Third Interview Questions

1. What is most important in teaching music?
2. What are things I shouldn't be expecting from a student during teaching?
3. How experienced should a teacher be about their subject/instrument/etc?
4. What other school subjects do you incorporate when teaching?
5. How do you evaluate what a student wants from being taught by you?
6. Where does age come in as a factor when teaching?
7. How are students kept interested and willing to learn more?
8. How do you move from one lesson to the next smoothly?
9. What various teaching methods are most effective when teaching music?
10. What doesn't work when teaching music?

Self Reflection

1. I think I'm at a solid P for my senior project so far. I haven't outright gone beyond the limit to include all the extra things that would get me an AE, but I've done everything that's been asked of so far relatively well.
2. I think I've done really well at actually learning about my topic. I learned a lot on what it takes to become a teacher, as well as what needs to be done to fit in the role of teaching others music. Along with that, I've gotten a lot more experienced at music in general, I've researched theory, technique, etc. in order to solidify what I want to teach as a music teacher.
3. I want to improve on finding my service learning. I'm very picky about what who I would work with in order to fill the senior team's definition of "fun". Along with the fact that I'm trying to find someone close and who teaches something I want to teach myself, it's very hard to choose.

Science Proposal

1. If the pitch on an acoustic guitar is increased, then the sound it produces will also increase in amplitude.
2. My dependent variable is the amplitude the sound will reach, my independent variable is the the pitch of the guitar string.  My controls are the strings used (thickness, material)
3. My senior topic EQ is what is the best way to teach music? In order to better understand how to teach it, it would be a good idea to know how music works mathematically. The more familiar I am with how music works, the better I can answer my senior topic question.
4. I have an acoustic guitar I can bring in to conduct the experiment. I will use a Vernier LabQuest, microphone probe, and Logger Pro 3.8 software to analyze the various pitch functions.
5. Physics

What I've Learned So Far

What I've learned to do since I've started the Senior Project is the Circle of Fifths. The Circle of Fifths is a tool used in music to find out what scales and chords sound well together, as well as listing the notes in each scale. It's a very key thing for a musician to know the circle of fifths in order to tell the key signature (the amount of flat notes in a scale) of a song. It's also useful when composing and improvising. It's easier for me to find the key of a song now, and I am able to improvise very well. Improvising is something I believe that every musician should be able to do to some extent, so as a teacher, one of my lessons will be based around the Circle of Fifths and the ability to improvise on the spot. Identifying key is also very important, and it will be linked to what I learned from the circle.

Here is my proof (A youtube video):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOvHDYEKsNM



The research that helped me do this was Ricci Adam's music theory website (http://www.musictheory.net/).
This site is full of lessons and tests that helped me memorize the circle of fifths, as well as learn about it's important role in music.

Independent Component 1 Plan Approval

For my independent study, I plan on either attending a music class to see how classes are taught, or teach/tutor someone else on my own.

My plan should meet the 30 hours requirement easily, especially if I attend a class. I can go to a lecture weekly and ask the teacher to log my hours. It's a similar situation if I tutor, every time I meet with my student, I will record the amount of time and progress we have made.

It relates to my EQ in that the best way to learn about something is to teach it yourself. If I want to find the most important thing in teaching music, I feel like I need first hand experience. If not, the next best thing would be to attend a class and observe how an actual teacher runs their class.

Defining the Essential Question

What is the most important thing in teaching music?

Teaching is a very complex thing to define, but what I want from my questions is that I want to know the most effective method in getting people to understand what I am trying to teach. Since I couldn't settle down on one single aspect of music to teach, I also added the broad term of music, so that what I teach can cover many subjects, such as theory, performance, composition, etc.

I think one possible answer so far would be 'hands-on' experience. In music especially, I've noticed that people will learn better, and generally have more fun, if they are able to experience music first hand.
Another possible answer could be to allow students to have their own pace. Music is something that is easier for some than others. I think if everyone could work at their own pace, they would see better progress than the pace you normally would take with any other class, usually the teacher's.

So far my most important source has been a site called musictheory.net made by Ricci Adams. It is a great tool for the aspiring music professional to begin learning their basic skills. It's the most impressive gateway I've seen for anyone wanting to learn about how music works in a more advanced level. The reason for it's importance is that I've obviously got to know all these things by heart if I ever hope to teach someone else.

Second Interview Questions

1. What are the benefits and differences from being a private teacher to a public teacher?
2. What do you think are the most important things about teaching music?
3. How would you focus on teaching different mediums of music? Such as theory, composition, performance, etc.
4. What would a music teacher have to do to get students to learn under them?
5. What convinced you to teach music?