Posts tagged glee

I have been wondering for some time about whether musicianship and athleticism (and, by extrapolation, identifying oneself as musical/a musician or athletic/an athlete) are actually all that separate from each other. There’s so much in pop culture (e.g., Glee, where jocks slushie the glee clubbers… and pop culture does take its cues from real life occurrences) that suggests that the narrative dynamic between these two subcultures is originally one of antagonism. The use of self-identification as a musician or an athlete (and, in K-12 education, your observable involvement in one “side”) firmly characterizes you as being in one or the other.

Of course, nothing is black and white and there are many shades of grey, especially on this issue. I just made a Glee reference so I guess I’ll just go with that (just another way that I think that show is one of the most helpful tools for music advocacy that we have as music educators, if we figure out how to use it correctly… but that’s another topic for another post). In the very first episode of the show Finn tells his football teammates that he’s going to do both football and glee club, and eventually we have three more football players joining the glee club. This is pretty similar to what I observed (and participated in) in during my own education. I’ve been involved in organized sports all throughout my life and remember seeing bandmates come in for rehearsal with jerseys on during game days. Maybe I was incredibly fortunate to go to a school where, at least to my knowledge, there wasn’t a huge division between these two extra-curriculars. I know it can be an issue, though, and I’m trying to get my thoughts on it down so I can think about how to help future students see that athleticism and musicianship are very similar. In fact, I kind of think that being involved in one helps your progress in the other, and vice versa.

See, I really don’t think that musicians and athletes are that separate. I kind of think that both groups of individuals would be surprised to learn just how many things they have in common. And no, I’m not talking about professionals in either discipline, just people, particularly students, who love what they do.

Being involved in music and/or athletics while simultaneously pursuing an education requires a lot of work and determination. I firmly believe that everyone has the potential to gain proficiency in any kind of task, whether it’s learning proficiency on an instrument or developing enough endurance and speed to run a 400m event. The hard part is setting goals for yourself and making the commitment to self-improvement. I think that this is where your teacher or coach comes in (and, really, why use different words? They both have the power to impact you positively and do many of the same things in my eyes).

Like so much of learning, you can do so much more with someone guiding you along the way for those first few weeks or months. “How do you practice, how often do you practice, what do you practice?” It’s the same terminology in both situations. Both music teachers and coaches organize a series of practices, whether they be in the form of after-school sports practice or in-school rehearsal with your teammates or peers in an ensemble, or a calendar or chart to help you log your hours outside of supervised practice. Once you move through the steps of skill acquisition (“how do I get comfortable throwing myself onto the ground to stop a field hockey ball from going into the goal?” versus “how do I get comfortable shifting up into thumb position, then playing scales up in that register?” and by the way, I can tell you right now that both are pretty uncomfortable) you develop expertise and all the little things that you once had to think about, like how wide your legs have to be in relation to the rest of your body before you swing a golf club or begin to sing, become natural. 

From here, you begin really digging deeper into your music and/or sport. Sure, you might still have a teacher or coach pushing you along the way and assigning exercises or music that leaves you stronger overall as an athlete and/or a musician. But you also have the self-knowledge to know who you are and what you’re capable of. Eventually, if you stick with it, the desire and determination for self-improvement can become overpowering and you end up doing things that other people may not quite understand. After all, who would willingly subject themselves to countless laps in a cold pool, hours in a practice room playing the same passages over and over again to perfection, or spending money for equipment that you just have to have because it’ll make you better?

I’ll end this on a personal note. I had two major injuries during my college career, which was when I actually began to get really serious about music and begin thinking about going into education.

The first, during my freshman year when I wasn’t involved in college sports, was tendinitis in my left forearm. It was caused by switching back and forth between electric and double bass and using less-than-stellar technique on both instruments. Despite doctors and physical therapists telling me to try not to use my arm as much as possible, I still had concerts to prepare for and a jazz band that needed its bassist. Saying no to my director and staying away from rehearsal just wasn’t something I could do in good conscience. In retrospect, I probably should’ve taken off more songs/rehearsals than I actually did, but I have that mentality that is so often associated with athletics (thanks, high school track sprint intervals!) so I didn’t. Can the whole “push through” attitude be applied to music too? I think so, and I’m sure anyone else who’s played any or all of the Bach cello suites can agree!

The second, during my junior year while I was abroad at Goldsmiths College in London and playing goalkeeper for the women’s field hockey team, was a cartilage tear in my left shoulder (yes, I think there is something wrong with the entire left side of my body). I brought an arm up to block a shot in warm-ups and my arm spun back from the force of the collision. My teammates asked me if I was okay and whether I could play, and, obviously, I said yes. Who else was going to do it? I even played in goal for the men’s field hockey team immediately afterwards. I then went home and asked a flatmate to tape a bag of frozen peas to my shoulder. A few weeks later, upon coming home, the problem persisted and instead of taking time off to really figure out what was going on with my shoulder, I just came up with creative ways to play my instrumentin my ensembles so I wouldn’t have to take too much time off (and I’m sure that helped my still-present, yet not as severe tendinitis so much). And later, once the problem was finally diagnosed, I was still playing in concerts. My college golf coach, actually, was more understanding of the situation and didn’t force me to play. 

So, again, why is there this misconception that athletes and musicians are two different kinds of people?

I’ve been planning this post for a really long time, ever since the Adam Lambert episode at the AMAs. John’s blog post about the same topic in sports just made me want to blog about it even more… and then I got caught up in finals stuff.

Basically, my thoughts on the general issue mostly center around one main point: while musical artists and performers may not want to be looked at as role models, most of the time that generally ends up happening anyway and I think that it’s something they need to keep in mind.

I think the Adam Lambert incident is especially interesting because of the gender and sexuality questions that it brought up:

“Female performers have been doing this for years — pushing the envelope about sexuality — and the minute a man does it, everybody freaks out,” Mr. Lambert said. (source)

So true— I very much remember the uproar when Madonna kissed both Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera at the VMAs a few years ago. That said, though, I think that an important issue is the fact that Adam Lambert hadn’t run his actions by the people in charge of producing the show; I’m pretty sure (though please correct me if I’m wrong) that the Madonna stunt had been planned and sanctioned by MTV.

In a statement, Dick Clark Productions, which produces the American Music Awards, said, “Due to the live nature of the show, we did not expect the impromptu moment in question.” (same source as above)

The singer said some of his sexually charged moves during the performance had not been rehearsed. “Those kind of came from more of an impromptu place,” he said, adding: “I think ABC was taken a little by surprise. That wasn’t my intention, I wasn’t being sneaky. It just – it got the most of me, I guess.” (source)

Since we’re talking about role models, though, I personally think it’s great that Adam Lambert is an openly gay and male pop artist who is so unabashedly ashamed of who he is. Regardless of whether he wants to be a role model or not, he definitely is for GLBT youth. I agree with him when he says “I’m not a baby sitter… “I’m a performer” (same source) and that parents really should be the ones in charge of what they want their children to see. I’m curious now, too, about whether most of the uproar were because children saw explicit sexual references and gestures on live TV or whether adults were just bothered in general.

That said, I prefer the attitude Kristin Chenoweth takes regarding this issue (this is regarding a spoof she did of Intervention):

“I was a little nervous at first, to be honest with you,” Chenoweth admitted. “With the subject matter and singing, ‘You make cash giving head, and you use it to buy Sudafed,’ did I really want my young fans hearing me say that?”

It’s a nice change to see a performer actively think about the ways in which their public image and actions are scrutinized (and I’d like to think that KChen thought as much about her responsibilities as an accidental role model before taking on the role of April Rhodes, AKA the most hilariously awful role model for high school students on Glee!). I think a little more foresight might’ve helped Adam Lambert, though I’m sure all the publicity did help him out!

Some quotes to start off:

“‘We knew that once the show started rolling it would be great… But to be honest, I didn’t think it would be this big this quickly. I thought it would take people a moment to catch up, but the reaction has been instant.’” - Billboard

and

“Cory Monteith… was walking down Fifth Avenue when a middle-age man and his wife stopped him. ‘He was more excited than his wife,’ Mr. Monteith said. ‘She is standing off to the side with this “I’m sorry” look on her face.’” - New York Times

both speak to how quickly and pervasively “Glee”, a feel-good jukebox musical in TV form that satirizes high school stereotypes and celebrates the underdog, has entered American culture. When talking to fellow music education students about the show, we frequently end up confirming that the show as a whole (a teacher sets up a glee club and kids find themselves and their place in a community through participating in a musical ensemble, all while having fun) “validates our career choices”. While it’s hard to say without any sort of surveying or research (there, my background as a psychology student comes out) whether “Glee” is inadvertently helping towards goals of musical advocacy and pushing the agenda that the arts (and music, specifically) can and is beneficial, it certainly is putting music education out there in a way that cannot be ignored.

When something as mainstream as “Glee” is out there in popular culture, it seems fair to generalize and say that many of the students in a music classroom have probably heard of and/or seen the show. How does this affect the way they approach learning music?

One big positive, first: music is seen as, well, an incredibly positive force in the lives of the student characters on the show. Characters frequently talk about what a haven the ensemble is for them, the friendships they have made, and the boost in self-esteem they’ve experienced. By noticing that these kinds of messages are out there in pop culture and drawing upon them in the classroom, it’s possible that music educators can connect to and encourage students to participate in music that normally wouldn’t.

One big negative, though, and this blog post says it better than I can:

“All the musical numbers, even songs JUST presented to the group, are polished and highly choreographed. Vocally, the presentation is VERY highly studio edited and the situations are just not realistic. I feel that ‘normal’ high school students may see the show and feel that they need to be able to come up to that level of quality in just a few short hours, rather than the hours of dedicated & focused practice that it does take to come up with elaborate production numbers (both vocally & choreographically).” - Rachel Velarde

When I first read this a month or so ago I partially agreed, partially disagreed; while I could see where she was coming from, I wasn’t sure that this lack of understanding about the learning process could really result from the show. As the show has progressed, though, I find myself turning repeatedly back towards this argument and it seems more and more compelling.

I have no problem, by the way, with the produced nature of the musical numbers and the songs themselves; this is a TV show, after all, and a TV show with a highly talented cast and a production team that loves to market (I’d like to see less of the pitch correction, but I digress). However, what I do think is possibly problematic is, as Ms Velarde points out, the way in which the show presents the learning process. I do realize, of course, that due to time constraints the writers have really had to pick and choose, but rehearsals have rarely, if ever, been touched on. I know the show’s main/manifest purpose is to entertain, but I’m concerned that there may be students who may get frustrated when the learning process doesn’t go as well for them because they’re comparing themselves to the latent messages they’ve picked up from the show’s portrayal of music education.

On “Glee”, students rarely make use of sheet music and seem to know and can perform the  songs instantly. The rehearsals are rarely actually rehearsals. Characters frequently just get up and belt out a polished and professional cover of a familiar song. Now, while all of this sudden singing is familiar ground to fans of conventional musical theatre and, again, while it is a TV show, after all, and a lighthearted comedy to boot (I laughed when Kurt Hummel explained his sudden laying-down of the chord progression to “I’ll Stand By You” by saying he never missed a piano lesson; and how unrealistic was Finn Hudson knowing all the words to that song and singing the melodic line perfectly, by the way?), I can’t help but wonder whether some students might unconsciously compare themselves to the performances they see on their TVs. We never see the students working for their accomplishments; instead, their educational process can often be described as instant gratification. Now, then, the question becomes: how does the music educator, upon acknowledging that this is a pretty pervasive depiction of music education, deal with this in the classroom?

I am not writing this post with the intention of providing answers to this question, but rather, seeking help in finding said answers (and, of course, as a pre-service teacher I have yet to actually deal with this in the field). However, I do already expect that part of my personal teaching philosophy will include stressing the fact that while everyone has the capability to experience, participate in, and enjoy music, becoming a skilled performer takes a lot of work and a lot of time, regardless of how “talented” a performer may be. It may be called “playing music”, but it certainly is work. Like my own educational process through a music education program, the answers to issues like these are still in progress, but I look forward to seeing my own philosophies develop further just as much as I look forward to seeing whether Quinn Fabray and Finn Hudson will stay together (although I’m pretty sure the answer is “no”, they just keep hanging on).

ETA: I also have a few problems with how Will Schuester runs his ensemble, but that’s a whole other topic!