Teaching Music Literacy

It's that time of year when ensembles across the country are in the midst of preparation for "contest"--the spring ritual of performance which provides the opportunity to showcase skills in a "competitive" format. The ultimate goal is to get that elusive "Superior" rating which indicates that your students are well-trained and proficient musicians. Or, does it? Are your students really becoming literate musicians--learning musical skills that will last a lifetime--or are they learning by rote repetition?

This enigmatic question was illustrated to me recently in a conversation with a former high school classmate. "Janie" confessed that she had "never really learned to read music", even faking her way through the school fight song! What a tragedy--she spent eight years in the school band program mimicking everything by rote!

Unfortunately, there are students in today's music programs who are "in the same boat." Sometimes band, orchestra and choral directors get so engaged in preparing for the next performance that they fail to teach students the fundamentals of music literacy. If this is YOU, it's time to change your thinking.

Every rehearsal should include a structured focus on fundamental concepts of music literacy--rhythm, scales, key signatures, intervals, dynamics, tone quality, etc. My "band textbook" music literacy series, Core Competencies for the Successful Development of Sightreading Skills (Sightreading 101, 201 and 301) published by the C. L. Barnhouse Co., is a good example of the available instructional materials designed to help students become more musically literate and help make your rehearsals more efficient and productive. Using these types of materials for just five to ten minutes per day as part of a structured warm-up procedure, will provide long-term benefits to both you and your students. As your students become more musically literate, your job gets more rewarding--it's that simple! Don't let the temptation to teach by rote overshadow the need for your students to really learn to read music.

It's time for YOU to make a commitment to teach music literacy, not just music literature and performance.