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Curious, Collaborative, & Creative: Addressing Diversity through Democracy in Performing Ensembles

Dr. Danni Gilbert, Assistant Professor of Instrumental Music Education

The University of Minnesota-Twin Cities

Minnesota Music Educators Association Midwinter Convention

Thursday, February 15, 2024

3:30-4:25 (55 minutes); 101DE

3:30-3:31: 1 minute

Good afternoon and thank you so much for the opportunity to be with you today. My name is Dr. Danni Gilbert and I am the Assistant Professor of Instrumental Music Education at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. Geared toward instrumental ensemble directors, this interactive session will examine ideas aimed at promoting diversity through democracy by applying the Curious, Collaborative, and Creative approach for student-centered learning. Performing ensembles traditionally have strong underpinnings in teacher-centered instruction connected to competitive and high-stakes concerts. Results typically produce musicians dependent upon ensemble directors with limited knowledge and skills necessary to perform beyond ensemble experiences. The Curious, Collaborative, and Creative (CCC) approach to music learning fosters curiosity by allowing students to determine their own musical interests and to select the repertoire to be studied and performed. Musicians are placed into teams that collaboratively share the responsibilities of instruction, leadership, artistic enhancements, performances, research, and outreach. Finally, musicians are provided with opportunities to develop creativity by designing their own presentations or “informances” rather than formal performances. Now, earlier in my career, my teaching looked like this…

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3:31-3:33; 2 minutes

My first full-time college teaching position was at Doane University, a small, private liberal arts college where my responsibilities included directing the athletic bands. Because this position involved a lot of public scrutiny, community involvement, and because I really wanted to prove myself, I started out with a very authoritative and direct approach to leading my ensembles. Here I am conducting at a pep rally before the football game. And…I kind of hated it. I think my students kind of hated it too. I put SO much pressure on myself and wanted to be responsible for every aspect of the program. I never delegated tasks, because I thought, I’m the one in charge, it needs to be me. I never saw my husband and young daughters, spent time with friends, or had much of any kind of life beyond flip folders. This was me right before I experienced burnout to the point I cried in my car on the way to and from work every day and thought I had made a terrible career choice, even though it was what I had worked my whole life to achieve. That’s when my perspective and teaching philosophy shifted. I thought about what seems to be a growing disconnect between our own preparatory experiences and the expectations of the students facing us on the other side of the podium. Our tried-and-true teaching materials may be leaving students uninterested and disappointed in school music. How can we change, adapt, and be flexible to meet the needs of our students? How can we get to know our students better? Not the students described in textbooks, but our students sitting in the chairs in front of us? Do students’ expectations about performing in an ensemble match what we are offering them?

I began to listen, really listen, to my students and get to know them and how amazingly creative and wonderful they are. I began to really listen to what the campus, community, alumni, and other stakeholders thought of the program and ideas for what they hoped it could be. I began to realize that people seemed to care less about having a perfectly flawless performance and more about the ways music can connect people, bring joy, foster creativity. And I began to get out of my own way. My teaching changed, and then it started to look more like this…

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3:34-3:35; 1 minute

Here are my collegiate music education majors delivering a peer lesson in class. So my philosophy about teaching shifted not only in ensemble settings, but in more traditional academic classroom settings as well. I started to enjoy teaching again. I had more energy to be a mother, wife, and friend. I became excited to go to work. My students seemed to enjoy and appreciate having a voice, trying their ideas, taking ownership of their learning, and applying new knowledge and skills in ways that were meaningful to them and connected to others. I started digging into the concept of student-centered or flipped learning, which has been around for a while in educational contexts, but can feel complex to apply to music performing ensembles. In this type of atmosphere, students make more decisions about their learning, such as the opportunity to select repertoire, provide self- and peer assessments, and design lesson goals. Students also assume more enriched responsibilities and learn in more active, hands-on ways than in traditional settings. In student- centered instruction, learning is tailored to meet the needs and interests of students, making it much more profound for them. My digging led me to the Curious, Collaborative, Creative approach, or CCC.

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Curious, Collaborative, Creative (CCC)

Offers answers to the limitations of traditional models and helps to develop 21st century skills in an ensemble environment.

Comprehensive, student-centered alternative to traditional ensemble instruction with the goal of promoting better opportunities for musical independence and lifelong musicianship.

3:35-3:36; 45 seconds

Developed by Caron Collins from the Crane School of Music at the State University of New York-Potsdam, the Curious, Collaborative, Creative concept fosters student-centered learning and the promotion of 21st-century skills by encouraging students to select, arrange, and compose the repertoire to be studied; to work together in teams to equally contribute to the learning/understanding of music; and to share their work through informances to engage and enlighten community members. I began to partner with Dr. Collins to help address my essential driving question, Are the traditional models of ensemble instruction compatible with developing 21st century skills, as well as social justice and cultural diversity awareness? I explored how the CCC model might offer a deeper musical experience based upon cooperation rather than competition while still maintaining high performance standards.

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CCC Approach: 3 Steps

1: Curiosity: gather information on musical interests, skills, and desired goals of the ensemble. Information is analyzed and musician teams are formed. Repertoire is chosen based upon the diverse wish-list of the musicians, preferences and skill level.�

2: Collaboration: teams of musicians share the responsibilities of musical instruction, leadership, artistic enhancements, performances, research, and outreach (community ensembles) or creating, performing, responding (for school ensembles).�

3: Creativity: musician-designed presentations occur as a culmination of study,“informance”, rather than a formal performance, resulting in a richer musical experience for the student-musician, and the ensemble as a whole; often includes audience participation.

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Step 1: Curiosity

Music selection: through democratic process; student-generated “wish list”; based on interest (teacher serves as a guide)
Questionnaire to determine learning objectives, roles, and musical projects

3:36-3:37; 1 minute 30 seconds

In the first step of CCC, Curiosity, teachers get to know their students. At the beginning of the school year— or earlier, if possible—teachers collect information from students about their strengths and interests. Student selection of repertoire to be studied through a democratic process is of vital importance. Using a democratic approach to the ensemble gives both the teacher and the students the chance to explore the possibilities as well as the challenges of the music together, promoting an open exchange of ideas. This usually results in a wide array of genres and styles selected, benefiting the classroom by promoting diversity and supporting a variety of multicultural offerings. The younger or more musically inexperienced the student, the more guidance will be necessary from the educator to ensure that the repertoire selected appropriately matches the skill level of the group. For younger musicians, I recommend providing a list of repertoire from which students can choose. More advanced musicians may need less help in this area.

Once student input is gathered on the repertoire to be covered, the instructor distributes a questionnaire to students to obtain information on how each student would like to contribute to learning the music chosen. Are students interested in conducting, teaching, or composing? Do students have strengths in areas outside of music, such as artistic, athletic, or theatrical skills that could be used to enhance the music studied? After analysis of the questionnaires, students are placed into teams to facilitate learning and the achievement of goals. The exact function of each team is based on the objectives designed for the music selected by the students.

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Doane Tiger Band: Curiosity

Questionnaire on musical interests, repertoire, goals:

1) Build upon tradition
2) Student-centered focus
3) Engage stakeholders

3:37-3:39; 1 minute 15 seconds

A few months before the school year begins, students enrolled in the Doane Tiger Band, which I formerly directed, are given a questionnaire to help determine their musical interests, choose new repertoire to be ordered, and develop goals for the season. One year, for example, results of the questionnaire centered around three focal points that would serve as our objectives—on which all major decisions would be made: (1) build on tradition, (2) focus on students, and (3) engage stakeholders. Students requested to perform more tiger-themed pieces (our school mascot was Thomas Tiger), so we ordered Katy Perry’s song “Roar” and Survivor’s “Eye of the Tiger.” Also, since one of our home games happened to be on Halloween, students requested Mussorgsky’s Night on Bald Mountain and themes from the movies Batman and Jaws. While I expected students to primarily choose pop tunes, they also chose to include arrangements of traditional, classical pieces such as the overture from Rossini’s William Tell, Holst’s “Mars (‘The Bringer of War’),” Verdi’s Requiem, and Bach’s “Toccata and Fugue.” In keeping with the goal of engaging with stakeholders, we honored a request by our football coach to perform “Back in Black” every time the offense took the field to promote our school colors. We also ordered and arranged music requested by the dance and cheer teams to integrate into our informances.

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Blair Middle School Band: Curiosity

3:39-3:41

1 minute 30 seconds

I also learned the importance of really getting to know my students when I taught beginning and middle school band in the public schools. I didn’t know of the CCC approach yet at the time, but I started learning and applying more of a student-centered focus when I had students tell me they wanted to quit. At first I took it personally because I don’t know why anyone would ever want to quit band, so I started to talk with students and families and colleagues about what I could do differently to help better support a love for band in our community. One student told me she wished she could learn songs by Taylor Swift on her clarinet. So we did. Students worked on easy arrangements of songs by Taylor Swift and other music they liked—and they started practicing more, and sounding better. Of course, we didn’t ONLY play Taylor Swift, but I used students’ interests to help motivate and engage them AND advance their musical knowledge and skills. One student told me he wanted to use more GarageBand in band class. So we did. Students recorded themselves playing arrangements they created and used GarageBand to add loops to accompany their performance with drum beats, bass lines, and rhythm parts, and we shared these recordings in informances with stakeholders. Both of these examples initially took me out of my comfort zone. This was not how I was taught and this was not what band music normally sounded like. But…my students are not me, and adapting my teaching ultimately helped so much with recruitment, retention, and giving students memorable experiences….

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3:41-3:42; 1 minute

…which led to some of my most memorable teaching experiences. A few years ago, I was presenting at a conference and afterwards these two gentlemen walked up to me and said, “Mrs. Gilbert, do you remember us?” And I thought, yes, you look very familiar, but you are taller and have beards! These were two of my former beginning band students and they wanted to tell me that they were in their final year of college, and were studying to be music educators. They wanted to be middle school band directors because they said they were inspired by me. Now, as you know as teachers, we don’t hear “thank you” nearly as often as we hear about what’s going wrong. But when we do, those are the precious moments that keep us going. So my teaching was more non-traditional, but it made lasting impacts for the students…at least these two!

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Curiosity: Your Turn!

How might you activate students’ curiosity in your setting?
How could you gather information on students’ interests and goals?
How could you give students a choice in repertoire/materials while also ensuring a connection to the curriculum & desired outcomes that can be assessed?

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Step 2: Collaboration

Students work together in project teams within the full ensemble. Teacher serves as facilitator to lead students in making connections to music.

Possible teams (school ensembles):

Creating: imagining, planning, arranging, composing, improvising, evaluating
Performing: interpreting, rehearsing, evaluating, refining music studied; assists in teaching the music
Responding: analyzing, evaluating, enhances understanding of music through written word, visual displays, videos, interpretive movement, etc.

3:48-3:49; 1 minute

During the second step of CCC, Collaboration, teams of musicians are formed, based on the questionnaire results obtained in the Curious phase, in order to share the responsibilities of learning, teaching, and performing the music selected. The teacher serves as the facilitator to help students make connections to the music, while students work together in project teams within the full ensemble. All aspects of the organization are shared equally among participants. While these teams can function in any way imagined by the group, it might be helpful to begin first with three basic teams: the Creating Team, Performing Team, and Responding Team. In addition to being functional, these teams also align with the three Artistic Processes associated with the 2014 National Music Standards. It’s recommended that students participate in each team at least once during the course of the academic year. The teacher becomes the facilitator as well as the director of the ensemble in leading the students in making connections to the music.

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Doane Tiger Band: Collaboration�

Teams (6):

Creating (arrangements & compositions);
Performing (drum majors/student conductors);
Responding (publicity, community involvement);
Connecting (Research) (music education majors);
Informance Enhancement (“Roar-meisters”);
Service (equipment, library, uniforms).

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Creating Team

3:49-3:50; 1 minute 20 seconds

The Creating Team works with the Performance Team in imagining, planning, creating, evaluating, and refining the music being studied. This team may arrange the music in more authentic or innovative ways, or compose and improvise new music in the style of the selected ensemble music. Composition projects may enable a student-centered learning environment and can reinforce conceptual understanding for students. Although many music educators may consider composing and arranging to be too advanced or time-consuming for younger musicians, I have had much success in giving students of all ages and ability levels such opportunities. In fact, among the beginning through collegiate-level students I have taught, I have found the beginners to be among the most creative and willing of students! The key is to tailor the parameters of the project to meet the students where they are. For example, students with a basic musical vocabulary and skill set may be tasked with creating an arrangement of a familiar tune using the first five pitches of the Bb concert scale and rhythms no more advanced than quarter notes. Accomplished high school or collegiate students, in contrast, would be expected to create at a more sophisticated level befitting their abilities. For instance, students in my collegiate ensemble have written complicated drum cadences as well as arrangements of Malagueña, You’ve Got a Friend in Me, and a reimagining of our school’s alma mater.

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Performing Team

3:50-3:51; 1 minute 30 seconds

The Performing Team collaborates with the teacher in analyzing, interpreting, rehearsing, evaluating, and refining the music being studied. This team assists in the teaching of music. For more advanced ensembles, students may lead small groups in sectionals or conduct entire pieces. Younger students may work in pairs to review a musical concept with the ensemble or provide their own explanations of musical events based on their own experiences and backgrounds.

In the Doane Tiger Band, the Performing Team included our drum majors and student conductors who were in charge of leading full band rehearsals and performances, as well as section leaders who taught performance skills to small groups during rehearsals. I interviewed a senior student from my band who said, “In the CCC student-centered approach, I served on the Performance Team and conducted pieces at rehearsals and informances. The student leadership part of it was a great way to allow students to connect with each other. The director is still involved, but is more in the background. Before, there was more being talked to, and talked at, and instruction given from the director leading it. But when we flipped the class, band became more fun. We can add to the atmosphere at informances in more of a relaxed setting, being a community of band students getting together and performing. I think the student- centered approach definitely helped lighten the mood in the band. In previous years, there was a lot of tension, but flipping the class helped us get through the season together. There is more student input. We wrote our own arrangements to perform at informances. We were able to change the flip folder and buy or create music that we wanted.”

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Responding Team

Social media
Promotional Videos
Alumni Band
Bring-a-“Friend”
Halloween Spooktacular
High-School Invitational Game

3:51-3:52; 1 minute

The Responding Team works with the Creating Team in analyzing, interpreting, and evaluating the music being studied. This team enhances the understanding of the music through written word, visual displays and artwork, videos, dance, or other means appropriate to selected works. In our Doane Tiger Band, students on the Responding Team involved community members and stakeholders, generated publicity for the ensemble through social media and networking, and promoted social awareness. They helped bring alumni together to perform at Homecoming. One of the other colleges in our conference that we played against every season was Friend University in Witchita. Students dubbed that home game the, “Bring a Friend” game and invited someone else on campus that played an instrument but who wasn’t in band to join us, sit in the stands, and perform at the game. This helped with recruitment and brought our numbers up. Students worked to involve community members and spectators in our game closest to Halloween which became known as the Halloween Spooktacular. And students selected one game where they invited high school musicians, both locally and throughout the state, to sit in the stands and perform with us at the game. This also very much helped with recruitment.

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Connecting & Research Team

3:52-3:53; 1 minute 30 seconds

The Connecting Team helps to illustrate relationships between the repertoire being studied and other disciplines. Students work with the Performing Team to find innovative ways to teach or rehearse material. In the Doane Tiger Band, we called this group of students our Research Team. This group was mostly comprised of music education majors who found new teaching, rehearsal, or performance strategies and shared them with members of the Performing Team to be used in rehearsals.

I interviewed a sophomore music education major on our Research Team who said, “I do like using a student-centered approach. It puts a lot more responsibility on the students. I think, at first, it threw us all off, because it was different than what we had done before. But I think it helped me be able to learn something from my peers, instead of just the director. I learned a lot from other students. I could find different ideas to put into my own practice because now I eventually want to be a music teacher. I learned a lot, and I’m glad I did it. During the year, it got a little rough and rocky at times. But there was open communication, and it was good to see how people can work together. It was good to see how it all gets organized. As a teacher, I would want to involve my students in everything. I think it’s important for teachers to let go of some responsibilities, like selecting music, just to let the students have at it and see what they can do. Teachers are there to teach students not to fail. I learned to accept people’s skill levels, and that’s how I’m adjusting my thinking. Not everybody has the same skill set, but everyone needs to be given the opportunity to use what they have and try that out.”

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Informance Enhancement Team

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Service Team

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Collaboration: Your Turn!

What are some possible student-led teams that would be appropriate for your setting?
How might students collaborate within teams and across teams to achieve goals?
How might you serve as a facilitator or coach to lead students to make connections to the music along the way?
How would the functions of the teams meet school/district expectations and state/national standards?

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Step 3: Creativity

Informance = audience/stakeholders become informed and share music-making experience
Students share what they have learned to bring audience a deeper understanding of music

Pre-informance talk
Performance & Creativity team presentations
Student composers and conductors
Responding team provides musical enhancements through dance, artwork, audience participation, etc.

4:00-4:01; 1 minute 20 seconds

In the third and final step of CCC, Creativity, ensembles share the culmination of their efforts by facilitating “informances” to demonstrate the processes of teaching and learning, inform stakeholders, and involve the audience in the music- making experience. An informance can be described as a “demonstration of our regular classroom procedures” where audience members become aware of what students can accomplish in a more relaxed, authentic, and spontaneous atmosphere. As an alternative to traditional concerts or programs, informances emphasize the learning process and help to communicate the educational objectives of the ensemble to community members. Serving as fantastic advocacy tools, informances educate communities of the value of the learning process on a daily basis.

To successfully increase audience understanding and appreciation for the program, informances should have an introduction, demonstration, and participation component. In addition to describing the curriculum as well as demonstrating classroom activities, rehearsal procedures, and assessment practices, informances should encourage the audience to participate along with the students in the music-making so they have a grasp of the learning process. By bringing music to the audience rather than performing music for the audience, as is done in the traditional format, students can teach community members about the value and worth of music.

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Doane Tiger Band: Creativity

4:01-4:04; 2 minutes 20 seconds

In the Doane Tiger Band, all six teams worked together to present their work as informances. Student conductors led the ensemble in performing original works composed and arranged by band members as well as pieces selected by the group. Everyone was dressed in uniforms designed and chosen by students. The presentations included banners, flags, cheers, and movements created by students. Our routines were planned to blend the boundaries between performers and the community. Rather than presenting material on a stage with audience members seated below us, students were integrated among the audience to encourage them to participate in singing, dancing, and cheering. We often performed alongside other members of the community. For instance, one informance was devoted to welcoming alumni band members to perform with us while another informance invited local area musicians to participate within our group. In addition, the band worked together with students in the dance and cheer teams to enhance the music. Throughout informances, student musicians passed out school-themed candy and stickers to children in the audience. Before, during, and after the musical presentations in informances, band members visited with audience members, speaking to them about what we were performing and leading them toward a deeper understanding of our program. By transforming the traditional concert setting into a participatory experience that includes everyone in attendance, we are able to educate and inform stakeholders, inspire community involvement, equally value the contributions of all students, and encourage greater participation across the range of abilities.

I interviewed a junior band member who said, “With the student-centered band, there was input from us at all levels. I arranged drum cadences and helped make decisions about when and where to perform them. I taught them to the drumline during rehearsals. It took a couple of hours to write, but it was worth it to hear performances of my work. It felt like I actually had to do something for once. It wasn’t just an easy pass. I felt wanted and important. The students didn’t always see eye-to-eye, so it was a constant learning process, trying to work together and communicate. There were times it wasn’t smooth, but we had to learn to work it out together. Sometimes in rehearsals, things just didn’t work, so our director would help us fix the problem together. Once we knew what we were doing, she kind of took herself out of the picture. We still knew she was there, we still appreciated her, and we still absolutely made fun of her every day! As the year went on, I felt more comfortable on my team. We learned to trust each other. It helped me feel like I was important and I was valued in the ensemble.”

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Blair Middle School Band: Creativity

4:04-4:06; 2 minutes

At the beginning and middle school level, I grew to use our performances as a time to highlight what we have been working on in class, to showcase how the students have grown, and to inform the audience. With my beginners, I loved using Bruce Pearson’s piece “First Concert” for our first public concert. This is a 15-minute demonstration piece designed to be playable after 6-8 weeks of instruction. We show audience members what our first note sounded like, what our tone sounds like now, how it sounds when we work on mouthpiece buzzing, and work our way up to the grand finale which introduces two part melodies. For this concert, I always invited an administrator to sit in and play with us, then he would talk to the audience about how much time and work it takes to make a good sound on an instrument. We had a 5^th grade teacher in our building who was a referee on the weekends, so he dressed up in his referee outfit blew a whistle when our administrator ”accidentally” played on the rest, and threw a flag. Parents came up to me after the informance and would say things like, “That was so much fun! I didn’t realize you did all of that in band. I thought you just played Hot Cross Buns everyday!”

For my middle school students, we tried to involve more of our school community during concerts. When we played an arrangement transcribed from a vocal piece, we invited the middle school choir to join us and sing during our performance. We collaborated with the art department and had projections of student art work displayed during our pieces. We played an arrangement, students chose, of “Carry on My Wayward Son” and had their science teacher sit in on bass and their math teacher play the drum set. We also hosted an annual “Soup-and-Salad Supper” for parents and community members where we could perform pieces students chose in a more relaxed setting where we could involve parents as well.

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Implementation

Open mind
Advance planning
Strong organizational skills
Communication & support
Space & facilities
Resources

4:06-4:09; 3 minutes

When deciding to use CCC, it is important that ensemble directors keep an open mind to the possibilities that may emerge, employ strong organizational skills and communication, and be mindful of the space, facilities, and resources that are available. CCC is not intended to be a one-size-fits-all method; rather, there can be as many different ways to apply the plan as there are ensembles that are willing to try it. Even ensembles that incorporate the approach two years in a row may come up with two distinctly separate outcomes. This effect is inherent in the design—you will always have ensembles with a different mixture of students who have new ideas and interests, are eager to make a variety of choices, and are motivated by a fluctuating array of factors. Teachers must also keep an open mind about their own role in this method as a facilitator or guide.

To nurture student decision making and influence, educators must be willing to share control of the classroom. Using a collaborative, student-centered approach to rehearsals may actually strengthen the relationships between students and faculty. Although the innate instability of the CCC model may seem worrisome to directors who are comforted by control and predictability, change is a necessary component of student-centered learning. This guides students toward more understanding, ownership, enjoyment, and independence in their music making.

Making the switch from a traditional ensemble to a CCC ensemble will require much advance and backward planning. The success of its implementation “depends on the teacher’s ability to see the road ahead.” Although teachers relinquish some control of the learning atmosphere, they are by no means less busy! Much time is needed for behind-the-scenes work to mentor student conductors, coach student composers, and ensure that students have access to the materials they need to bring their ideas to life. Students are also tasked with doing more preparatory work outside of rehearsals so that time spent as an ensemble can be used for more active engagement. There is a common misconception among directors that taking the time for students to participate creatively “wastes” rehearsal time and does not adequately prepare students for successful outcomes. However, allocating time in rehearsals for student contributions can benefit the ensemble and promote more advanced music-making. In addition, flipping the classroom to a student-centered approach may help directors reach goals more quickly than instruction solely delivered in traditional formats. Also, if you’re changing the process, you may have to change the product. Maybe the finished product is not the high-stakes, anxiety-ridden, mistake-free performance, but again, is more of an informance where students feel safe to grow, learn, and try their ideas. Students can also demonstrate stronger musical knowledge, increased participation, and a deeper level of enjoyment in the process.

Finally, directors interested in applying CCC should work with students to ensure they have the space, facilities, and resources necessary to carry out their ideas. If the informance is to dissolve the boundary between audience and performer, is an auditorium stage the most appropriate location? If not, what other facilities are available? Depending on the situation, maybe it would be appropriate to hold the informance at an alternate venue such as a gym, community center, or even utdoors. In order for students to feel comfortable creating, they will need to be given the tools necessary to create along with sufficient time to practice their skills. For instance, students are more likely to participate in composing and arranging if they have already developed an aural and written musical vocabulary as well as experience in crafting notation.

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Creativity: Your Turn!

How could you inform your audience or stakeholders and have them share in the music-making experience?
What student-led musical enhancements might be suitable for presentation of repertoire (i.e. art, dance, video, etc.)?
What are some potential challenges to switching from a performance to an informance and how could they be resolved?
How could you reimagine facilities, resources, stakeholder involvement, pacing?

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4:16-4:17; 1 minute

The more I experimented with flipping ensembles into student-centered classes, the less I panicked. It’s whatever the students have come up with—it’s theirs. They have more ownership about what’s happening. Performances are more fun and showcase what students have been able to do. It’s less pressure for me! Informances are the times I stepped aside to let the students shine. The outcome isn’t mine anymore, it is all the students’. If I were to take a teacher-centered approach, and direct the band for every rehearsal and performance, students might be more musically accurate, but maybe not. I’m constantly amazed at what my students can do, what they know, and how well they hear when given the chance. I want students to make their own experiences. It’s a learning process for them. I use my experiences to guide them to their successes. I want it all to be about the students and for the students. Kaiser executive Clay Bedford said, "You can teach a student a lesson for a day; but if you can teach him to learn by creating curiosity, he will continue the learning process as long as he lives.”

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PLC Brainstorming

1: Curiosity: gather information on musical interests, talents, and desired goals of the ensemble. Information is analyzed and musician teams are formed. Repertoire is chosen based upon the diverse wish-list of the musicians, preferences and skill level.�

2: Collaboration: teams of musicians share the responsibilities of musical instruction, leadership, artistic enhancements, performances, research, and outreach (community ensembles) or creating, performing, responding (for school ensembles).�

3: Creativity: musician-designed presentations occur as a culmination of study,“informance”, rather than a formal performance, resulting in a richer musical experience for the student-musician, and the ensemble as a whole; often includes audience participation.

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Thank you!

Dr. Danni Gilbert

Assistant Professor of

Instrumental Music Education

University of Minnesota, Twin Cities

gilbertd@umn.edu

4:17-4:18; 45 seconds (4:25 end)

The Curious, Collaborative, Creativity concept for performing ensembles provides an alternative to traditional methods because students can select and generate repertoire, contribute to the ensemble in ways that support their interests and strengths, and present their progress alongside community members through informances. Exactly how the three steps of the CCC model are carried out is dependent on the students and will vary according to their interests, skills, and needs. The teacher serves as a coach and facilitator, guiding students to make connections to the music. Shifting to a student-centered learning environment through CCC can promote better opportunities for musical independence, community involvement, and lifelong musicianship.

Thank you so much for the opportunity to join you today. Please feel free to contact me with any questions or concerns you may have. Take care!

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