Variation: Modularity and Asemics

As I’m finding out: many things change, while other things stay the same. My compositional output of art music scores has changed quite a bit in the past few years, yet, I still see similarities between the newer and older. 2018 was a particularly busy year, chiseling away at new discoveries and synthesizing new ideas into my compositional outlook. The results have been amazing and interesting.

M. J. Hood – harmonic integration (2018) and anxiety (2018)

However, I have been approached with many questions regarding some of my newer works: “what is the intention, here?” or “how are these figures and passages to be played?”. So, I thought I’d take the time to give a little, basic primer post into my view of marrying modularity and asemics into my latest performative art scores.

What is Modularity?

A good primer on modularity in musical composition is James Saunders’ article “Modular Music” in Perspectives of New Music, Vol. 46 No. 1. The article’s language is easily accessible, and he makes connections to many other modular applications that we use everyday (such as modular IKEA furniture and the popular Danish toy, Legos). To summarize the subject: modular musical compositions are pieces of music that contain independent sections that are made performatively interdependent either via instructions (or ‘interface’, as Saunders’ puts it) or through performers’ intuition. This means the performances of each piece will be different to the audiences ear, while the raw pieces of musical information penned by the composer stays the same on the score. The overall goal of most modular (or mobile) compositions is to build a musical architecture by putting these malleable puzzle pieces (modules) together in interesting ways.

While studying modularity in the works of Manuel Enriquez (Móvil II for solo piano, 4×4 for solo piano, and others) in late 2016, I became fascinated with the overall process of performative exploration and collaboration (with self or others), and how that process might affect the overall result of the musical architecture.

M. J. Hood – untitled contraption no. 1 (2018)

I started writing several pieces with, both, closed (the interface creates limited numbers of combinations) and open (the lack of interface creates virtually unlimited combinations) modularity: Shelter for solo piano (2016),  ink constellations (2016), reflection now: I (2017), untitled contraption no. 1 and no. 2 (2018), thought/nexus (2018), 10.3 for orchestra (2018), and many others.

Asemics

The path that the modular composition process has taken me has been an interesting one. Each new work seems to progress in some areas, then – on the other hand – reuses similar vocabulary and shapes from other works in other areas. Even the musical and symbolic gestures within the aforementioned works became much more open and interpretive over the course of their completion; geometric shapes, lines, noteheads – all becoming broken and resequenced into larger forms for performing musicians to study and put back together. Before I knew it, I was writing music that contained many musical (and unmusical) symbolic gestures that were highly interpretive. Once that line was crossed, my output became more asemically based by using the visual forms that are found in traditional musical notation in a very different way. According to Minneapolis-based visual artist/writer Michael Jacobsen:

The forms that asemic writing may take are many, but its main trait is its resemblance to ‘traditional’ writing—with the distinction of its abandonment of specific semantics, syntax, and communication.  Asemic writing offers meaning by way of aesthetic intuition, and not by verbal expression. It often appears as abstract calligraphy, or as a drawing which resembles writing but avoids words, or if it does have words, the words are generally damaged beyond the point of legibility.

History has recorded many people purposefully creating unreadable works that are considered beautiful works of art, particularly as it pertains to cursive and calligraphy. However, my interest in marrying asemic writing to musical scores is to take the shapes of the written language of the musical score (durations, the staff, clefs, etc.), break that musical notation into parts, and then re-sequence them into different forms that still appear to be musical, but just foreign enough to traditional musical notation to make it highly interpretive.

M. J. Hood – the reason for thursday for violin, piano and percussion (2018)

In a way, these types of musical scores become performative visual poetry through this type of re-sequencing of the musical vocabulary. The modular interface or instruction in my asemic work is the amalgamation of musical and unmusical gestures that come together in one framework or form. That form then has to be interpreted by a performer based on prior experiences with that shape or gesture in nature or otherwise. Some of these gestures are easier to interpret than others because of the similarities to traditional notation. However, there are vague gestures that have to be worked through a bit more. So far, I’ve categorized these asemic gestures into two types:

Hard – when a visual gesture can be more-easily interpreted into musical phenomena based on how closely related it is to a shape in traditional musical notation. Usually these gestures can be interpreted only a couple of different ways.

Soft – when a visual gesture is much more ambiguous and can be interpreted in more than one musical way. These types of gestures tend to hold more of an important role of the overarching shape of a piece, and could play roles of changing dynamics, tempo, energy and intensity, extended techniques, etc.

The first, successful large-scale piece I produced using this combinatory approach of modularity and asemics is on life, death, and light (2018) for one vocalist and two instrumentalists. In the score, I included some basic instructions on how to approach the work so that musicians new to the experience weren’t too daunted by its openness.

M. J. Hood – on life, death, and light (2018)

instructions to on life, death, and light

Since the premiere of on life…, many other large-scale pieces and sketches have been produced using this combinatory method, and it’s been a joy to develop the vocabulary for future pieces.

Musica Post-Apocalyptica: The Chuppers and Martian Funk

Do you ever wonder what happens to all that pro-audio equipment you don’t use? Believe it or not, there are extremely great uses for those pieces of equipment… and no, not just as a coffee table or wall-decoration.

Manny Rettinger surrounded by his chuppers

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Meet Manny Rettinger, the mastermind behind “The Chuppers” and Martian Funk, the premiere electro-acoustic ensembles of Albuquerque, NM. He has been an icon in the Albuquerque experimental music scene for many years and still works as though there’s much more music to be made. Being the recording engineer for the University of New Mexico and founder of UBIK Sound, he has a heart to make learning the different uses of audio equipment accessible to those that have a desire to learn how to use them. He opens up his office every Monday night at 7pm for a chupper jam session to the young and old, seasoned or inexperienced. He not only is an important figure to know as a musician in the Duke City area, but is an innovator that bases his craft off of the progressive, experimental, and electronic sounds of the 1960s and 1970s.

What is a Chupper?

Manny’s idea of “The Chuppers” comes from many different sources. The word “chupper” is derived from Philip K. Dick’s 1964 novel “the Similacra”. The “chuppers” were the malformed, radiation-spawned race within the novel that lived their lives looking back to the past ways due to the war that caused their living in poverty; they were throwbacks to the Neanderthals. What a fitting description for these little instruments made of bits and parts of older things unwanted by other people. They are constructed in a post-apocalyptic style from unwanted audio equipment such as mixers, cables, pick-up mics, phonograph horns, and old guitar pedals. These pieces of equipment are sometimes combined with parts of acoustic instruments, such as combining a cello body with pick-up mics and 3 different sets of strings all hooked to one single mixer that you can connect to any other chupper or effect. Bits and pieces of a piano can be found scattered throughout the chupper ensemble, including the gutted strings that can be played as a standalone instrument. With that said, each chupper has its own personality and way that it’s played.

Chupper Parade at ISEA Festival

“The Chuppers” are also based off of the post-apocalyptic idea of “Salvagepunk.” Salvagepunk is an interesting concept that states that the monetary value of something is lost and real value comes into play when they aren’t warped into consumerism. In plain and simple terms, when objects are used in a different, but intelligible way than they’re intended to be used – particularly in a post-apocalyptic setting – it is the very essence of Salvagepunk (Think of Road Warrior… or dare I say Water World). There’s a sense of wonderment when people approach these instruments, much like the feeling of walking into a very large, stocked toy store as a kid. The musicians that operate the chuppers figure out how the instruments are to be played through improvising on different areas of the chupper, itself. In other words, operators each have their own techniques when approaching each of these instruments. There is an immeasurable amount of ways to play these piecemealed electro-acoustic beauties. These instruments, combined with older synthesizers and newer MIDI-controlled modules, makes the University of New Mexico’s “Electric Ensemble”; or better known as “The Chuppers”.

The Chupper Experience

The chuppers give off a very original sound, making concerts a vibrant experience for listeners of any age.

UBIK Sound’s Arp 2600 as a chupper

They create droney atmospheres that range from the busy and complex to the light, dainty minimal textures. Depending on where the human operators (also called chuppers) want to go musically, all the other operators will follow the subtle changes in texture as time goes on. Sometimes, these textures are static for what seems like a long time with only subtle, minimal changes. Easily, the chuppers can be adapted for live-scoring film projects to make the experience appeal to more of your senses. However, as a standalone act, “The Chuppers” don’t fail to entertain. The concerts are dimly lit – or completely dark – so an audience member can be immersed in the sweeping sounds of the music. Different pieces or parts of the set run into each other for seamless play. The music is constant, but never tiresome.

Martian Funk

The Martian Funk ensemble combines the idea of acid jazz, fusion, rock, progressive rock, minimalism, contemporary classical, and ambient music with the electronic sounds of “The Chuppers.”

Martian Funk’s re-launch gig flier

The ensemble was conceived in the 1980s from the same ideas found in Miles Davis’ Bitches Brew. After a temporary hiatus, the band was resurrected for their first gig at The Kosmos performance space on March 3rd of this year. Martian Funk undoubtedly stole the show as the pit band. It was a triumphant return of such an interesting, yet more refined sound than that of “The Chuppers'”. As Manny says, “[Martian Funk] is improvised music, but it’s not… lazy.” Musicians in Martian Funk make it a point to listen very intently to each other despite what instrumentation we have on-hand – which is sometimes just one horn and a guitar with the chuppers! Riffs are composed on-the-fly and are played repeatedly but, over time, morph subtly, creating opportunities for individual “misinterpretation”. However, as members of an improvising group, “misinterpretation” is to be relished and passed around as if it’s the answer to a problem. In other words, there is no wrong answer, musically, to the questions raised in the improvised, electro-acoustic music.

The Importance?
I’ve had the pleasure of playing in both of these groups on a regular basis and for some of these special concerts, sometimes combined with film. I tend to play on my blue plastic pBone so I can have more freedom to experiment in the Salvagepunk spirit with the instrument without risking damaging to any of my other brass instruments. What I feel is important about ensembles like this, particularly through the lens of a wind instrumentalist, is that it gives musicians a chance to think of music on different terms. There are implied theatrics with clear notes of Salvagepunk permeating the ensemble. You think differently about your role within an ensemble and the overall musical product. No longer is it about your ability, but rather what you have to offer, musically. Sometimes, the musical offering could be just as simple as flipping a switch every 5 minutes or playing a single note into a delay unit on high feedback.

I feel I also must say the obvious: these ensembles get you away from the perceived ‘norm’ of music. A growing problem with music students is their technophobia – specifically, music equipment. These ensembles give a chance not only to learn the equipment, but helps you to find your voice within the electro-acoustic music sphere. More demands are being placed on performers to be versatile in their approach and practice. Ensembles such as these are a great way to learn how and why this music is important to the future of acoustic music.

Lastly, these ensembles constantly stretch your ear as a musician. Easily, a musician can learn new techniques just by showing up and stylizing with the group. For example, microtones are extremely common in these ensembles. Students can overcome their microtonophobia [definitely coining that term!] by simply listening and matching with the group in a judgement-free zone. It’s a terrific way to practice what is difficult to master alone.

Overall, groups like these are important to the music community in urban centers. Experimentation is key in understanding more about the music humans and nature make. These groups inevitably combine all of the aspects of Pop, Folk, and Classical music, and can be marketed within each sphere easily. It appeals to the senses and warrants a sense of curiosity, which – as strange as it is – causes public demand for the music. It isn’t ‘high’ or ‘low brow’ music; it just is what it is.

The Orchestral Paradox

So for all you entrepreneurial thinkers, I figure this post will be for you. Especially since I’d like to promote a thoughtful discussion about the state of music, composition, and culture… specifically North American culture.

Orchestral Music

I believe the symphony orchestra is probably one of the greatest paradoxes in all of Western musical history, especially the contemporary orchestras we all know and love. In my article Caught in the Middle: Musicians and Progressive Model-Merging, I talk about the growing problem of orchestras relying on ‘classics’ as if they come from a pop-music model. Which, then, automatically assumes that all orchestras are – mostly – equal in terms of their instrumentation. Due to the pop-music model and high/Classical music attempting to adapt that model, younger audiences expect the orchestra to act and be a certain way, rendering the music, virtually, worthless. As of today, July 18, 2013, every song on Billboard’s Hot 100 is either 1) Electronic in some capacity or 2) Repetitious in form, lyric, melody or harmony. Perhaps it’s not the best idea for an orchestra to take on this pop-model just because of the instrumentation, alone – much less the intellectual requirements to listen to the music. Many bands have perpetuated this intermingling of Pop to High/Classical to attempt a new sound. Metallica’s S&M album is a prime example of this. For those that don’t know, in 1999, Metallica recorded a live album with musicians of the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra directed by Michael Kamen – yes the same Michael Kamen that was a successful film score composer. S&M stands to be one of the greatest live albums of all time to date. Essentially, the orchestra is a backing track for Metallica, in which the orchestra is to make them have more of a “refined” feel to their music – a sound the audience isn’t used to, I’m sure. As monumental of a moment that this concert was for all pop-rock audiences, it was a disservice to orchestral music. On one hand, you have the advertisement of the orchestra to the pop-rock audience. On the other hand, the intention becomes blurred when an audience interprets the musical act as the necessary evolution for the orchestra to take in order to survive. In other words, the orchestra is a mere accessory in order for a new act to sound “refined”.

Metallica with the SFSO

So what’s the point of all of this? The orchestra, essentially, has written its own fate by taking on this model as a necessity. Now, don’t get me wrong, S&M is probably one of the greatest live albums in all of rock history. In and of itself, listening with pop-rock music ears, the album is a triumph, engineered to drive fans wild with its new and “refined” sound. And I’m sure it was a lot of fun to play as an orchestral musician! However, now those fans have an expectation that the orchestra has to meet that, clearly, the orchestra cannot deliver stemming from the pop-music model.

What’s more, in a new report on the Topeka Symphony Orchestra’s 2013-2014 Season, the new director, Maestro Kyle Wiley Pickett, promises that his inaugural season will have “no boring concerts.” If the statement in and of itself wasn’t enough, let’s unpack it further:

First, if a director has to reassure a public audience that the music will not be boring all season, something is wrong. Perhaps there were bad performances in previous seasons, or the general public just simply did not enjoy the performances even if they were good. To reassure the public’s satisfaction is a desperate move. This means that the symphony, a necessary part of an urban center’s community, is now catering to the public’s demands of 1) how concerts should be and 2) what music they should play based on previous experiences.

Secondly, if an orchestra is constantly advertising to a younger audience, are we sure that they – the younger audience and the future of Western Classical music listeners – know what an orchestra’s season should look like? The Nashville Symphony attempted to speak to young professionals by having a ‘hangout’ in their Crescendo Club before their performances, specifically targeted to 30-40 year olds. This was all in hopes that the targeted audience will be attracted – or inebriated – to go to the concert following the ‘hangout’. I’m not sure how successful this was, but considering that they just reached a deal with creditors that avoided foreclosure, I’d say the plan didn’t work very well. The fact is, the general population, particularly the younger audience, simply does not listen to Classical music – much less new compositions – either in-depth or at all. The best way to flatten the learning curve that orchestras can come up with are including the familiar tunes of movie music in their seasonal repertoire, which isn’t the same thing as historical Western Classical music.

The orchestral paradox that the musicians, administration, and audience face is this: the orchestral institution has to advertise to a younger audience to keep their doors open and musicians employed, while catering to the seasoned crowd with years of listening to and becoming educated in Western Classical music. Alongside this are the expectations that the orchestra has inevitably set up for the general public by merging with the pop-music model, which, in turn, does an extreme disservice to the classic music they perform. That’s a lot of problems, and I’m sure there are many more that stem from this subject.

Liberal Orchestras: New Instruments

Lindsay Stirling, Electric Violinist/Rock Violinist

Months ago, I had an epiphany about the subject above. Besides the general public needing to become educated in and about music, orchestras might have to experiment with incorporating new sounds that are familiar to those that the younger public knows well. (Note that this can only work if the orchestra merges with the pop-music model) As mentioned above, Billboard’s Top 10 is filled with repetition and is either fully electronic or is electronically influenced. Why not capitalize on this? Why not develop new instruments to perfect these sounds so we can make intuitive and intelligent compositions out of these sounds, rather than leave it up to pop music to regurgitate songs for profit? Why not electric strings, woodwind midi-controllers, brass midi-controllers, electrified tubas and electronic percussion? It sounds gargantuan and is very radical. To me, the only time these notions of new instruments have actually worked is within the realm of chamber music. This is probably the most inventive type of ensemble for newer music and experimenting with new instruments. Chamber music doesn’t seem to conform to the same models that orchestral music does. In fact, it almost promotes new music and, virtually, an infinite amount of instrument combinations. I feel the orchestral world, if they are to combine with the pop-music scheme, can learn a lot from how composer’s approach chamber music.

Conservative Orchestras: Educate Public

Aaron Copland

The UPbeat program that the Minnesota Orchestra puts on through many of the school districts within Minneapolis and Saint Paul is a very interesting model of public music education for other orchestras to take note of. They educate over 18,000 children about orchestral music through this program, which makes them one of the most reliable – and probably only – sources of Classical-culture education in that area. In my opinion, hour-long lectures – really anecdotal, on the surface talks – before a concert are not enough for a general audience. The general public needs investment to understand the art of hearing a piece of music.

Aaron Copland saw this very educational necessity as an important issue when he gave his lectures on music, which was later compiled into his book What to Listen for in Music. Taking Copland’s approach, orchestra patrons need to be invited to light music training workshops in conjunction with concerts that get the public involved with hands on basic music theory, historical content, and ear-training. The general public includes young and old, according to Copland. This idea could potentially create a lot of interest if there’s a basic education through the orchestra and its musicians. Perhaps an orchestra could have a budget for this “musical awareness” training to make it happen for free or a nominal fee.

Honestly, there is no easy answer to this orchestral paradox. One thing is crucial though: the patrons of a concert need to know that they are the final participants in the experience of orchestral music. If they don’t know or don’t understand that fact, then the music the orchestra makes undoubtedly falls on deaf ears. It doesn’t matter if the music is pop, rock, folk, or yodel, if an audience doesn’t realize they are actively participating, the music is for naught. We cannot afford the consequences that follow that, which loom over us right now.

A Search for Originality

Xenakis – Dikhthas for Piano and Violin

So far, 75% of my Summer days have been spent in a creative mode. I’ve found myself trying to sketch new composition ideas, draw abstract art, and program some electronic music to try and come up with something concrete to use for a new composition.  The feature compositions this summer are:  A composition featuring voice and an electronic composition.  These will both be important pieces for my composition portfolio presentation at the end of the Fall semester.  In my sketching, I’ve noticed that I’ve been trying desperately to come up with something “original.”  That dreaded word… “original.”  It’s given me horrible writer’s block, and I can’t stand that feeling.  So, I thought I’d freewrite about originality before going to sleep to see if I can’t get some inspiration before tomorrow’s attempts at creating something satisfying.

Is There Anything Left to Claim as Original?

According to Melissa Donovan in her article Are There Any Original Writing Ideas Left?, originality doesn’t actually exist.  Rather, originality is more of a titled given to products that are created by means of things that already exist but just put together in creative, intelligent ways.  This means that all the ideas that are ever needed to create something satisfying are actually within a individuals grasp, they just have to retell the ideas in a different order, through different perspectives, through different means, and all done in a targeted or intelligent fashion.  Inventors and scientists know this to be true and practice this every day.  CEOs base their business-models off of this principle, too.  However, the problem with Donovan’s article is that it belittles or negates any notion of advancement.  If composers, particularly those that act out of the High/Classical music sphere, are called to an art that is transcendental, multigenerational, and intelligent, aren’t we automatically called to advancement in some way?  Advancement is a huge idea in this context that needs to be addressed. In Lisa Baron’s article, There Are No More Original Ideas. Now What?, she rightly ends the article stating:

“Who cares about your idea?  Show me what you can do with it.”

In a blatant way, she hits right at the heart of the issue: people have ideas, we just don’t act on them in ways that we can deem them as original ideas.  The imperative of the situation is that reused ideas absolutely have to have a driving plan behind them in order to make them work together for the good of an original idea.  Many ideas are tossed aside and never revisited because they don’t seem to be an advancing notion in the moment.  Many famous inventors and scientists were guilty of this same reasoning under the gun of public pressure for their seemingly “crazy” ideas.  However, there have been great successes that stem from the need for advancement.  In fact, we are guaranteed advancement.  For example, the world is closer than ever to frequent space travel safely and easily.  NASA has the technology that, for decades, has been able to send men to the moon, scientists to the ISS, and robots to mars.  NASA constantly raises the bar of forming original ideas based off of previous technological advancements. The craft that they invent for deep space travel will undoubtedly have to come from previously invented ideas, but piecemealed together in such a way that only traces of those influences can be found in the advanced stages of the product.  Of course, this idea is the very heart of our world’s technological advancement.

Musical Advancement

So what is musical and compositional advancement?  What a loaded question with many answers, which depends on the background and interests of the composer and musician.  So much contemporary music relies on the advancement of technology to call itself an original art but have we really explored all of the ideas and options of exclusively acoustic music?  Certainly not.  What I do know is that common musical models are continually constructed and broken within contemporary music composition in an effort to find true originality within form.  Iannis Xenakis inspired many -including me- through the sketches of his architectural models and how they structured compositions through their forms.  His music was structurally intelligent and has proof of creative advancement through combining these two media successfully.  Granted, architecture has long been an inspiration point for composers as far back as the Late-Medieval and Renaissance, it still proves that originality is what you do with your ideas in order to make the big picture a successful sale.  However, no matter what era music came from, form will always be form and shape will always be shape; the two are always going to be married to each other.  Even so-called “formlessness” in music has the potential to become abstract, wavering shapes in our interpretation of hearing the data.  Shape and form have always been partners in crime and, dare I say, cannot ever be mutually exclusive.  The dilemma here is that composers are still bound by certain, natural principles that propel our skill just as writers are bound to certain grammatical principles of a certain language in order to articulate ideas effectively.  We ask these questions of “can I have one without the other?” often to try and find a morsel of an original idea: sometimes with success.  It is Problem Solving 101.

Improvisation as a Means of Listening to Ideas

Speaking of problem solving, improvisation also plays a gigantic role in the contemporary music sphere in search for innovation.  It is a practice that stems from having many ideas with in-the-moment problem solving.  I enjoy improvisation because it forces me to find ideas that will work in a given situation.  Like improvisation, any kind of advancement in originality requires you to find ideas, and finding Ideas requires listening.  You explore new ground when you listen to ideas

Individuality is Important in Shaping Original Thought

Michael Karnjanaprakorn’s article Original Ideas Don’t Exist makes it clear that people shape ideas differently to form innovative thought, not form original ideas.  For every good idea you have, most likely ten or more other people in the world are acting upon that very same idea already.  However, most people do not explore the many possibilities of each idea, leaving all chances for innovation to be lost.  It may sound discouraging, but it is absolutely true.

Not So Much Originality as it is Innovation

Perhaps this is all here-say and semantics, but I’m thinking that, perhaps, originality or ‘being original’ isn’t such a good aesthetic to judge your ideas by.  Judging from all of these articles and their encouragement, the goal of any thought or idea is innovation or invention.  To charter an end-game would be more meaningful than to force original thought upon it.  The fact is, any idea that comes your way has potential to become an innovative entity by which you can act on, even if it has been done before.  In fact, you can bet that your idea has been acted upon before.  It’s time to come up with a solution to your problem through critical thinking and decision making:

Now, don’t get me wrong: ideas are not problems: they present problems.  This table is merely a way to flesh-out the possibilities of any given idea and the problems that follow.  It’s a basic outline of a plan.  Most times, I don’t think this way about my ideas, but perhaps it will help to practice this every time I have a good idea.

Conclusion

Based on the articles cited, there are no original ideas.  Originality is found only within an individual person.  The individual person has the ability to act upon an idea based on his or her own convictions as an individual.  The individual person also has the ability to explore the possibilities of an idea based on the critical-thought pathways they choose.  He or she can understand that ideas can be acted upon in many different ways and still be successful, so, therefore, isn’t afraid to act upon an idea.  Truly, that same individual makes decisions based on problems that arise within the thought process.  This is a daily battle.  In order to achieve innovation, you have to act upon those decisions with critical thinking and problem solving in order to get to the end-goal you want.

I’ll leave you folks with an interesting link that I found to be encouraging through this freewriting process.  It tackles a lot of the issues spoken about above through some basic cognitive analysis.  Scientists concluded that “everyone is extremely creative” despite what they think of themselves:

 Why We Have Our Best Ideas in the Shower: The Science of Creativity

A Discussion About Education Reform

I was having a discussion with some great people in Taos this past weekend about education and various educational models. It was an interesting discussion that brought up a couple of details I haven’t thought about for some time or at all:

1) The role of technology in a child’s education, and perhaps its over-usage as an entertainment venue

2) The possibility of the over-diagnosis of ADD/ADHD in children

3) The balance of parental responsibility vs the teacher’s responsibility

4) The diminishing role of extra-curricular activities due to lack of funding, budget priority or projection of failure in interest or participation.

5) A child’s lack of a real education due to suppression of their own gifts and talents from certain curricula, which mostly consists of preparing for standardized tests

6) The presupposition that all knowledge can be found within the vast boundaries of the internet

7) The influence of American pop-culture counteracting the absolute need to grow intelligently and desire higher education

8) The presupposition that everyone should have a college education

9) The unnecessary passing of students to the next grade-level, when clearly, there are alarming deficiencies in their educational progress

I’m sure there are more topics within the realm of General Education Reform that can be discussed, however, I’m not an expert on the subject. I’m just someone who notices things, likes to discuss things, and asks for help when going a certain direction.

The couple that I was talking with over dinner brought up some of these issues within our conversation. I was sensing that there was a bit of frustration within their daily lives, as they are public school teachers. In our conversation, the subject we gravitated toward the most was about children’s individuality. Now, even I, as an elementary educational laymen, can understand that children are creative, imaginative, and look at the world through a different lens than most adults. Every musical and compositional experiment I’ve ever conducted on individual children or groups of children anywhere from ages 4-10 have always proven to be fruitful, refreshing, and original. These kids, in finding their own voice, seem to automatically want to be intuitive, inventive and creative, which leads me to believe that they have a natural knack to conduct themselves in a different way than, say, an adult in a similar classroom situation. Children do not care if their lines are straight while drawing a picture of their favorite animal, nor do they care if they misspell the name of that same animal, or, for that matter, care if the letters that spell the animal’s name are actually part of our alphabet! There is a certain innocence to how disproportionate children’s forms, compositions and movements can be. So how is it that a child’s education changes from cultivating individuality to our current educational model, which seems to be something so radically different?

I’m sure it is the ever-changing combination of the nine bullet points above (perhaps there are more). It is alarming when one of the teachers I was having this discussion with [a high-school Language Arts teacher for students within the 11th and 12th grades] states that several of her students could not read English fluently, yet have gone though many years of grammar prior to the 11th and 12th grade. Perhaps this is a demographical problem: we are, after all, within the Southwest. New Mexico takes pride in its very ethnically diverse population and subsidizes as such. However, New Mexico is also one of the most economically destitute states in the US. Albuquerque families struggle with high unemployment rates, frequently commit insurance fraud to support their families, panhandle, and go to other great lengths to provide. I feel, perhaps, these are some of but a myriad of reasons why a child from Albuquerque would feel much more pressure in the Albuquerque school system. The hard fact is, many children grow up in this context: not just in Albuquerque, but around the world. How on Earth can this model be fixed so that children won’t feel pressure?

If the educational problem isn’t just economical, it could also be social. I’ve noticed that Albuquerque children are influenced by their peers to certain extremes. Gang activity is very prevalent within Central, Southeast and Southwest Albuquerque and resounds throughout the entire city in places that you may not expect. Albuquerque isn’t in the top 10 list of cities with the highest amount of gang violence per capita, but it is #16 as of 2012. Out of all the cities in the US, #16 is nothing to be proud of. This statistic could easily be some insight into what the youth in Albuquerque actually care about. However, that is not my job. I just know that Albuquerque high school dropout rates are at an all-time high due to teenage pregnancy, educational delinquency, in-school crime, or just lack of interest. Most of this drop-out activity can be linked to low-income families and gang activity. However, Albuquerque is just a microscopic picture of the entire American social idiom. On top of the gang-related problems and drop-out rates, Hollywood stars seem to be the type of people who kids aspire to be. Scandal, sexual promiscuity, constant marriage and divorce, arrests, and the seeming diplomatic immunity that these stars have for the law permeate the media, making the reporting of their actions available to children on television. I can see how this type of behavior could affect children’s behavior drastically: increasingly becoming defiant to authority (including parental authority), feeling apathetic toward education, and becoming dangerously impulsive with their social and familial spheres.

Perhaps if the problem isn’t just social or economical, it could also be technological. A UK-based study found that children that read off of e-readers or iPads have weaker literary skills, and most likely will not read books willingly in their down-time. This is interesting information because this study shows that more children want to access books through e-readers, believing that if they do, they’ll willingly read more. I gained a little bit of encouragement to see that in a general survey, parents preferred that children read physical books for a various number of reasons. However, within the economic context of Albuquerque, most low-income families will most likely have children watch TV than read books (source here). A scary fact that hits home is the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s ominous report on childhood literacy:

“…children who don’t read well by the end of third grade are four times more likely to dropout of high school than proficient readers.”

If these studies and surveys are true, then the Albuquerque education system and its students have a lot going against it. What’s frightening to me, as a musician, is that if the general education within primary school is of no interest to these students, certainly extra-curricular activities will only yield the same result. I fear this educational, social, and technological model that students are growing up in. I fear the day when children no longer feel the need for an education because of any reason. I fear the day when children will not realize that they have potential to be cultivated into fruition; that a buy-buy-buy, over-gluttonous society tells them lies about who they are (consumers) and are silent about who they really are; that a book has no value because they can simply find the synopsis of the book through a single Google search and repeat the injustice over and over.

I feel that in all of this ranting about education, I am forgetting to say one thing:

Students are no longer shaping themselves

It might mean laziness, it might mean misdirection, but their identities are being found in many things other than the diligence of their individual work with the guidance of teachers. Might I also say that a good teacher should be prized, especially those that understand that they are merely a dot in the student’s “connect-the-dots” picture. Teachers are a definite part of the picture, and will always be visible within the picture. However, to clearly see the full picture is the goal; to stepping back a little, looking passed the dots, and seeing the work that the student has accomplished is key. Then one can realize that we only guide students but still influence them in magnificent ways. The lines the student makes may not be straight, but that is ok. This is especially true in the New Mexican model of education. But in order to gain back that self-expression, that individual voice, the beginnings of the picture may look as innocent as a small child’s wavy-lined picture of his/her favorite animal.

In a world that is seemingly against our students’ futures, we shouldn’t give up as teachers. The situation is not hopeless. I’m not sure what the answers are to these problems, but I’d gladly say that teachers encouraging their students to explore the world we live in is a fine start. Teachers that encourage individual creativity, expression, and train-of-thought will be training the next entrepreneur, artist, engineer, or space explorer. Students that realize their potential and concentrate on their growth of intelligence as central to their education will want become great thinkers and inevitably teach others through their words, works, and actions. I can only hope for such a model.

What do you think? What are some of the challenges you see within America’s education model and/or the youth of the 21st Century?