Pat Harbison’s blog

Joe’s response to part 2 brings up an interesting point to consider. How does one teach a group of students that is so diverse?

In my experience… over 20 years as a college jazz educator and 30 years as a clinician… EVERY group of students I have dealt with is remarkably diverse when it comes to learning music. This is true even if they are all 18 year-old white kids from the American midwest. In many ways it is just as challenging to deal with individual students and their differing learning styles in a group setting as it is to deal with people who are from different age groups, nationalities, etc. The desire to play jazz is a motivating and unifying factor that goes a long way toward leveling cultural differences. However, the fact is that some people learn better by listening and imitation, some by using theory as a way to direct their first steps, etc. The final goal is always the same, but the easiest and most effective path of access can vary widely from person to person…
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When I started teaching at the Aebersold Summer Jazz Workshops in 1976 the vast majority of students was of high school or college age and most aspired to careers in music. Over the years I have seen a shift in demographics toward a greater percentage of adult learners at these workshops. At the Aebersold workshops in the US I would guess that almost 50% of the student population is over 30 years of age and a large percentage of those adults are over 50. At the Aebersold summer course in the UK the percentage of adult learners is even higher.

The age range of the combo members I worked with each of these weeks ranged from teenagers (some as young as 13) to people in their 60s. Last week in my trumpet master class at the UK workshop I had 11 students ranging from an 11 year-old and a 13 year-old to a handful of retirees. I find this kind of diversity both fascinating and challenging to me, the teacher…
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One of the features I enjoy about my local newspaper, the Bloomington Herald-Times, is that they regular feature columns on the editorial page by various members of our community. One such column this week really brought into focus some of the things I feel about the value of music education.

Rebecca Robbins August 9 column was entitled, “At 40-something, she rediscovered her inner band geek.” The column spoke of how Robbins rediscovered the joy of making music after leaving her clarinet in the case for over two decades. The opening paragraph was where she had me…

“After my first law firm hired me, one of the partners confided that they liked lawyers who had played on a sports team… because it indicated a certain level of discipline, teamwork and focus. While I was lacking in the athletic department (see my earlier column about Title IX), I did have experience that my prospective employers deemed just as valuable: I was a musician. I had learned about hard work and daily practice. I had learned when it was appropriate to be a soloist and when it was important to blend within the group. I could handle the pressure of public performance. I attribute the real development of these career-enhancing skills not so much to my undergraduate music training at Indiana University, but to an earlier institution: my high school band.”….
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