Hump Day Hmmmm. . .The arts

I am truly loving blogging, and I'm working on becoming an almost every day blogger instead of an at least once a week blogger. Julie Pippert is an inspiration to me. Therefore, on Wednesdays, I'm going to start doing the Hump Day Hmmm posts that she recommends. The topic for this week is based on the arts and education. This topic is very near and dear to my heart. As a percussion education major for three and a half years, a woman who, the arts are very dear to my heart. I currently teach private music lessons. Also, I'm the woman who, as a senior in high school, decided that it was worth it to do a homestudy accounting course (which took a considerable amount of hours every day because I cannot transfer numbers in the correct order) instead of having to drop out of choir. There was one accounting class and one choir class, and I wanted to take choir although I every elective available was filled up with band, choir and drama classes.

My life in music started at the ripe young age of five with piano lessons because of a goal my mom had. She had a goal to make all her children musical. Being the youngest, my mom had learned from what helped all the other children quit music lessons, and those tricks were not to be for me. She had a rule that you could quit piano when you took up another instrument. I thought I had it all figured out. In second grade, I wanted to play the violin, and I thought I could quit piano. Wrong. Then, I ended up taking both piano and violin lessons until I was in sixth grade when I added percussion in the band. My mom suggested I play a "real" instrument instead of drums, but I told her I wanted to be a percussionist. I had always been in love with strange sounds and rhythm. Percussion was for me. My freshman year of high school, I added drama to the mix, and my sophomore year, I traded drama class for choir class, but I still tried out for all the school plays. I can't draw or paint more than just knowing how to put the brush, pen, or crayon on the paper. Knowing how to move it is a different story. However, music is an outlet for creativity for me. It has also been my way of making money since I was a freshman in high school. My mom started letting me teach my own students in her music studio. Thank you Mama!

I realize that many of my music experiences have been in the private realm, and that is an argument for many people trying to shove music education out of the public schools. However, shouldn't every child have the opportunity to have music in his or her life if he or she should want to? Fewer and fewer parents are able to afford private lessons as time passes. Therefore, only certain children would get any musical training at all. On top of that, there are things you can do in a public music setting that are close to impossible to do in a private music setting unless you have an extremely large studio. Orchestras and bands are much more likely in a public school setting than in a private studio. Without the other kids to make up the bands and orchestras, we would lose the big orchestras people value. Where would the Boston Pops or Utah Symphony be without those players first learning how to play in a band or orchestra setting?

All of my percussion skills have come from teachers paid for by the public education system. (Elemetary, high school, and a state college.)

Here is an example of some of the joy that has come into my life from public education in the arts.

This piece is a shortened version of Yellow After the Rain by Mitchell Peters.