On the morning of my first day of leadership camp, my college band director asked me to close my eyes and try to remember what it was like when I was a little kid and I still believed Santa was real. She encouraged me to recapture that feeling of pure magic. That feeling of safety, hope, trust and love. The sense of security that whatever I wanted, Santa had the power to deliver no matter how hard or impossible it seemed. That feeling that there's someone out there who you can trust to lead you. That, she said, is how a music teacher should make their students feel about music.
She then went on to explain that we all start off innocent and willing to believe that music is magical in it's ability to take us to a unique place where no one else and nothing else can go, just like a child believing in Santa. Then when we get a little older, we eventually realize that Santa isn't real. He's not an all-knowing mystical figure, but rather represented by a real person made of flesh and bone. And while we are a little disappointed, we still feel that sense of gratitude towards the person (or people) working tirelessly to make us believe. And then some day, if we are blessed enough to be given the chance, we become Santa Claus so that we may create those feelings; that sense of magic, for someone else.
We have all felt the feelings that a music teacher gave us. That person instilled in us a passion and a love that runs so deep that we rise above and become that person for someone else. I believe that this, the ability to instill a deep love of music in our students, is our primary job as music educators. The only question is: how do we do this?
A few weeks ago, I watched the movie August Rush, the story of a young musical prodigy orphan (August) who uses his gift of music as a tool to find his parent. Throughout his journey he meets people of all ages, ethnicity, backgrounds, and performance abilities that impact him as both a person and as a musician. What each one of these people have in common is their love for music and the unique way in which they use it to express themselves. From each of these people, August takes a piece of their love of music and uses it to enhance his own love of music while it simultaneously leads him one step closer to his parents who are both musicians.
This film is powerful to me in many ways. For one, it is the compelling story of a beautiful child searching for his parents and his purpose. For another, it is a fair tale set to real life circumstances. But it also shows the power of music and it's ability to touch anyone and everyone who comes into contact with it. It shows it's power to move us, and create a humane side of us we otherwise may not have known.
I think that this is how we instill a love of music in our students: by loving it ourselves and letting that love guide our teachings. We do it by giving them something, even one little piece, of that magic that was created for us; a piece that they can take with them and keep forever until they are blessed enough to pass it along to someone else.
"Music is all around us, all we have to do is listen." - August Rush
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