Music education: teaching and performing

While it does have natural beauty, knowing more about a rose, how to fertilize it, how to treat it, and how to prune it, lifts the rose to a higher stature both for the viewer and for the owner. One can appreciate the beauty without knowing the struggle that went into it, but knowing more provides a depth of respect that has greater meaning. Such is the process of education, thorns and all!

I have enjoyed my career as a performing musician with a music education background who has a love for teaching. Some have expressed surprised that I have worked to maintain a certain performance level while being a committed music educator. In many ways, both historically and pragmatically, this is not necessarily unusual, for to teach well requires both knowledge and skill of a particular subject. But this brings to mind an ongoing dispute that requires attention, with the sad knowledge that the argument will never be solved due to the countless examples and persuasive discourses on both sides of the complex issue. Yet, sometimes it seems that powerful opinions melded with extreme emotions have yielded several generations of musicians committed to one ideal over another.

If I may be so bold as to capsulize what I am talking about, I would say this: performance v. education, which is better and which is right? The argument rages in musical circles at all levels and tends to find its loudest voices in academia. Yet, in my view, it is an argument without merit, perhaps developed by a few musicians incapable of seeing the global benefits of music and its vast influence on the world. Now, now, you say, isn't that a bit harsh? Maybe, but I am concerned that the argument, the division, has created an odd problem that has no solution. The separation of the ideals has resulted in those who do, that is those who perform, waging war against those who teach. And conversely those who teach sometimes having little regard (except perhaps a begrudging but not necessarily admitted respect) for those who perform.

Those who know me already recognize the signs of my writing, a theme I tend to posture often on many different issues: the theme of peace and solidarity, for to teach is to perform and to perform is to teach and to war over which is better is to lessen the beauty inherent in both. As I write this, I am thinking through the upcoming concert I am preparing to perform. I will be playing the Mozart Horn Quintet (called such due to the horn being the unique instrument in the group) with a visiting string quartet. I consider myself an average performer (most performers recognize their own limitations), but I am absolutely committed to communicating the beauty of Mozart to the audience. Since communication is essential to the process of education and educating is moving from the known to the unknown, from the concrete to the abstract, logic dictates that my performance is actually a form of music education, a way to reach people through music.

No, it is not music education in the classic sense (once again depending on one's definition of classic), that is standing in front of a classroom of eager students teaching them the elements of music which ultimately one day lead to an understanding or perhaps the skill to perform music. Yet, in truth, how different is it indeed to perform a Mozart chamber work from telling children about rhythm in music? Both require communication, both are music related, both invoke a higher level of thinking, both require knowledge and skills, both are events that are hinting at more to come, more lands to conquer, and more worlds just beyond the immediate grasp of the learner.

Now back to the argument. It is common in academic circles to hear the utilitarian view, "I am going to get a teaching certificate as a fall back plan in case I don't make it as a performer." Or perhaps the selfish, lofty view, "I would rather perform it than teach it." Or the contentious "I would rather be unemployed than to be a teacher." None of these interest me as a music educator/performer. Knowing that each person has a unique personality, aptitude level, work ethic, I recognize that not everyone is designed to a be a teacher. With that in mind, it seems to me that a student choosing a profession should consider his/her capacity to communicate and assess the role of that ability in a teaching or performing environment.

Furthermore, it is the rare almost impossible situation where a first-rate performer does not do any teaching, and it is the rare situation where a teacher never does any performing. As we meld the two concepts together and create a harmonious yet polyphonic musical world, I find myself urging all musicians to teach, to perform, and mostly to share the joys of music with a world of people wanting and needing music in their lives. Perhaps the problem occurs more with regard to college students and is caused inadvertently by negative music education experiences from the past. If so, it is our job as music educators to create positive experiences that have great influence.

For me, I shall continue to perform and will continue to teach and will present all that I do in music as music education in the highest sense of what education means. It is through education that we reach the children, it is through education that we reach adults, it is education and progress of ideas that moves the world forward and creates refinement. And it is through education, similar to knowing about our rose, that we acquire a greater awareness of how music works--its elements, its beauty, its challenges, and its joys. Music education: the process of teaching that can include performance at all levels.