Standard 4: The teacher of PK-12 music has skills in listening to, analyzing, describing, and

performing music.

As a teacher, having the ability to listen to music, analyze, describe, and perform music

and also demonstrate those skills to your students will put the students in a better chance of

musical success. Having this specific skill set will allow the students to develop musical literacy

and proficiency not only on their instrument, but also in simply talking about and describing the

music they play or hear. Im very passionate about giving equal dedication in my classroom to

diverse styles and cultures of music. I want my students to know music outside their own and

how to explain it intelligently to someone who may not know about a certain culture's musical

style. With young students especially, it is crucial to be able to model performance practices,

instrumental technique and composition when trying to develop their growth through active

musical experiences. As a music educator I know the technical and symbolic vocabulary of

music along with the organization of sounds and silence that make up our musical styles.

Its important for students to develop these skills through teacher modeling because its

not an innate trait to be able to analyze, describe, and perform music. While musically might

come naturally to some students, all students have to be taught how to thoughtfully talk about

music in an intelligent manner that makes sense and is reasonable. In an ensemble setting, this

may begin with selecting solo repertoire to develop their ability to choose music that speaks to

them and play it in a way that is musically correct but individually their own.