You are a musician. You went through music school practicing for hours and performing in ensembles, recitals and juries. The power of music held you enough to choose to share that wonder as a teacher of music. Do you find the magic of musicality in musical encounters with your students? Do you feel like a musician in a community of artists with each group of students?
Every student can be musical. Every group of students can become a community of artists making exciting music together, whatever the age, whatever the experience level. Once we get the thinking mind out of the way and teach to the musical mind, we uncover musicality in our students that we never knew existed. We cannot do this by talking to students or by alluring them with something “cool,” but by capturing the musical imagination with music worthy of their artistry and becoming utterly musical ourselves in song and movement.
Movement is our greatest vehicle for sheer musicality with our students, yet the kind of movement that is most musical is the least employed in the music classroom. Flowing movement is music in flight. It is the energy of music in time and space. Like swimming, it propels us—through the music. It is the momentum that makes music come alive. It is the canvas upon which we place weight that gives rise to meter, tonal dimensions that give rise to line and melodic contour, and consonants that drive lyrics.
Flowing movement underlies all music. It can bypass meter and just flow. It can encompass meter in its path. It can morph into line, dynamics, articulation, expression. Flowing movement is the embodiment of musical energy—the essence of being musical. Use the whole body to model flowing movement—extend the arms in space, activate the hips, bend the knees, keep some part of the body moving through space throughout the musical experience. Let the music move you as much as you move the music. Risk being utterly musical in movement and your students will do the same.
