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Interacting with others is the essence of being “on key”
What is music?
What do you think about when you consider this question: what is music? Would you consider it to be the rustling of leaves in the trees or the blast of a car horn? What about spoken-word poetry, hip hop, country or electronica? Music involves sounds or the lack of sounds brought together for an individual or collective experience.
Across the province, the variety of musical experiences is growing. It is awe-inspiring to see the many ways there are to engage with music. How it happens and what form it takes vary from place to place and from day to day. Engaging in music can be an individual or collaborative experience. These experiences can include listening, singing, playing instruments, composing, moving to music and directing musical programs. Families, communities, schools, and amateur and professional musicians are all part of the living music culture found across our province.
What are the main musical genres or styles?
When we think about various styles of music, we need to consider music from places all around the world and, specifically, local Indigenous music. We should also include the many styles of popular, jazz, country, hip hop, electronic, folk and art music.
Descriptors in front of the word “music” can be helpful to prevent assumptions about the kind of music being discussed. It is extremely important to be clear to prevent prioritizing one kind of music over another. If I was referring to folk music or art music, I would make sure to describe it specifically as, for example, Chinese folk music or Arabic art music.
What skills are required to excel at music?
It’s widely assumed that to engage in musical activities, a person needs a specific skill set. You do not need any special skills to be musical, although there are many that are useful to have. The most useful skill for learning music is being relational, that is, interacting with other people.
Listening is another useful skill. To make music, first you need to learn to listen. What do you hear in the music? Does it sound correct? What did you learn from listening to another person sing or play? Most music from around the world is taught orally, and to learn this way, a person must engage with a culture bearer or community member.
Another important skill is a willingness to try to not get discouraged, because mistakes happen. Even professional musicians make mistakes, but mistakes can only happen, and you can only learn from them, if you are first willing to try.
What are the benefits of participating in music?
Throughout the pandemic, there have been stories from all over the world about people turning to music as an outlet to reduce stress, to engage in joyful activities and to be part of a community of music makers even while socially distanced. The organic way that people have turned to music in their own homes, using pots and pans, bowls of water, their voices and other found instruments is a testament to the power of music.
Participating in musical activities offers many benefits. It can help with learning and recalling information more effectively, decreasing anxiety and acquiring languages. Making music with others can develop cooperation, group-work and problem-solving skills. Learning how to deal with mistakes in productive ways is also a significant benefit.
Maybe most significant is that music is accessible to everyone. All people can engage in musical activities. There is no gatekeeper. We are all musical beings and we can all make music, together or apart.
All people can engage in musical activities.
Kim Friesen Wiens
Elementary music
Music director, Night of Music
Edmonton Public Schools
Years teaching: 21
Main artistic discipline: Music
Who or what inspired you to be a teacher?
I come from a family of teachers. I was inspired to become a teacher by my father. The stories he shared around our dinner table filled me with such joy. I was inspired to teach music from my grandmother. She patiently taught me music theory, then harmony and music history. She took an ornery teenager (yes, I was filled with much teenage angst) and quietly grew this love of music theory and harmony within me.
What do you enjoy most about teaching?
My students! I just love working with students. I thrive when I am able to engage with my students, learning more about who they are and the aspects of their lives that we don’t always get to see in school. I also enjoy the challenge of finding ways for students to feel connected with the musical activities that we do in class. When students challenge me on the activities or music that we use, I just love to see students taking ownership over their learning.
What is the greatest life lesson you learned from your artistic endeavours?
Perseverance. Because of my music education, I have learned the power of persistence, repetition and what it means to practice a single phrase over and over. I have learned to not be discouraged when it seems that I have taken a step backwards, and that, in fact, that backwards step will propel me forward.
What do you consider your greatest accomplishment as an artist?
I had the opportunity to learn the erhu (a Chinese two-stringed instrument) in China along with cipher notation. I consider this my greatest accomplishment as it opened my eyes to the fact that there is so much music outside of the Western art music tradition.
What aspect of being an artist brings you the most joy?
I love that I can find a song or piece of music for any occasion or any topic (and many of them I know without having to use Google!). I love using this massive catalogue of music to help me work through my various moods. Alone or together with a group, I always am surrounded by those pieces to fill the moment as needed.
What saying or adage do you live by?
I love the poem “Ode” by Arthur O’Shaughnessy and particularly the first two lines: “We are the music makers,/ and we are the dreamers of dreams.” These lines guide my work with children and with the ways I make music in my own life.
