James Coleman
Standard 3
The teacher of PK-12 music has skills in reading and writing music.
A music teacher must have proficient abilities in reading and writing music because they can then transfer that knowledge to students.
Through my 14 years of participating in all kinds of musical ensembles, studies in music theory and aural skills, and experience in conducting large and small ensembles, I am knowledgeable and capable to meet and exceed this standard. I've had first hand experience in reading music on my own instrument for over 10 years so my musical reading abilities are more than up to par. Learning compositional techniques throughout theory classes has also given me the ability to write music which will be able to be used as a tool for teaching my students. I am confident that all of my experiences as a musician will help me to guide students through a process of learning to write and read music.
In my future classroom, I am sure that my experiences of participating in musical ensembles will help me lead productive and informational rehearsals for my students. By working on creating a classroom environment that is safe and open to error will help my students feel more comfortable with trying new ideas and techniques. By combining a safe environment which inhibits trial and error with my own musical reading and writing skills, I will be able to give my students an extensive experience in both reading and writing music. Working together an building relationships that are focused around constructive feedback will give my students the tools to they need to be successful when it comes to reading music at a high level and writing music efficiently. The overall goal I have is to shape the individuals in my classroom to be successful consumers and creators of music.
Artifact #1
saxophone_composition_concert_pitch.pdf | |
File Size: | 24 kb |
File Type: |
Above is a saxophone etude that I wrote while in reed methods at KSU. This etude is built for students to work on transferring across leaps and skips on the instrument, as well as maintaining good tone throughout. This example shows the relevance of my writing skills because I will be able to create similar products for my students to practice on in the future.
Artifact #2
The above is a link to a performance of mine in New York, City at the Johnny Pacheco Latin Music Festival. The fourth video in the playlist, starting at 7:52 is a video of the KSU latin jazz ensemble. I played trumpet in this ensemble for 2 years and this performance demonstrates my music reading abilities.