When I started teaching as a college student in 1976, it seemed most families in the town of Holland, Michigan had a piano with a hymnal in their piano bench. Parents wondered when their child would be ready to play from the Genevan Psalter. I had a waiting list as a twenty year old beginning teacher, and almost everyone that called for lessons had a piano. The children of this christian-based college town had chorale style music in their inner ear from birth. Offering their child piano lessons was top priority. Concert attendance and appreciation of the arts were, and probably still are, strongly supported by the Holland community.
By 1982, the favored after school time slot
was squeezed out by dinner times due to the growing popularity of the
dual income family. This is the year I moved to Knoxville, Tennessee.
Parents in Tennessee had one strong common factor with their Michigan cohorts:
they cared about their children and their days were getting busier. Home
style birthday parties with "Pin The Tail On the Donkey" gave way to fun parties
at entertaining child centered pizza places. Now, at their first lesson,
my new student sat down on the piano bench and looked at the curved black box
in front of them as if to ask, "What does it do?". Video games
captivated their mind, eye, ear, and desire for achievement. They would
excitedly point out this configuration or how to solve that dilemma posed by
their game. Although these students marked an era of budding computer
literacy, for the first time I had to make a point of asking, "When you want
to hear music on your radio, what do you do?"
"Push a button!", they
piped.
"Well, when we play
the piano, WE make the music." My entire approach to teaching a
musical instrument had changed. When we advanced to the next method book,
we "moved up a level", lingo from video mania. Piano method books contained
more brightly colored cartoons. Students showed listening to music was
a challenge without accompanying visual stimulation. Still, my goal was
to make a musician. Music, the aural art, and the N-Geners called for
new and creative teaching approaches. At this point I started my Resource
Room. (See: News Clippings and Technology
Comes of Age)
Today, teens make up the largest group of surfers
every day on the World Wide Web. Tapscott tells us that the "net generation"
(ages 2 to 29) is the largest demographic group
in the United States and Canada at 88 million strong. Presently, I live
and teach in greater Indianapolis, Indiana. I get calls from prospective
students who have discovered music and the piano by way of their MIDI and personal
computer. They are frustrated by music education not having caught up
with their "net generation". I used to not accept students who did not
have an acoustic piano in their home on which to practice. Now, I acknowledge
that their electronic tools serve as a launch pad to their budding musicianship.
As a parent and teacher I must constantly rethink my approach to the development
of musicianship and how to teach piano. Oftentimes parents call for lessons
and I can hear in their voice that they simply want piano lessons for their
children like they had when they were kids. Naturally, we want to give
our children that which we know and value out of our own experiences.
Quite simply, piano lessons have changed, because our world has changed. The "net" generations' experiences are far different from their teacher's experiences. The use of music technology to compliment the lesson is growing exponentially. Yet ultimately, the foundational reason for study never changes. As piano teachers, it is our job to build musicianship. In the end, can they play? Is their piano study preparing them to be tomorrow's audience? Can they hear the beautiful sound and fully appreciate the skill required to express themselves in "Moonlight Sonata"? Are they feeling the vibrations of the sound into the ends of their fingers as they fully connect with Beethoven on an acoustic piano? Can they use and hear coloristic flutter pedaling on their acoustic piano as they they play Debussy? On their synthesizers, can they improvise in the styles of Count Basie or Mozart at the same time they experiment with different mixes? Like a good book, do original compositions and improvisations on any keyboard have an interesting beginning, middle, and end? Can improvising fingers play as fast as the ear anticipates hearing what it wishes at an inspired moment? Is there enough theoretical base to fully manipulate notational and sequencing software? In the end, have we taught them well enough to own their musicianship?
Is the emphasis of our teaching remaining on the student and not the equipment? It should. As educators, have we taught them to read, write, or manipulate numbers without a calculator? We should. Has technology become an end in itself? Or, do we remember and embrace its importance and use as a powerful tool, now necessary to our daily lives?
Where will the "Net Generation" take us in
the new millennium? I learn from them, daily. I stand at their threshold
with awe, as I wonder what the "net generation" will bring the next generation.