FINAL REFLECTION

My initial motivation for choosing this project came to me as I attended a conference and watched some drum circle facilitators. I thought about the fact that I could do this on a smaller scale and have a bigger objective than just having a jam session. I wanted to teach about communication skills and the history of drum circles and their instruments, and not JUST to have a musical experience. I wanted the participants to have something tangible they learned, that they could describe to their parents when they went home from school that day.

Starting my freshman year of college, my percussion group went on tour to do some outreach programs in rural parts of Utah. This provided me teaching opportunities to students that had never played a drum or even really had musical experiences before. Under the direction of my mentor, I played games and discussed with students differences between sound and music and how to recognize that in their daily lives even when they aren’t playing instruments. I got more comfortable teaching in front of crowds through this experience and wanted to continue it when we got back from our tour.

I applied to be an artsbridge scholar for SUU which allowed me to go and teach 1st graders at North Elementary twice a week, and fusing an art subject with a common core subject. I combined music and science and taught some of the same principles that I had practiced with the other students the year before, but also incorporated science projects by teaching about pitch frequencies, dynamics, and many other scientific aspects of music. The students really enjoyed making instruments and starting to incorporate playing music once we had learned so much about it. I taught the students how to watch and listen to a leader, and finally, we performed for their parents at the end of the semester on the instruments that we had made

These beginning experiences really allowed me to grow in my confidence as a performer and teacher and eventually I felt confident enough to start facilitating my own drum circles. My goal was to teach people how to communicate through music and I knew that I would need lots of different variable groups to test and receive feedback from. I taught my peers at school, a few local high schools, and then I partnered with a company called the “DrumBus” so that I could continue my efforts in the community and use their equipment.

You can look at my blog and read about some of the different groups I taught but the experience and outcomes were so different every time, depending on the group. I gathered that people took away so many different, personal things from having such a new experience. Overall,
my goal of communication through music was the dominant take-away and I was pleased to hear how much people liked it and that it sparked so many creative and different ideas for them.

My outcomes and expectations were met as I taught music in an interesting way and took pictures, videos and voice recordings of the experience. I gained skills not only as a teacher and a communicator, but I also gained a lot of empathy and patience. Some of the groups were easier to teach than others. I learned that I enjoy working with children and with special needs groups because it allowed me to really teach with love. These are skills that I haven’t been able to develop as much in other aspects of my music career because so much of it is focused on ME and MY MUSIC, but this was totally different and changed my perspective on what my feelings towards being a musician are.

The reason I do music is to connect with people and this project that I created really allowed me to shine in that aspect. I think that SUU puts experiential learning as part of our graduation requirement, because they want us to do something greater than ourselves. So much of school is focused on the hustle and bustle and the daily grind, but these projects give us something that can propel us forward in our future careers and give us an opportunity to reach out and connect with something beyond our classes and homework. It’s something that has already given me job opportunities in the future, and that has given me SO MUCH experience before going out into the real world. Since EDGE stands for “education designed to give experience,” it makes perfect sense that our school would want us to do some sort of project to put what we have learned into practice. For those that will be graduating soon, it really gives them an “edge” when compared to their other college grads. I know what I want in my future career now as a musician and what brings me joy as a performer and teacher. I am excited to graduate and start making a career out of what I have learned and taught in my time here at SUU.