Mr. Matt McLean, Director of the Jazz and Wind Ensembles, plans on making drastic changes to the Music Arts Concentration program this year. Now in its sixteenth year, the program has long focused on the individual improvement of student musicians. Mr. McLean plans to make Music Arts Concentration as collaborative as the Dance and Visual Arts Concentration Programs.
Unlike dancers who perform together and visual artists who work together in the PMAC studio, the Music Concentration students recite their pieces alone in small practice rooms until they have mastered them. Mr. McLean has noticed the lack of a sense of community within the Music Arts Concentration Program and hopes to exploit technology to help students grow together as musicians.
Last week, Mr. McLean introduced the Seesaw app to students. Seesaw allows students to create portfolios and, more important, to create weekly blog posts to share with all of the Music Arts Concentration community. Mr. McLean hopes that this will not only make the teacher-student relationship stronger and speed up the feedback process but also allow students to help each other. Students are encouraged to post videos in which they introduce what they are working on for that week, set a few goals, and describe the challenges they might be facing in accomplishing them. After this initial recording, other students can share their feedback and offer their advice. At the end of the week, another video will be uploaded with an improved version of the piece mentioned, making a teacher’s job of tracking practice quality easier, as well.
Music Arts Con student Jay Zhou ’21 appreciates the changes. He said, “I really like the idea of pulling everyone together, and now it actually feels like there is a musical community. You practice music by yourself almost all the time, so I like Seesaw as a platform where everyone comes together. As long as Arts Con doesn’t implement specific times and a schedule to practice, I’m good with it.”
Zhou likes that, unlike other forms of Arts Concentration, practice hours are generally flexible and not mandated by signup sheets. Students are required to practice two hours a day, but absent a strictly imposed schedule, students enjoy a sense of freedom and independence.
With teachers keeping a close eye on students’ weekly improvements and tasks, students don’t just have to practice for ensemble pieces but actually have to push their limits as individual musicians as well. Pathy also mentioned the possibility of a weekly meeting on Mondays and thought that this might also be beneficial for the musicians to keep track of each other and further strengthen the musical community at Choate.
As for the future, Mr. McLean has also discussed ways to unite all of the Arts Concentration disciplines. One possibility is the Dance Arts Con students choreographing to an original composition created by Music Arts Con students. Along with Ms. Kalya Yannatos, Director of the Arts Department, he is currently working to formulate future plans for collaborative projects.
