How Performance and Education in Music Go Hand and Hand
Across the course of my life as an educator, I have heard numerous times some variant of musicians not understanding why they have to take lessons, work on a lot of content, be pushed, and perform in ensembles when they "just want to teach music." What they fail to realize is that the performer and educator have to be one and the same. To be a high-quality educator, you have to be a high-quality performer. How will you push others to new performance levels if you yourself cannot perform at that level in some way? You have to have the content knowledge. There is no way of faking it.
On the flip side, performance majors are highly likely to be teaching along with performing, whether at a university, school, or private lessons. In fact, for many people with degrees in performance, their primary source of income is teaching. I once heard a university professor say in relation to music education majors, "those who can't do, teach." I asked them what they did for a profession. On the contrary, we have all had to have teachers that are high-level performers that have taught, pushed, and inspired us through music.
Many young musicians who go into music within college, regardless of major, do not yet understand the importance of the applied lessons (private lessons) teacher. This teacher's job is to take you to new heights in your musicianship, regardless of major. They are going to push you. They are going to challenge you. Why? Because you have to learn to be a high-level performer, interpreter, theorist, and educator. It is part of becoming an artist. They are not trying to force you out. They are trying to force you to new levels. Regardless of whether you majored in music education, performance, theory, history, composition, engineering, industry, therapy, etc., you have to understand a multitude of music and performance levels. We are not talking much about music majors other than performance and education, but those students need to understand that education and performance will be aspects of their careers. For anyone looking at music as a major, do not let a negative connotation of one major influence your major; also, do not look at other majors in a negative light. We all have our own thoughts on what we would like to do for a living. We should support one another.
Music as a profession, as with all professions, is a lifelong learning process. We should never settle into thinking we know what we need to know. We should always be growing. After all, when we settle in and get comfortable is when the profession passes us; we no longer become effective. Those in education must not lose sight of what it is like to be a performer. There are too many educators who cannot relate to their students musically, teach them how to practice, or have unrealistic expectations of how they should develop a passage within a short time simply because they themselves no longer practice and perform. We have to be an active practitioner and performer to instruct our students better how to improve upon their practice habits and musicianship.
If you really wish to challenge yourself, put yourself in place in the place of a beginner. Take lessons on an instrument that you are not good at. Pick up a color guard flag and attend clinics. Remind yourself of what it is like to learn something new. Share your experience with your students in person and through social media. Make it as much as a learning experience for them as it is for you. Show how you can get better by applying concepts you know from being a high-level performer on another instrument.
The bottom line: You must be a lifelong learner who blends being both an educator and performer.
