Every semester I meet students with vast, disparate musical interests and aspirations. My students bring with them a variety of experiences and learning styles that require a multi-faceted, student-centered pedagogy. As a teacher and mentor, I aim to provide students with the tools to become better musicians, to think critically about music, and most importantly, to become curious and independent learners. What follows is a brief discussion of three broad means by which students can achieve these goals, and the ways in which I facilitate this as their teacher.

A successful student is an efficient, effective, and independent learner.

The most efficient and effective learning takes place among your peers and mentors. Inspired by inverted pedagogy, I often deliver basic content outside of class, by way of reading or video lectures, in order to dedicate more in-class time to high-level creative and active tasks. In years past, I have assigned the most difficult, cumulative tasks for homework. When students struggled with homework, they struggled alone. In my inverted approach, students attempt these challenging tasks in class. In this environment, students are able to make mistakes and ask questions with both me and their peers present to help facilitate their understanding of the material.

Music theory is a subject that requires mastery of certain fundamental concepts in order to become a useful tool for higher-level, creative thinking. In our first class, students are made aware of this requirement; one cannot build chords without understanding intervals, one cannot write phrases without understanding functional harmony, and so on. To demonstrate mastery of fundamental concepts, students are required to achieve a specific standard on fluency quizzes. While my standards are set high, I allow students the opportunity to retake assessments until they reach the standard. This approach gives students the ability to identify and focus on their weaknesses, and aim to achieve mastery. Moreover, it enables students to take some ownership in their learning process.

While there inevitably comes a point at which a class needs to move forward together, when appropriate I allow for some flexibility in the deadlines by which students need to meet their learning objectives. As is discussed above, I often allow students to take quizzes several times until a standard grade is met, particularly when learning music fundamentals. Part-writing and model compositions are graded “intentionally vaguely” so that students can resubmit revisions of their work, having investigated and corrected any errors from the previous drafts. Accepting revised work, so long as students are diligent, is one way in which I accommodate different learning paces.

A successful student transfers knowledge beyond the classroom.

Beyond teaching the basic course materials, it is my responsibility to convey how these materials contribute to students’ overall musicianship and, more generally, their ability to think critically and to solve problems.

My inverted approach to teaching allows for a great deal of creative activity in my classes. When students are able to compose, perform, improvise, and interpret music in class, it allows them to see more clearly the link between music theory and what they do in their everyday lives as musicians.

While theory is a central facet of any music education, it is important for our students to understand that they are also humanists. Music is a part of human culture, and I strive to show my students how to use theory and analysis as a tool to better understand how music affects us as people. Moreover, theory and analysis serve as a means for learning more about general discourse; something that is wholly applicable to all facets of students’ academic lives.

A successful student is a confident student.

The first step toward fostering students’ self-confidence is to lead by example. In my interactions with students I try to come across as confident, humble, and positive. In doing so I establish their trust in my ability to support them as they work to achieve their goals.

The range of personalities in a classroom can have a significant impact on students’ learning experiences. While some students benefit from creating a dialogue with the teacher in class, timid students might hesitate to participate when a handful of people are dominating the discussion. To accommodate students with different learning styles, I strive to create multimodal learning opportunities whenever possible. For example, I will often assign online quizzes to be taken outside of class, or use in-class response systems (“clickers”) as a means of offering more reserved students an opportunity for consistent feedback. Frequent participation and feedback is vital for cultivating confidence with material, and as a teacher I am constantly looking for ways in which I can offer this to my students, no matter their personality or preferred learning style.

I aim for my students to be academically successful in my classes and throughout their university careers. I also hope that their experience in my classes leads them to become musically successful simply by becoming more adept and sensitive musicians. It is always important to keep in mind, however, that many of my students will pursue careers outside of music. While these students may never have to resolve a secondary dominant chord after the completion of their undergraduate music degree, they undoubtedly will encounter situations in which they need to employ critical thinking to solve problems. If my students are motivated and confident enough to engage these problems with creativity and independence, I believe they have achieved success. My approach to teaching fosters this kind of success.