Alexandra Finnie

Developing Vernacular Musicianship Reflection

Dr. Isbell

I found this course to be extremely challenging, but in the end very rewarding. Growing

up as a classically trained musician, my understanding of being a musician directly related to

reading music and executing polished and accurate performances for most of my life. Most of

my musical experiences involved practicing notated music, and then performing it. Although I

had an appreciation for vernacular musicianship, I did not have many experiences playing

music by ear (Gordon), and I did not feel comfortable improvising (Elliott). I have to admit that I

still have many nerves about playing by ear and improvising because it is not something that is

easily learned through one experience, however I have been encouraged to push myself to

experiment with learning by ear. Lucy Greens book Hear, Listen, Play! mentions the

importance of positive reinforcement and encouragement (Thorndike, Skinner). As a student, I

strongly identified with the reasons for this. It was very nerve-wracking and uncomfortable to

play without any written notation, so the encouraging comments and helpful tips from my

teacher and the other band members were very helpful.

This course gave me the opportunity to create a garage-band experience by

rehearsing vernacular music with a small group of students. This type of experience is relevant

to real-world, organic musical experiences (Dewey). We were tasked with picking a cover song,

arrangement, and creating a group composition (Rogers). As a group, we decided to play

Kokomo by the Beach Boys as our cover song, Ho Hey by the Lumineers as our arrangement,

and to play a 12-bar Blues composition. For each song, I had the unique opportunity to

experiment with playing a different instrument (Bruner). I was very nervous and reserved at

first, but I soon found that I enjoyed learning by doing on a new instrument (Pestalozzi)!

I played drum set for Kokomo, which felt like a lot of pressure at first because I could

barely coordinate a simple rock beat. However, I started to feel more comfortable after a few

rehearsals, so I added some simple variations to the basic rock beat and challenged myself
further by putting in a drum fill. I really enjoyed the experience of playing by ear and informally

learning how to play drum set (Gordon, Bruner). It encouraged me to continue to push myself

outside of my comfort zone throughout this year. I became the drum set player at my new

church, and sometimes rehearsed without any music, just relying on my ear. It has been a very

rewarding experience, and is making me a better teacher because it has taught me how to relax

and not be as uptight about playing without notated music. It has also helped me develop my

drum-set skills, so I feel more comfortable teaching percussion students.

For our groups arrangement of Ho Hey, I had the opportunity to play string bass. This

was very exciting for me because I have always enjoyed string bass, but I have not had a

chance to play it. I was able to let go of my concerns and just have fun. I was also able to learn

from my peers, which was a fun and different experience than learning formally from a teacher

(Lave & Wenger). Working and learning with my peers helped me understand that informal

music-learning experiences can encourage students to feel more ownership of their playing, and

can motivate students to want to learn (Dewey, Vygotsky).

My groups final song was our blues composition. This was by far the most challenging

part of this course. I did not have a lot of involvement or experience with jazz when I was

growing up because my high school cut the jazz band, and I only had the opportunity to play in

a jazz band for one year in my Undergraduate experience. I was very nervous about playing by

ear, especially on trumpet (Thorndike). I felt that listeners would expect me to sound good

because it was my primary instrument, so I did not have the excuse of playing on an unfamiliar

instrument. I was not comfortable playing without written music, and I did not feel ready to play

even a short improvised solo. At times I felt very overwhelmed, but in the end, it was an

affirming and positive experience (Vygotsky). My group members were very encouraging, and I

was determined to give it my best (Thorndike, Skinner). I was relieved and excited after our

performance, and I gained confidence in myself (Bandura, Maslow).

 My experiences with an informal learning style and playing with my peers in a garage

band setting pushed me outside of my comfort zone in many ways, but I grew both as a

teacher and as a musician. I learned how to relax and open myself up to the process of playing

by ear. I trusted my group-members, and enjoyed our teamwork when I was encouraged and

challenged by them (Lave & Wenger). I also learned to appreciate the flexibility of informal

learning. Instead of being overly focused on strictly following the rules and conventions of

accurately performing a piece of music, we were able to adjust and make changes to the music

so that we could have fun and create something new together. Personally, I want to work on

developing my own aural skills and challenge myself to play by ear more often (Gordon). In

order to help my students develop a well-rounded musical experience, I want to stress the

importance of informal learning (Green, Jellesen). As a teacher, I am going to encourage my

students to develop their aural skills by offering more listening-based activities (Clark). I want

my students to be comfortable improvising and working together, so I am planning on giving

them opportunities to create new musical compositions together.