Michael Ippolito
Dr. Veblen
Intro to Music Education
October 16, 2016
Music Education Interview Reflection
For this Influential Teacher assignment, I interviewed my former piano teacher Gina Selvaggi. I had been taking piano lessons from her from grade three all the way to grade twelve. She has been a very big part of how I grew as a musician. She is the owner of a private school known as Musaic School of Music. It is located in Vaughan Ontario which is where I am from. I had ten questions prepared for my interview with her. I called her on the phone and that was how I conducted my interview. The questions and answers to the interview are as follows:
Q: What would you define as bad teaching?
A: In music there must be a portion that is demonstrative. So when a music teacher does not demonstrate to their students, it makes it harder for the student to understand. That teacher had better be able to articulate very well if they cannot demonstrate to their student what is expected of them.
Q: What do you think is the most important job a teacher has?
A: To encourage and inspire.
Q: Why did you choose to become a teacher of music?
A: It’s not really a why. It was pretty much something I innately knew when I was growing up playing the piano. I loved it so much that I wanted to always be around it.
Q: What challenges did you face on your path to becoming a music teacher? What challenges do you face now?
A: Well obviously you need a background in the field to succeed in it. So there was a lot of studying music. The biggest challenge I would say is how music is always changing which means us as educators have to keep up. I find that very exciting though. A challenge I face now is dealing with many different students with different upbringings. Because students tend to be involved in many different things it is hard for them to focus on music. Kids tend to give up easier these days and that may be because they feel overwhelmed.
Q: Your husband is also a music teacher. What would you say are some differences between your teaching styles?
A: Richard has a more popular song based teacher style whereas mine is more classical. My style is more technical in a sense. Because of the different music styles, we tend to teach Richard’s style tends to be more adaptable whereas mine is more rigid.
Q: Why do you think you ended up as a teacher and never considered a different career path? Or did you consider another career path?
A: I in fact did not take music in university. I took mathematics and was planning to go into accounting but was still teaching privately on the side. My family did not think I could make a decent living with just music.
Q: Have you ever had any arguments with other teachers regarding how one should go about teaching?
A: If you take a very old piece for example, some of them do not have tempo markings and such. There are many ways to interpret pieces like this and I have seen teachers and adjudicators who have been really close – minded about this topic.
Q: Who would you say inspired you to get into music and also become a music teacher?
A: It was probably my very first piano lesson. I was in a room with three other kids. They all played something and then I got up to play. It was very meaningful to me. I like to think that the first day I started piano lessons was the first day my life began.
Q: What is your relationship with your students like? Why do you feel it is important for you to maintain this kind of relationship with all of your students?
A: Music is all about emotion and it mirrors life. I try to reflect this in the relationships with my students and I try to get to know all of them. My music school is like a big family to me. If there is a personal problem a student has then they cannot focus and learn well. I feel like getting to know them in private lessons can really help both me and them. Sometimes I cheer them up, sometimes it is the other way around.
Q: What is the most important message you try to teach and pass on to your students as they pursue music throughout their life?
A: The main lesson of learning an instrument is that inspires a lot of learning skills, determination, dedication. Learning an instrument is not something that happens in just two weeks. There are very few things that take that long to learn well and music is one of them. Learning music teaches many life skills such as patience. They learn the value of consistent work, being loyal to their studies, the value of perseverance or not giving up when things get tough.
That interview was a very interesting experience for me. I have had many different experiences when talking to Gina but I have never had to interview her before. It definitely gave me more insight into how she feels about teaching and what her philosophies on teaching are. I found her answers very interesting. Having known her for most of my life, I was not surprised by most if not all of her answers. For example, in regards to her answer regarding her relationship with students. Gina stated that it is important to build a strong personal relationship with her students. She feels that her students should be able to see her as someone more than a teacher. Her music school is like a big family to her. Having been one of her students I can definitely understand her answer to that question. I definitely had a good relationship with Gina. Every time I was having a bad day I could always escape that in my piano lesson. Every time she seemed to be having a bad day. She could rant to me about it. We definitely had a good teacher – student relationship. One thing that may have been apparent in the interview was that she is a very open teacher. She is very open to new ideas but also does not have time for fooling around. One thing I have always appreciated about Gina is that she did not sugarcoat things. That may not be readily apparent through just the interview but she would always tell it like it is. If someone was playing poorly (most often because they did not practice) she wouldn’t tell them that they were doing well. They would never learn or improve that way. Instead, Gina would tell them straight that they did poorly. She was never mean about though. She would always find the right way to say it. One thing that really stuck with me after this interview was what she said in regards to challenges she has faced. Even though she admitted that music was a lot of work, at the same time she never called it a challenge. It was challenging, but not a challenge. This is because she was doing what she loved. She loved music so much that as difficult as it was to pursue, it never had a negative effect on her. As shown in the interview, she loved music so much that when people told her that music was not a good career choice, what does she do, she opens a music school. This was very inspiring to me. I have always been impressed and inspired by my teacher but I never knew about any of this before the interview. One thing I liked about the interview was the talk about her arguments with other teachers. She disagrees with teachers who are not open minded about exploring well known pieces in new ways. I have always considered myself lucky to have an open minded teacher like her. I really connected with her story regarding what inspired her to pursue music. She said that it was her first piano lesson. It made me think about my first piano lesson as well. I remember my dad telling me and my siblings that we were going to get ice cream. Somehow I ended up at a music school and was the first of my siblings to start my first piano lesson. At first I was pretty mad. However, as I played more and more I began to really enjoy the piano. So because of this, I definitely felt a connection to her story regarding her first piano lesson. I also could not resist asking her what her definition of bad teaching was. I could not agree more with her answer. I definitely learn better by being shown something in regards to music. Just being told what to do is never enough for me. I feel that me and Gina both believe that if a teacher is unable to show a student what to do and demonstrate what they are talking about, they should not be teaching. One last thing that stuck with me was her answer to the question I asked in regards to the most important job a teacher has. She gave me the simplest answer out of all of them for that one. The simplest, and yet the most effective. All she said was to encourage and inspire. We both understood that nothing needed to be said. Every other question was met with a story or an example of some sort. This one however, just had a small, four-word answer. To encourage and inspire. All in all, these were all the reasons that this interview was very inspiring to me. I definitely want to be the kind of music teacher that Gina could be proud of.
Dr. Veblen
Intro to Music Education
October 16, 2016
Music Education Interview Reflection
For this Influential Teacher assignment, I interviewed my former piano teacher Gina Selvaggi. I had been taking piano lessons from her from grade three all the way to grade twelve. She has been a very big part of how I grew as a musician. She is the owner of a private school known as Musaic School of Music. It is located in Vaughan Ontario which is where I am from. I had ten questions prepared for my interview with her. I called her on the phone and that was how I conducted my interview. The questions and answers to the interview are as follows:
Q: What would you define as bad teaching?
A: In music there must be a portion that is demonstrative. So when a music teacher does not demonstrate to their students, it makes it harder for the student to understand. That teacher had better be able to articulate very well if they cannot demonstrate to their student what is expected of them.
Q: What do you think is the most important job a teacher has?
A: To encourage and inspire.
Q: Why did you choose to become a teacher of music?
A: It’s not really a why. It was pretty much something I innately knew when I was growing up playing the piano. I loved it so much that I wanted to always be around it.
Q: What challenges did you face on your path to becoming a music teacher? What challenges do you face now?
A: Well obviously you need a background in the field to succeed in it. So there was a lot of studying music. The biggest challenge I would say is how music is always changing which means us as educators have to keep up. I find that very exciting though. A challenge I face now is dealing with many different students with different upbringings. Because students tend to be involved in many different things it is hard for them to focus on music. Kids tend to give up easier these days and that may be because they feel overwhelmed.
Q: Your husband is also a music teacher. What would you say are some differences between your teaching styles?
A: Richard has a more popular song based teacher style whereas mine is more classical. My style is more technical in a sense. Because of the different music styles, we tend to teach Richard’s style tends to be more adaptable whereas mine is more rigid.
Q: Why do you think you ended up as a teacher and never considered a different career path? Or did you consider another career path?
A: I in fact did not take music in university. I took mathematics and was planning to go into accounting but was still teaching privately on the side. My family did not think I could make a decent living with just music.
Q: Have you ever had any arguments with other teachers regarding how one should go about teaching?
A: If you take a very old piece for example, some of them do not have tempo markings and such. There are many ways to interpret pieces like this and I have seen teachers and adjudicators who have been really close – minded about this topic.
Q: Who would you say inspired you to get into music and also become a music teacher?
A: It was probably my very first piano lesson. I was in a room with three other kids. They all played something and then I got up to play. It was very meaningful to me. I like to think that the first day I started piano lessons was the first day my life began.
Q: What is your relationship with your students like? Why do you feel it is important for you to maintain this kind of relationship with all of your students?
A: Music is all about emotion and it mirrors life. I try to reflect this in the relationships with my students and I try to get to know all of them. My music school is like a big family to me. If there is a personal problem a student has then they cannot focus and learn well. I feel like getting to know them in private lessons can really help both me and them. Sometimes I cheer them up, sometimes it is the other way around.
Q: What is the most important message you try to teach and pass on to your students as they pursue music throughout their life?
A: The main lesson of learning an instrument is that inspires a lot of learning skills, determination, dedication. Learning an instrument is not something that happens in just two weeks. There are very few things that take that long to learn well and music is one of them. Learning music teaches many life skills such as patience. They learn the value of consistent work, being loyal to their studies, the value of perseverance or not giving up when things get tough.
That interview was a very interesting experience for me. I have had many different experiences when talking to Gina but I have never had to interview her before. It definitely gave me more insight into how she feels about teaching and what her philosophies on teaching are. I found her answers very interesting. Having known her for most of my life, I was not surprised by most if not all of her answers. For example, in regards to her answer regarding her relationship with students. Gina stated that it is important to build a strong personal relationship with her students. She feels that her students should be able to see her as someone more than a teacher. Her music school is like a big family to her. Having been one of her students I can definitely understand her answer to that question. I definitely had a good relationship with Gina. Every time I was having a bad day I could always escape that in my piano lesson. Every time she seemed to be having a bad day. She could rant to me about it. We definitely had a good teacher – student relationship. One thing that may have been apparent in the interview was that she is a very open teacher. She is very open to new ideas but also does not have time for fooling around. One thing I have always appreciated about Gina is that she did not sugarcoat things. That may not be readily apparent through just the interview but she would always tell it like it is. If someone was playing poorly (most often because they did not practice) she wouldn’t tell them that they were doing well. They would never learn or improve that way. Instead, Gina would tell them straight that they did poorly. She was never mean about though. She would always find the right way to say it. One thing that really stuck with me after this interview was what she said in regards to challenges she has faced. Even though she admitted that music was a lot of work, at the same time she never called it a challenge. It was challenging, but not a challenge. This is because she was doing what she loved. She loved music so much that as difficult as it was to pursue, it never had a negative effect on her. As shown in the interview, she loved music so much that when people told her that music was not a good career choice, what does she do, she opens a music school. This was very inspiring to me. I have always been impressed and inspired by my teacher but I never knew about any of this before the interview. One thing I liked about the interview was the talk about her arguments with other teachers. She disagrees with teachers who are not open minded about exploring well known pieces in new ways. I have always considered myself lucky to have an open minded teacher like her. I really connected with her story regarding what inspired her to pursue music. She said that it was her first piano lesson. It made me think about my first piano lesson as well. I remember my dad telling me and my siblings that we were going to get ice cream. Somehow I ended up at a music school and was the first of my siblings to start my first piano lesson. At first I was pretty mad. However, as I played more and more I began to really enjoy the piano. So because of this, I definitely felt a connection to her story regarding her first piano lesson. I also could not resist asking her what her definition of bad teaching was. I could not agree more with her answer. I definitely learn better by being shown something in regards to music. Just being told what to do is never enough for me. I feel that me and Gina both believe that if a teacher is unable to show a student what to do and demonstrate what they are talking about, they should not be teaching. One last thing that stuck with me was her answer to the question I asked in regards to the most important job a teacher has. She gave me the simplest answer out of all of them for that one. The simplest, and yet the most effective. All she said was to encourage and inspire. We both understood that nothing needed to be said. Every other question was met with a story or an example of some sort. This one however, just had a small, four-word answer. To encourage and inspire. All in all, these were all the reasons that this interview was very inspiring to me. I definitely want to be the kind of music teacher that Gina could be proud of.