I’m in the background watching my son discuss a merit badge he’s working on with a counselor, and thinkng about the motivation that comes from discrete, earnable achievements.
Of course, concerts are the ultimate discrete achievements – specific pieces are brought from unfamiliarity to performance in a limited amount of time.
But there are a lot more discrete musical skills that can be mastered and I wonder whether a of list of skills and formal recognition for achieving them might inspire students to pursue them, just at Scouts are motivated by the discreteness of each merit badge.
Here’s a list of skills I would like to recognize my students for achieving.
- Basic Music Literacy (Key signatures, time signatures)
- Sight Reading
- Concert Solo
- Building the Practice Habit
- Ensemble Leadership
- Composition
- Arranging
- Conducting Basics
- Sectional Directing
- Public Speaking/Song Introduction
- Studio Recording
- Song Research/Program Notes
I can imagine small tokens for completing these and other skills, with corresponding motivation to achieve all or most of these before graduation.