Many years ago, I met a young musician who told me a story I’ll never forget. If you have ever wondered about the value of the arts, her story shows how the arts provide an opportunity to learn how to live a more creative and successful life. Students, families, and impassioned, innovative, thriving communities can grow with the guidance of teachers and artists who are deeply connected to the potential of the artistic process to provide comprehensive and relevant 21st century skill sets. This matters because our children—in fact all of us—are facing an increasingly challenging world that changes every day. It’s a world that’s asking us to think in new ways.
The arts enable us to have experience we can have from no other source and through such experience to discover the range and variety of what we are capable of feeling. ~ Elliot W. Eisner (1933-2014), former Stanford Professor and champion of arts education
Emily told me how she learned through music to understand every member of her family and to love all of them no matter their attitudes or rules. Music helped her find her own voice and to muster the strength to move forward and understand how to find freedom even within her strict family structure. While this is an incredible story, Emily is one of many who have experienced profound learning through the arts, and in this case, it was her band rehearsals that made the difference.
Value of Well-Taught Arts Experiences
My contention is that we simply can’t afford to ignore the value of well-taught arts experiences in our schools and communities. If we don’t value arts experiences of all kinds, we’re disregarding a comprehensive and relevant set of skills that can lead to a successful and more meaningful life. We can all benefit from learning through the arts and the opportunity to experience an invigorating depth of awareness in our own hearts and souls.
Art is the triumph over chaos. ~ John Cheever, American novelist and short story writer
This certainly doesn’t mean that everyone must choose an art field as a career. Rather, it means that the knowledge you can gain in the process of learning the art form is invaluable to your life experience. From an early age, Emily had been involved in deeper learning experiences in band that allowed her to make connections beyond music to other situations in her life. Not only was her musical understanding and performance ability at a high level, but she learned the value of curiosity and open minded, flexible, and reflective thinking.
Approaching arts learning from a broad and deep perspective allows everyone to learn to use the knowledge they gain in other ways. Our minds tend to expand by seeing in one thing something else that’s even more meaningful. Rehearsal experiences that fully involve students in artistic processes allow them the opportunity to develop deeper knowledge and a creative state of mind.
Painting is a means of self-enlightenment. ~ John Olsen (b. 1928), Australian artist
Deeper Knowledge and a Creative State of Mind
If you’re a band or orchestra director, you likely look to music performance for personal fulfillment, and as an educator, it’s also likely that you long to succeed in bringing meaningful musical experiences to your students. Open yourself to new possibilities and, through performance, make connections that foster depth and breadth for you and those you lead. Students can learn to perform at a high level, and at the same time, learn to make connections that help them express themselves effectively in other ways as well—with their families, communities, and the world at large.
Are you unsure about how you can use this idea in your rehearsals? Take a look at my course—Transform Your Band and Orchestra Rehearsals: From Ordinary to Extraordinary — a course that’s intended to motivate you to open yourself to new possibilities, and to consider a deeper learning approach that helps students make connections beyond music to other situations in their lives.
Remarkable things happen when you allow yourself to become fully engaged with creating art or performing music. At every level, you learn how little things make big things happen. The arts allow you to experience things from a global perspective and to bring real world meaning to basic knowledge and skills. When you’re open to the artistic process, you can learn to expand the meaning you and your students get from your music experiences and transfer that knowledge to other situations.
Patricia Hoy