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Filling the fine arts void by Dr. Calista Sprague

With school budgets slashed, music programs have diminished or disappeared from curricula around the country. Music education, like art and physical education, was once a standard segment of a child’s school day. Adults educated in the public schools understood the basic components of music, knew and recognized the music of great composers and possessed the capability to converse about music in a knowledgeable manner. Not so today.

Music programs limp along on fund-raising dollars brought in by parents working overtime to ensure their children the basic opportunity to play in band or sing in choir. An elementary child is lucky if she is given the chance to participate in a general music class once a week for half an hour, and less fortunate children receive no music instruction at all. Thus, families are left to search out additional music experiences to fill the fine arts void. Most parents first think of piano or voice lessons but do not realize that there are other options.

The Music Conservatory, run by the Continuing Education Department at CSU, offers a comprehensive music program that includes classes for babies through senior citizens. Steve Clark, program coordinator, strives to provide more than just a 45-minute lesson once a week. “We want to offer our students a musical environment, augmenting private lessons with group situations like chamber music groups and recitals for performance opportunities,” he said. “We also have a lab with computers and the waiting room, which gives students and their parents a chance to interact. In addition, we give our students concert tickets for almost 40 events at the RiverCenter so they can see professional performances, which we feel is very important to a musician’s development.”

The Music Conservatory takes music education seriously and works to inform parents that music lessons should not be viewed as a way to occupy their child once a week. Clark says that learning an instrument takes dedication and regular practice. “It has been our experience that students who practice consistently make good progress, enjoy their study and become good musicians,” he said.

Ben Redding, who studies voice with Debbie Anderson at the Music Conservatory, is just such a student. He has been accepted by audition to attend the Walnut Hill Performing Arts School near Boston, which attracts students internationally. He enjoys singing and knows his effort pays off. “It’s a lot of fun to go to every lesson, but also it requires a great deal of hard work,” he said. “It’s not something you can be lazy about, but it’s always fun to do.”

Ben’s mom, Melissa, has been pleased with his experiences at the Music Conservatory. “I think it’s good for him to see how much this community and CSU support music in that wonderful facility that they have,” she said of the RiverCenter. “I think it’s also great for him as an eighth grader and then a freshman involved with the conservatory to realize ‘Hey, these kids from all over are at CSU at the Schwob School of Music and it really is their lives. Yes, you can have a life and be professional and do something you love so much, like music.’ And the quality of instruction there has been great for Ben.”

The Greater Columbus School of Music (GCSM) on University Avenue also reaches out to students from infants through senior citizens. Amy Gosnell of the GCSM stresses the importance of reaching children early. “If a child really wants to play and we say, ‘Oh, they’re too young,’ then it’s gone and they may never say anything again,” Gosnell said. “We say ‘bring them in and we’ll try it,’ because that may be the spark that leads them to a life-long journey of music.”

Lauren Ford of Richards Middle School exemplifies the benefits of starting early. Now 14, she began playing flute at GCSM when she was only 5 years old. She went on to become the only middle schooler in the district on any instrument to make it to the 2005 Georgia All-State Band, an honor she repeated this year. “We wanted to try to let her develop her ear and learn music from a very early age,” said her father Donald. “We always heard that music is supposed to be good for you and that it would help you develop. She’s a traditional student now, but the Suzuki method helped her a lot. She can play through a piece two or three times and she has it memorized.”

Lauren echoed her father’s ideas. “The music is instilled in me forever now. When I get older and have kids, I’m going to want them to start early, too because they will feel the benefits. When you start band there are 20 other people trying to learn to play, too. You don’t get the one-on-one like you would if you started with a private teacher.”

Gosnell also works to create a relaxed environment. “Here we try to make it unintimidating and fun, too.” she said. “We want this to be something that the kids say, ‘I want to do this and I love it.’ And once they get in here there’s no stopping them.” Students are supported in all music endeavors at GCSM. “A lot of our clientele is not classically minded, so we focus on all styles of music,” she said. Taking the anxiety out of performances represents another way she and the other teachers support their students. “Again, it’s so important to start early,” she said. “We start them at age four performing, to really stand and share their music with people.” Rather than dreading recitals, she says that her students love it. “Our students are raring to go and play and they all do exceptionally well.”

General Music

If your child is within the ages of toddler through pre-K, a general music class is the best place to start. He will experience a wide variety of age-appropriate music activities. A good program will include: active listening for concepts like dynamics (louder/softer) or pitch (higher/lower), movement to music like marching to the steady beat, singing simple melodies, experience with simple instruments such as wood blocks, xylophones and drums, as well as an introduction to a variety of styles, composers and time periods of music.

The Music Conservatory follows a popular curriculum called Kindermusik. These general music classes are broken into four age groups that range from infants through age seven. At GCSM, students begin in the Babies Make Music classes from age three months to 3 years. From age 3 on, the child is placed in private lessons utilizing the Suzuki Method.

Both Kindermusik and Suzuki are internationally proven methods centered on child development and parental involvement, but Suzuki focuses on the training of a particular instrument (piano, violin or flute) from an early age, whereas Kindermusik focuses on general music skills that can later be applied to any instrument. There are pros and cons for each approach, and a great deal of information is readily available on the Internet. Parents should do a little research to decide which program appeals to them, since they will need to be actively involved in whichever they choose.

Instrumental Instruction

If your child is of school age, she is ready to begin playing an instrument. Piano or violin is best during early elementary school, although some programs even offer guitar or flute for young children. You may have the choice of either a beginning class setting or private lessons. A class situation gives the child a chance to be a part of a group, which can be more stimulating, while private lessons offer the one-on-one attention that some children crave.

You may be interested in getting your child started on a band instrument such as trumpet or clarinet, but children are not physically ready for these instruments until late elementary school or middle school. Violins, guitars and flutes can be purchased in child sizes built for small fingers, hands and arms, but brass, woodwind and percussion instruments are too large for young children to manage. For this reason school band programs typically start in fourth grade or later. Until then, experience with piano is the best preparation. Your child will learn to read both clefs, rhythm, meter, dynamic markings and much more. While these are not required prerequisites for beginning band, your child will progress at a faster rate and probably enjoy band more with prior music training.

It is also important to mention that children should start band at the first opportunity. It is possible to start as late as high school, but children who wait this long will find themselves far behind the others and will miss out on many of the activities enjoyed by the more advanced students.

Voice

Singing is a different matter altogether. General music classes, followed by piano lessons, provide a great foundation for singers. They will learn the rudiments of music and strengthen reading skills and musicianship, which will help them tremendously when they begin voice lessons later. For early vocal experience, children’s community, school or church choirs are among the best choices for your budding singer. As a private voice teacher, I’ve been approached countless times by parents wanting to develop their youngster’s talent. We are born with voices, so it follows that we should be able to start singing lessons as soon as we are old enough to understand the concepts, right? Well, not really.

We are born with a voice, but it is not the same as our adult voice. If you have a teenager in the house, you know exactly what I mean. Boys go through a dramatic voice change during which their voices may crack or sound temporarily hoarse. Once through this phase, the male voice will have dropped significantly in pitch. And what many people don’t realize is that girls go through a similar voice change, although much less dramatic. Often, being mistaken for their mothers on the phone is the only obvious sign that this change has occurred, but girls’ voices can drop substantially in pitch.

After the voice change, a child’s voice feels completely different. Pitches that were once easy to hit are now completely out of reach. A new lower register opens up, and pitches that remain within the singer’s range now feel new since the registers have shifted. Thus, training the voice before or during the voice change is wasted effort since the adult voice will sound and feel completely different. Serious training of the voice during the voice change can even cause vocal health issues. So singing in a choir (preferably with a conductor who understands the changing voice) is the best and vocally healthiest option for giving your child singing experience until high school. Supplementing with piano lessons provides a greater understanding of music theory and heightened musicianship that many high school and freshmen college singers lack.

Choosing a Teacher

Choosing a teacher for a child playing any instrument should be done carefully, but this is especially true of a young singer. If your young child loves to sing and wants lessons but refuses to consider piano, find a highly trained voice teacher who exhibits concern for the health of your child’s voice (and who will most likely be reticent to take a student before the voice change). Request that music theory, the reading and mechanics of music, be a regular part of the lessons and that musicianship training rather than vocal training be the main goal of the lessons.

Personalities play a large part in the success of private music lessons. It is important that the teaching style suit the student’s personality. For example, some children respond best to nurturing teachers with a gentle, supportive approach. Others like high-energy instructors with a sense of humor. Some need a teacher who will set high expectations and clear goals. Before you commit, research the program and talk with the potential teachers about their teaching philosophy to find the best fit for your child.

You may even want to sign up for lessons yourself. Gosnell reports that sometimes entire families come for lessons at GCSM. “The siblings take piano while Mom is taking guitar and Dad plays drums,” she said. Lauren Ford enjoys being a part of her musical family. She remembers when she first started playing flute. “At the holidays we would all go over to my grandparents’ house and we would all play Christmas songs together,” she said. “I thought it was the greatest thing ever.” But even if your child plays solo, the benefits are great. Not only will she appreciate a lifetime of music, she will most likely experience greater success at school academically and socially. “

We have so much in our own backyard,” says Melissa Redding. It all started for Ben in the Harris County Schools with his drama teacher, followed by the Music Conservatory, the Springer Theatre Academy and the Columbus Ballet. “With boys, it’s easy to get locked into the traditional route doing sports,” she said, “but I would tell people to look into the arts. Andre Gaskins from CSU guest conducted a performance of “Beauty and the Beast” with a real orchestra at the middle school in Harris County. The exposure to professional musicians and that quality of music was just so wonderful for the kids. Ben just loved it. I saw a girl coming out after the performance, crying and smiling at the same time, and she said to me, ‘I feel different now.’ It gave me chills.”

Over and over again studies continue to link music involvement to everything from academic achievement to emotional wellbeing. Hopefully politicians and school administrators across the country will once again value the interrelationship of the arts with other core subjects and bring music education back to the daily schedule of our school children. Until then, look into the wonderful programs in our area working hard to give children of all ages a chance to enjoy the rich world of music.

Calista Sprague holds a Doctor of Arts degree in Vocal Pedagogy from the University of Mississippi and has taught voice for 11 years.