[Dixielandjazz] IAJE - TJEN - Some thoughts.

[Mike]

Larry,

I think some of it also has to do with the fact that's it's far 
too easy to become a music teacher. It has everything to do with 
booksmarts and nothing to do with being a proficient musician. 
You just have to be proficient in teaching another student 
another instrument. As long as you can pass the required state 
exams and have at least a 'B' average in your music courses 
you'll probably be hired as a teacher.

I know a girl at my college whos primary instrument is piano. 
She can play classical music at what would be considered "ok" 
college level playing. I asked her how she planned to teach her 
students jazz and jazz improvisation when she had never played 
it or even heard much of it. After a long pause she said "I 
guess I'd better learn to play it before August. If not I'll 
just have them listen to the cds that come with the charts."

She graduates in May. She's also been student teaching since 
fall of '06. 'Nuff said.


Mike (who wonders why music colleges even bother with some gene 
types.)





Larry Walton Entertainment - St. Louis wrote:
> Mike said- It would also help if the teacher knew about jazz
> improvisation. My former teachers did not.
> 
> This is a universal problem with H.S. music teachers.  When I got into 
> college I already had played professionally for several years.  That is 
> I was making money and for a high school kid it was a lot.  I found when 
> I got to college that what I had been doing and continued to do was not 
> acceptable in their eyes and was seen as damaging to my future as a 
> classical musician and teacher.
> 
> Teachers weren't supposed to hang around in bars and clubs with other 
> low life.  Even my father in law sat me down and lectured me about how, 
> as a teacher, I had to watch how I acted and who I associated with.  You 
> would have thought I was studying for the priesthood or at least to be a 
> missionary.