Last week, I had a lecture at Kapellsberg Music School in Härnösand for the first time in three years. It felt a little awkward at first – simultaneously familiar and foreign, like my brain couldn’t quite reconcile all the new faces – looking at me with a mix of attention and disinterest – with the fact that everything else mostly looked, smelled and felt the same as it did three years ago.
I really enjoy talking about Western Music History, which was the subject of my lecture last Friday. I will be going over the past 400-odd years of our music history, starting in the 20th century and going backwards through history, in a total of eight lectures held weekly until mid-March.
I like going backwards like this, because I feel it helps give us a perspective of where all the music we consume today comes from. It’s easier to relate back to where we are right now. When I gave these lectures before, several Kapells students told me they appreciated this format as well, so I hope these will, as well.
I also returned to Framnäs Folk High School outside Piteå last week for this year’s choir composition project with their composition class. They have seven students taking composition this year, several of them with rather different aesthetics and musical interests which excites me. This is an even more well-worn format with a proven record of success, based around two in-person visits.
During my first visit, I present the students with a large number of choral works in various genres and styles to show them some of the many possibilites of choral writing. I also have an individual lesson with each of them where I try to help them figure out what to write, based on where they are now, what they want to learn and their aesthetic ideals.
After that, their regular composition teacher helps them work out their etudes to have them ready well ahead of my second visit, a couple of months later. Then, we have a half-day session with Framnäs’ choir, testing their pieces out, poking and prodding at things that might need more work, even having them conduct each others’ pieces.
That last bit is also quite important, actually, from a compositional perspective. One common issue, particularly among students, is not realising what you have – or haven’t – communicated in your score. If someone else works on your piece, they will not be able to ”fill out” the gaps that you yourself might be able to, because you (hopefully!) have a clear idea in your head of what you want to accomplish. In other words, getting one of your colleagues to take on your piece gives you a very direct impression of what your score is saying – whether you meant to say it that way, or not.
One of the most rewarding things, in my opinion, about teaching – particularly in individual lessons but also in group classes – is witnessing students learning and figuring things out in real time. Another thing is going into an individual lesson with a plan and a direction, but having to rework the plan on the fly – and doing so successfully – because the student’s needs turned out to be different than what you had prepared for.
I had one such lesson last week during my time at Framnäs, whereupon getting to know the student a bit more (this was our first one-on-one meeting) I managed to tailor my assignment pretty closely to that student’s desires and needs. The student turned out to have pretty ambitious short- and long-term goals and a fairly clear road toward especially the short-term goals, so I was really happy that I could alter the assignment to fit at least mostly into the student’s plan.
After all, I don’t teach for my own sake but for that of my students. I do not leave every lesson feeling this kind of satisfaction, but it is honestly true of most of them. Some students are of course also harder to reach than others, and some you simply do not ”gel” with. But that is a different story.