"Recreational" music

American Music Teacher, April-May, 2004 by Phyllis I. Pieffer

NEWS FLASH: The advent of the "American Idol" FOX TV show has spawned at least one spin-off--the Grays Harbor Idol contest had a standing room-only crowd at the recent competition finals.

NEWS FLASH: A piano student who had been primarily self-taught and plays a great Jerry Lee Lewis style asked me about a Purcell composition he had heard on a movie track. This is a highly motivated young man who plays the piano for hours and loves music, but has some serious technical problems due to the fact he has taught himself.

NEWS FLASH: In January approximately 700 people attended a performance of Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro in Grays Harbor. It was a tremendously exciting production with great singing (in Italian with no subtitles), staging and set design. The audience was not just the "over 40 crowd," but there were lots of young people there who even came in tuxedos and prom dresses and made it a gala event. They dressed up more than the older adults did.

NEWS FLASH: The newest successful concept in competitions is the amateur competition, in which those who are not professionally employed compete for prizes and recognition in different areas, such as amateur classics and amateur pop/jazz.

That tells us the general public loves music and wants music in their lives. They are even hungry for classical music--operas, symphonies and solo concerts. Yes, The Marriage of Figaro is one of the wonderful comic operas most people would enjoy, but the general public must be wooed to classical music with the "war horses," as we call them. Then we gradually can add more variety to their musical diet. Our church choir director says he tries to program one-third choral works that the congregation loves, one-third the choir loves to sing and one-third he wants the choir and congregation to experience.

People want music in their lives for a variety of reasons: social outlet, personal expression, personal health improvement, learning skill development, well-rounded education, church music involvement and so on. It may or may not be the music we, as classical musicians, might want to hear and teach. But, as in the case of the young man above, the potential is there for him, and many other students like him, if they can be nurtured to discover the beauty of classical music, find the joy in the discipline of musical study and develop their listening skills to encompass a wide range of musical styles and periods. It would be easy to destroy a fragile talent such as his by stifling his creativity and curiosity about all different forms and styles of music. The potential for this young man is great if he can discipline himself to practice effectively and correctly and develop his technique. I have never seen such creative scale fingerings! We may have to teach "Fur Elise" and the "Moonlight" Sonata hundreds of times, but it is worth it to keep the classical music tradition alive.

One of our MTNA goals is to advance "market development" for our profession through exploring avenues for teachers to market their studios, increase their incomes and broaden their teaching. We are dedicated to helping increase the number of people--adults, young people and children--who study a musical instrument. It is paramount to the very existence of our profession.

Other music organizations are focusing on music for everyone, as well. The National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM) is touting the theme of "Recreational Music" as its marketing strategy. With the changes in our culture today, having a musical background or enjoying music study can help alleviate stress and anxiety, improve health and provide personal fulfillment. Our colleagues in public school music education, MENC, The National Association for Music Education, are diversifying music instruction to reach students of all ages, abilities and nationalities, while maintaining the strengths of existing music programs.

We teachers need to play an active role in the development of music as an essential skill for all people--young and old. We need to look for ways in which we can entice students into our studios, providing them with the instruction they are seeking and encouraging them to explore other areas of music. At the same time we need to maintain our standards of quality instruction. Not an easy task sometimes.

As we approach the coming summer months when our teaching schedules slow down, either by choice or circumstance, we may want to explore some different teaching options to try to reach some of these potential students. Some teachers hold music camps--these could be for beginning piano students, new to the studio or for current students. A teacher even could offer lessons to students without musical instruments in the home if classes were held every day. That would have not only the potential of increasing studio income, but also the potential to increase music instrument sales for the industry.

Another option to increase summer study is to hold classes emphasizing different aspects of music study, such as improvisation, playing from lead sheets, composition and ensemble playing. Students like a change in their routines over the summer. Last summer I held a class in contemporary praise music, since many of my students are active in churches that include praise music in their services.