.