BY LUCY RASH
Last week in Friday Forays, we heard Gippsland-based teacher Dan McKimm’s thoughts on the joys and trials of teaching music in the classroom. This week, we take a turn of the instrumental kind. Andrew Power is a trumpet player and Melbourne-based instrumental teacher with a degree in performance from the Victorian College of the Arts. He strongly supports the push to provide compulsory music education to children at the earliest possible age. Why? Read on…
Tell us about your background, and your journey into instrumental tutoring.
Mum always wanted my brother and me to learn a musical instrument. As it turned out, the options provided by my future secondary school were the clarinet, flute or trumpet. My older brother chose the trumpet, and as an impressionable nine year old I followed suit. In a short amount of time (and after winning several long note competitions), I surpassed his natural ability with a lot of hard work. The sensation of improvement after practice fed my hunger to learn and develop more as a player. It was also the first time I felt like I was better than my brother at something, which as a competitive young male, meant a lot at the time! It’s fair to say however that my first teacher Jason Mears, the principal cornet player of the Hawthorn Band, was the real reason I wanted to perform, conduct, and teach.
What inspired you to become an instrumental teacher?
After my music degree, I moved to England to continue my passion for working with brass bands. I lived in Manchester for two years where I had the opportunity to play with some of the world’s finest bands. By the end of my stay, I’d decided that whilst I enjoyed living my dorky childhood dream, it didn’t feel entirely sustainable and I wanted to be at home with my friends and family. Returning to Australia after spending all my money in Europe saw me jump at the first job opportunity available: half a day of instrumental teaching at one of my current schools in Melbourne.
I had come straight from a strict performance environment working with ensembles that tackled challenging repertoire, an experience that required disciplined practice, intense rehearsal preparations, and weekly concerts/contests/recordings. There were world class soloists in the band and we regularly toured the UK and Europe. This was very different to the environment I entered at an inner city school with little to no steady music program. I found it difficult to relate to the students whose previous experience of instrumental music involved a ‘bit of a chat’ and escaping class time. My students wanted to have fun, and I wanted to make serious music.
The first few months were a struggle and several of my students quit. It wasn’t until one day a student actually asked me, ‘do you even like teaching?’ that I had to consider what I was actually doing with my life. I didn’t love it, but I believed that music was important and should be a part of everybody’s education. I was comfortable in admitting that I wasn’t very good at it, which was probably the main reason I wasn’t enjoying it. At this point, I decided that it was something I wanted to do, but if I was going to do it then it needed further investigation to make sure my students were being treated fairly. I enrolled in the Master of Teaching Course at The University of Melbourne and the rest was history.
I found it fascinating learning about the mind, the way it develops at different ages, and how different relationships and experiences shape the behaviours and attitudes of young people. I also really enjoyed learning more about the benefits of music education and discovering why it had such a positive affect on my own childhood. Although these benefits seemed normal to me, I sadly also discovered that they weren’t as highly valued amongst generalist education bodies and bureaucrats. It became evident that I was the product of a good music program from schools (and parents) that supported music education, which unfortunately is not the normal situation in schools in Victoria and Australia. That encouraged me to want to continue to get better at music teaching, and to become a better advocate for why music education is important in society.
How do you approach the teaching of concepts that are particularly tricky or require special attention?
I strongly believe that we are all learners and each person is different. Some concepts of teaching or learning may seem tricky to one person but not another. The best way in my opinion is to start from the ground up. Usually along the way, you will reach the student’s current level of knowledge – if you haven’t already worked it out- and from there you can ‘scaffold’ the student into the next steps to achieve the intended outcomes. It’s important to be prepared to try a variety of approaches, as any one student may receive information more easily in a particular way (visually, kinesthetically, aurally, etc.). I think the most important thing to remember is to continue networking and learning different ways of teaching, to ensure we find the right keys which unlock these concepts for our students. Often, it is a matter of unlocking other ideas first, which in turn will create the pathways to learning the intended outcome.
What do you think about the idea that those who aren’t ‘good enough’ to perform should, or do, turn to teaching as a career?
This idea in my opinion is a byproduct of our society’s skewed view on the education system, where some professions are still seen as more ‘respectable’ than others. I’ve known people who have labeled teachers ‘glorified babysitters’ with great holidays but terrible pay. Sounds like an attractive profession, right? The reality is that some people I know and have learnt from are fantastic performers, they just don’t opt to do it on a full time basis because they prefer to teach. I also know some amazing performers who do work on a permanent basis and try to teach on the side but are terrible at teaching. There are also musicians out there who are not so great at performing, but are incredible teachers. What we need to understand is that they are, more or less, different professions and not all the skills or knowledge of either directly equals a competency or desire for the other. Many musicians would probably find that they actually love music because of the experiences they had learning it, and they have their teachers to thank for that.
What is your favourite thing about instrumental teaching?
The relationships you build with students. One-to-one studio teaching is a fantastic opportunity to get to know some incredible young people. It’s a beautiful thing to be able to pass on one of your life passions to somebody young, and in turn receive thanks, trust and kindness. You also have the chance to influence the young person’s behaviours and decision making, which to me is something important when thinking about shaping the behaviours of our future society. The cards and chocolates at Christmas time are pretty good too!
What do you find particularly challenging about the job?
The systems we work in. Most schools offer music as an extra-curricular activity, which can cost families extra money. Music is a core subject in many other countries and is taught from a very young age which means students get to learn the languages of music as a norm. Music in primary schools (at least in Victoria) is optional, which means by the time some students get to secondary school they have had no experience of music education. By this stage they’re already at a psychosocial period of development which could prevent them from taking it up a hobby if the student feels ‘uncool’ or incompetent. This means students may miss out on something they actually could enjoy, purely because they weren’t introduced to it at an appropriate stage of their development. Instrumental teaching is also challenging in the sense that many jobs involve employment on a casual basis. It can be hard to find a salaried job, so many instrumental teachers work in several schools and have part time jobs just to subsidise their income – particularly in school holidays where most of us don’t actually get paid like classroom teachers!
Do you have any advice for people hoping to move into instrumental teaching?
Be brave. It’s not easy, but there is support out there. Connect with the Music Education community via AMuse, ABODA, Musica Viva, etc.. You can find support everywhere via the internet and social networking these days and there is always someone willing to help.
In what ways other than teaching are you involved in the music community?
I am still a regular performer, playing with Darebin City Brass band in Preston, and conducting the Diamond Valley Brass Band in Greensborough. Both bands perform within their communities as well as competing at a state and national level. At times I also freelance with local trad jazz band, Shirazz, the Melbourne Opera Company, and as a soloist. I’ve also been lucky enough to be a trumpet tutor on the incredible Border Music Camp in Albury, and have been invited to tutor brass at Phoenix Community College in Ballarat as a part of the SmArts program run by The Melbourne Conservatorium of Music and The Smith Family. These are both extraordinary opportunities to engage in music education on a wider perspective in rural areas of Australia.
Andrew Power will perform this weekend with Darebin City Brass, the recently re-crowned Victorian State Brass Band Champions, alongside the renowned Salvation Army Melbourne Staff Band. The concert will be held at Moreland Salvation Army Hall, Headley Street, Coburg North on Sunday 31 at 2pm. Tickets are free.
This story is part of CutCommon’s Friday Forays series, showcasing emerging talents in the Australian music industry.
Image supplied.
