There are three moments from my high school years that stand out for me as inspiring my desire for musical literacy, and specifically for the kind of musical skills I gravitated towards. Three musical professionals in my life offhandedly demonstrated their literacy in a way that resonates to this day.
- My voice teacher and accompanist, Jeff Bruning, was helping me learn the Et Expecto from the P.D.Q. Bach opera Hansel and Gretel and Ted and Alice. (It’s hilarious.) Without sheet music available, Jeff played the cassette about three times, noodled a tiny bit at the piano, and then was playing the accompaniment, fully formed. I was wide eyed at his ability to translate ear to fingers, so smoothly.
- My theory teacher, Fred DeHaven, was teaching me Bach chorale-style part writing rules as we stood at his piano in his office at Grosse Pointe Christ Church. His ability to write down, without a reference, the rules, to spot part writing errors instantaneously, and to realize melodies (with clear but personal handwritten notation) inspired me to seek to understand effective writing and the way that harmony worked at an instinctual level.
- My vocal jazz director and voice teacher, April Tini, had arrived back from a trip and passed out an arrangement of Route 66 she had written on the plane. When we came to the final chord, she taught it, then stopped and said, “No, that’s not what I want.” In front of us, she proceeded to rewrite the ending of the arrangement in real time – trying out voicings, reaching for chords, and then writing it down and teaching it. It’s the moment that first made me want to be able to arrange music.
I sometimes think we run the risk of keeping our own musical literacy out of the classroom, due to the rush to teach the music and prepare our ensembles for performance, as well as the fear of alienating students in the process. But I also think that these sorts of offhanded demonstrations of our own literacy, and especially demonstrations of what that literacy can accomplish, can be an excellent motivator for students to build a desire to learn more about how music works.
It certainly was for me.