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by Richard Tengowski Now that the national and state music standards have recognized the importance of music education, how can we hold onto this recognition and improve upon it? Reflecting upon this question raises several other questions. Are our music programs evolving to meet the needs of every student? Are music programs creating knowledgeable musicians? Do music teachers guide students to musical understanding or does the instruction come only from the podium? Believe it or not, the answers to many of these questions have been addressed in our own state for many years within the Wisconsin Comprehensive Musicianship through Performance Project. On both the national and state level, Comprehensive Musicianship through Performance is more popular than ever. As the CMP Project enters its 28th year, the project has reached hundreds of music teachers through workshops and in-services. Though education trends and fads have come and gone, CMP has established itself as the incomparable and utmost vehicle for “performing with understanding.” Within the last couple of years, there has been a movement to instill CMP in general music programs and there is even interest by private music teachers to use CMP. So why aren’t all music teachers using CMP? While there has been a great push towards comprehensive musicianship, there are obstacles or issues that are used that prohibit and persuade teachers to improve their teaching skills. So let’s tackle the two biggest issues: Issue No. 1: CMP may hurt my performances or concert music festival ratings. Fact: The fact is CMP does not impede successful contest ratings. In fact, students often perform with greater understanding, therefore, enhancing the ensemble’s performance. Several years ago, I challenged this myth by allowing my CMP taught students to participate in a research project to study the level of performance in ensembles that are taught comprehensively versus those that are not. The results? Despite the fact that time was invested in rehearsals to study music more in depth and to perform it with more comprehensive understanding, these students in the end performed just as well as those who had learned the music in a more traditional “performance-driven” setting. And they had a richer learning experience! Win one for CMP! Issue No. 2: There is no time available for extra teaching and learning. Fact: While I agree that many schools have too many students in music to teach and not enough time to accomplish their goals, time can be saved in the long run when we provide students the opportunity to become knowledgeable musicians. I teach with a CMP approach because of how it teaches student to think. Students are simply more engaged in a meaningful rehearsal when they understand the music being studied. This is the premise of the CMP Project. At the annual CMP summer workshops, our demonstration rehearsals are designed to capsulate an engaging, knowledgeable and passionate series of rehearsals. Get your students to become engaged in your classes and create more curiosity in the music rehearsal. Meaningful rehearsals will provide students with the tools, problem solving skill, passion and experiences to continue to work at a higher level in every dimension of music-making. And that is what saves time. The issues are complex and they are a challenge to all music teachers. However, CMP can successfully tackle the biggest issues. Continue to develop your teaching plans to incorporate meaningful and engaging outcomes and strategies. Choose your music wisely and discover what’s inside the music that makes it a great piece of music. And don’t forget to assess all aspects of student learning. Doing so will provide the finest in music education. |
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