Should Music Educators be Experts on Jazz and Folk Music?

I am a firm believer that jazz and folk  music should be taught as early in the curriculum as possible.  I am especially an advocate for elementary school jazz education for a number of reasons.  For one, we are exposed to jazz and its influence in most of the music we hear each day, whether it is on the radio, on commercials, or in videogames and the movies.  Second, folk music is fairly well represented in the curriculum of the average music program and I would like to see jazz get at least that much coverage.  Finally, because jazz is America's original music, the study of jazz can be integrated into so many content areas like social studies, language arts, and even science, and we are missing some great opportunities to teach students core values of democracy, creativity, and cooperation by not prioritizing early jazz education.  Now, having said that, should music educators be experts on jazz and folk music?

Let's look at folk music, which has been incorporated into music education from the early grades for many years.  Are all music educators experts on folk music?  Probably not.  But many have a deep love for the music and know that it is an important part of the music curriculum to teach folk songs like If I had a Hammer and This Land is Your Land  to students as a way of not only encouraging musicality, but as a way of fostering community and creating that shared experience that we all share as Americans.  You do not have to be an expert on folk music to teach it, but you do have to have enthusiasm for teaching is, and knowing why you are teaching it should be a motivator.  I feel the same way about jazz, but its is perhaps a bit more complicated, but not need be. Some genres of  jazz, such as Be-bop and fusion are seen as set aside only for the virtuoso, and that may intimidate some educators.  However, classical music has its' share of virtuosity and we do not shy from teaching it ourselves.  Indeed, classical music is the foundation on which we teach.  Yet, jazz, and music influenced by jazz, will become more and more important to our students as they progress.  So many young students will play in jazz settings of various kinds, or one day decide to enter a jazz program on the college level or realize that they want to become professional jazz musicians. One of the laments that I often hear from a friend of mine who is a professional jazz musician and teaches jazz history on the college level is that students do not spend enough time listening to jazz; they cannot listen to a tune and tell you who's playing on the record; some are not even that interested and find the task to be a chore.  Listening to jazz records is an integral part of the study of jazz, primarily because its' history is so very much a recorded history, and it is not  just casual listening that I'm talking about, but critical listening is essential, and that skill should be taught early in the game.

 Why not start jazz education as early as possible?  There needs to be more exposure to jazz in the schools so that more future music educators are exposed to it and gain an understanding of the art form and understand its importance in American history and  music education, Fortunately, it is happening, and organizations like the Theolonius Monk Institute of Jazz and its educational arm, Jazz in America,  that shares free lesson plans - grades 5 and up -  are dedicated to providing music educators with the tools and lesson plans and ideas that can really help them get comfortable teaching the valuable concepts in jazz without being a experts in jazz. Just like you do not have to be Pete Seeger or Mozart to teach folk music or classical music, you do not have to be Charlie Parker. to teach jazz.  But you should know the importance of jazz to American culture. Jazz music is American music.

I'd like to close this blog with an anecdote.  Not long ago, I had a substitute teachin gig at an elementary school where the fifth grade students eagerly played the songs they had learned on their recorders for me.  Since I would not have time to teach them a new song, I shifted our lesson to jazz and showed them how they could swing on their recorders to Duke's Place, which would only require two notes: G and C.  The classroom was low on technology, not even a computer for  me to access, but armed with my tablet and portable bluetooth speaker, I pulled up Duke Ellington and Louie Armstrong's version of the tune on Youtube and  away we went.  I was even able to have an eager student conduct the ensemble, and I tell you, that kid was beaming because he was swinging!  I was called back to that substitute assignment the next day, and decided to do something different with the second class of fifth graders that I would see that day.  When the students came into the music room, they surrounded me and insisted that they learn the song that the other class had learned!  When students talk among themselves about what a great time they had learning about jazz so much that others want to join in the fun (and learning), I can't think of a better reason to teach jazz to students as early as possible.

Reflection on Lesson

For a class assignment I had to teach the first five minutes of a beginning trumpet lesson to an imaginary fifth grader.  No problem, except that "imaginary" fifth grader was my course instructor.  Not having any background in brass made me very nervous about teaching the lesson, but I spoke to the band teacher at the elementary school where I was substitute teaching in general music.  He gave me his methods for starting a student off on the trumpet, which focused on getting a sound out of the mouthpiece.  "Great," I thought.  That would take up more than five minutes. I looked at a few youtube videos made  by music teachers on how to teach beginning trumpet.  I toyed with the idea of buying my own mouthpiece to demonstrate, but decided against it.  "Not necessary," I thought. Then I realized that buzzing made my ears ring and itch, and it felt very uncomfortable.  I doubted I could go through with the lesson.

My turn would be the second to last person out of about 16 students, so I earnestly took notes on the teaching methods of my classmates as each took his/her turn.  Most of the focused on a lot of terms, such as the parts of their instruments, either flute, clarinet, trombone, or trumpet.  For the most part, I noticed that the major drawback of that approach was that five minutes ran out before the "fifth grader" was able to make a sound out of his instrument.  I felt better about deciding to go straight to the mouthpiece to produce a "buzz."  I was thrown a curve when my "fifth grader"  had never played Hot Cross Buns before! (I wanted him to buzz the song with his mouthpiece.)  I had been teaching elementary recorder and generally assumed that all fifth graders had played recorder and would have learned the song already.  So that was a good lesson for me - never assume any pre-knowledge for a beginning student.  Five minutes went quickly, thankfully, and I did learn a lot about teaching beginning band instruments.  Less talking, more demonstrating, focus on one or two necessary procedures, and repeat, repeat, repeat.  Less is definitely more.