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My Comprehensive Musicianship Diary- Day 1

Written by Chad Criswell

The Iowa Comprehensive Music Project

I'm tired. Not just your normal kind of tired, but a deep, exhaustive lethargy that makes me almost consider sleeping in my car rather than driving the short twenty minutes to get home. At the same time, I'm exhilarated, as if the embers of passion for my profession have been rekindled into a growing flame. I have spent the last twelve hours deeply immersed in Iowa's Comprehensive Musicianship Project. The Comprehensive Musicianship Project (CMP) represents a better method of looking at the way we teach music in our schools. The principals are applicable to every musical discipline. Today I have been interacting with teachers of all ages, ensembles, and sizes of school. Some have traveled as far as eight hours to be a part of this project, to discover new ways to think about how we teach music and most importantly, to think about why we teach music.

Over these three and a half days I will be subjected to the equivalent of forty five hours of instruction, learning and developing an appreciation for a five point model of comprehensive musicianship. I will take this knowledge and use it to build a unit of instruction to use in my large group ensemble classroom. Big deal right? Every band or vocal director can create a unit to teach a piece. But what makes this a turning point for me is that I will admit that when I look in the mirror I have never seen what I feel to be a really great teacher. I have always considered myself a good teacher, but I have always looked with admiration at my mentors have accomplished and how good they are at this craft. I have always aspired to be more like these mentors for a very long time, and now in this trial by fire I am taking the first steps.

Moving Forward With My Teaching

I don't want to be a mediocre teacher any more! In words passed down to me by my friend Elizabeth Fritz, I don't want to have rehearsals any more where I simply "Drill and Kill," to get ready for the next concert. I want to get my students to love music on an intrinsic level, to practice because they want to, not because I force them to. I want them to be strong, self-motivated musicians. Most of all, I want them to have the kinds of emotionally addicting and highly aesthetic experiences that I have had. I want them to feel the raw power and majesty that lies within pieces such as Resphigi's Pines of Rome . I want them to immerse themselves in the music so much that they will be driven to one day visit that incredible city, walk along the Villa Borghese, see the entrances to the catacombs, and hold back tears as they travel down the Apian Way.

The overwhelming majority of my students will never see such a sight in person. But neither had I at the time I first practiced and performed that piece in my University orchestra . Yet I remember the performance as if it was yesterday, and I remember the overwhelming emotions that every member of the ensemble shared as we released the final note. That's what I want for my students. That's why I'm participating in the Comprehensive Musicianship Project. I'm tired, but I'm ready.