James Coleman
Standard 2
The teacher of PK-12 music has skills in creating, arranging, and improvising.
In the world of music education, creating music, arrangements, and improvisations are essential skills that must be used inside the classroom. These tools will be developed during time in the classroom through different lessons, activities, and musical experiences. Through the duration of these activities students will experiment with and learn about new tools that they can use to enhance their music making, as well as skills that they can transfer into their other content areas.
Music creation, arrangement, and improvisation are skills that are completely applicable in both the elementary and secondary classroom. As I have worked to develop these skills, I have been able to refine them in both contexts: as an educator, and as a performer. Through my ten years playing jazz trumpet in big bands, attendance of improvisation workshops at the Conn Selmer Institute, completing successfully the KSU Instrumentation and Arranging course, and exploration of improvisation on my own time for my instrument, I feel extremely prepared to guide students through all areas or composing, improvising, and fostering musical literacy. I have played in multiple different big bands for six years throughout my secondary education and for four years in KSU’s collegiate jazz ensemble. During this time I was able to have a huge amount of opportunities to take improvisatory solos which built up my skills as a musician and as an improviser. Also, by spending time studying instrumentation and arranging in college, I was able to learn all of the comfortable ranges of instruments, the transpositions of each instrument, and how to transcribe piano music into instrumental music successfully.
In my future classroom, I will utilize my knowledge and skills in improvising, arranging, and composing to benefit the music education of my students. My extensive practice with improvisation will allow me to set up conditions to teach students how to improvise successfully. Having knowledge in each instrument’s range and capabilities will give me the ability to provide feedback for individual students in their own improvisation skills. I will make a conscious effort to create a classroom environment where students feel safe to try out their own creations, which will be a huge encouragement for them to experiment with composition and improvisation. My instrumentation and arranging knowledge will then allow me to supplement their own musical creations with musical repertoire (arranged or transcribed by me when necessary) that enriches the students’ education.
Artifact #1
hungarian_rhapsody_no._2_brass_sextet.pdf | |
File Size: | 128 kb |
File Type: |
This is an arrangement of Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 by Franz Liszt that I made for a brass septet with percussion. The quality of this arrangement shows my ability to arrange music, which will come in handy for my future ensembles. Being able to arrange and transcribe music will allow me differentiate my instruction to include music for any and all students that come into my classroom.
Artifact #2
georgia_on_my_mind_-_arr._-_full_score.pdf | |
File Size: | 44 kb |
File Type: |
This is an arrangement of Georgia on my Mind by Michael Bublé. This arrangement shows my ability to arrange popular songs for ensembles, as this piece is arranged for a trumpet sextet. Arranging popular music allows you to gain student interest and provide varied musical experiences for their education.