Personal Teaching Philosophy

Jeff Garcia

I enjoy the idea of teaching music and the arts because of my own involvement in them
since I was young. I learned to play the trumpet in the 6th grade, and since that point, I
have learned immense amounts of knowledge both about the discipline of trumpet playing
(and music in general), as well as frameworks for how life in general functions. Without
this knowledge in my life I feel that I would be much less of a person than I am today.
I want to share this knowledge with others because of the enjoyment it has brought me.
I think one of the biggest things I learned about playing music occurred when I
was at the University of Michigan, studying trumpet with professor Bill Campbell.
When I first entered the studio as a freshman, I was absolutely blown away at how
difficult the repertoire the upperclassmen were able to play, somehow with ease. I
often felt frustrated in the practice room when my attempts to learn difficult passages
were unsuccessful. As I got older, I realized that the easiest way to deal with difficult
problems is to break them down into problems that youve already dealt with before.
In this case, I related difficult passages back to the simplest part of trumpet playing:
long tones. When I broke these difficult musical excerpts into parts that resembled
something I would use as a warm-up, I was able to play them with ease, usually even
on my first attempt. In fact, as a junior, I was able to perform for my trumpet studio a
Charlier etude (widely regarded as the hardest lyrical trumpet repertoire) from memory,
without much frustration during its preparation. Essentially, I learned that a deep
understanding of the music was necessary to perform at the highest level.
This concept can also be applied to non-musical disciplines, such as mathematics.
Until one reaches an incredibly deep understanding about what an equation does, they
will not be able to implement its function to real-world applications. This concept
will also stimulate an ability to create in the mind. To keep with the math analogy, a
mathematician must have an incredibly deep understanding of the basics of mathematics
before they are to create a theorem or idea of their own. The idea of breaking down
problems into smaller problems can be applied to any of the STEM fields. This is also the
reason The Beatles were so successful; they learned the repertoire of artists that inspired
them (Little Richard, Chuck Berry, Elvis, etc. . . ), then went on to produce their own
music after they had mastered the music of who they regarded as being The Greats.
I was also greatly inspired during my time at the University of Michigan by the
faculty of the Jazz and Contemplative Studies program, for a similar reason. I had the
opportunity of taking several classes with Ed Sarath, founding faculty member and chair
of the department, where I learned about the importance of being able to improvise
(even as a classical musician). This was incredibly important to my upbringing as a
musician, as it was the first time I had ever tried to create any type of music on my own.
As I learned more about how improvising works, I began listening to jazz, and I began
to stimulate and hone my compositional and improvisational skills on my own outside
of school. I began working with fellow colleagues on music for fun, and also started
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composing computer music, incorporating acoustic instruments. After spending a lot
of time studying the mindset of people who improvise and create music, I realized that
this same type of mindset is stimulated when a surgeon is finding a way to perform a
surgery that may be proving complicated, or a football player who makes a miraculous
play that seems next to impossible. I think that cultivating this mindset is crucial
to any field, especially in a world where there are currently no legitimate cures for
several diseases, there are no legitimate solutions for Climate Change, and there are
many serious world problems that need to be addressed in a new, innovative way. The
creative mindset will be what propels us to solutions to these problems.
I get excited about the implications of what learning music does to people. I may be
able to teach the next Paul McCartney or Albert Einstein before they knew the wonder
of what making music is. I look forward to seeing the enjoyment that people get out of
this art form that has taught me so much about life and how humans work and interact.