Strike up the Band: Motivating Student Musicians

In this podcast, Tom Poshak is in the studio with us discussing motivating instrumental ensembles. Tom is a retired high school band director and taught 30 in the Ladue & Kirkwood school districts (St. Louis, Missouri). In 2001 he received the Music Educator of the Year award from the St. Louis Suburban Music Educators Association and in 2004 received the Hall of Fame Award. He now is Director of the University City Summer Band and Assistant Director of the St. Louis Wind Symphony.

In today’s podcast, we conclude our interview Anthony Mazzocchi, a trombonist who has played with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and San Diego Symphony and is a Grammy nominated music educator of the year. Currently he is the associate director and professor of trombone at Montclair State University. He is the author of the book The Music Parents' Guide: A Survival Kit for the New Music Parent and the accompanying blog.

In today’s podcast, we interview Anthony Mazzocchi, a trombonist who has played with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the San Diego Symphony and is a Grammy nominated music educator of the year. Currently he is the associate director and professor of trombone at Montclair State University. He is the author of the book The Music Parents' Guide: A Survival Kit for the New Music Parent and the accompanying blog.

In today’s podcast, we interviewed Dr. Julie Troum, the author of The Motivated Musician blog. She does educational consulting, student seminars, and teacher workshops. Her research addresses the motivational issues musicians face during training activities with respect to the individual needs, well-being, and personal satisfaction of the training musician.

In this podcast we interview Sandy Lundberg, a private piano teacher from Berthold, CO. We discuss motivating students and ways that parents can influence their children when playing music.

In this podcast, we discuss the factors that affect whether children choose to participate in music. We are reacting to a research study by Kwang Suk Yoon. Because a major motivator for the choice is parental value, we continue our previous discussions of parental involvement in the motivation of students in music.

In this podcast we discuss Daniel Pink’s video about the puzzle of motivation. We begin by discussing the popular psychology test of the candle problem, which requires critical thinking skills of the participants. We discuss how incentives can have a negative affects on students’ motivation to practice. We end the podcast discussing how rubrics can get around physical incentives so students can focus on improving for themselves.

This episode focuses on instilling in our students a sense of ownership over the instrumental music ensemble by giving them some control through choices and student leadership. We discuss the idea of letting student choose repertoire and interpretation, as well as the effectiveness of administrative positions in the ensemble, such as section leaders and ensemble officers.

In this podcast we examine Yoon’s research article about children’s motivation for instrumental music. We specifically discuss students’ self-schema and the factors that affect how students see themselves in the music classroom. We end the podcast discussing the impact parents can have on student’s self schema when learning to play music.

In this episode, we focus on the role a child’s peers can play in motivating that child to want to participate in an instrumental music program. We discuss the social factors that can affect a child’s decision to participate in a music ensemble, as well as the significance of identity, both as it pertains to the child and the instrumental music program.

In this episode, we discuss the role of parents in the motivation process and ways directors can motivate parents to motivate their children.

In this podcast we examine the influence parents have on child’s motivation and ways they can motivate their children. We end the podcast with examining how parents can instill intrinsic motivation into their children.

This podcast focuses on repertoire as a motivator for instrumental music students. The discussion is based on our reaction to a master’s thesis by Craig T. Klonowski entitled “Factors Affecting Student Motivation Related to Enrollment and Retention in Music and Performing Ensembles”. We delve into the genre of “school music” and why there exists a disconnect between it and popular music genres. We also discuss the pros and cons of performing popular music and crowd favorites versus more serious repertoire.

This podcast focuses on self-extrinsic motivation. We debate whether working towards a self-imposed external reward for internal gain is intrinsic or extrinsic motivation and whether it is a good motivational tool. We move to a discussion of student motivation with scoring and how to continue motivation beyond schooling years.

In this podcast, we discuss the differences between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. We consider whether praise is an intrinsic or extrinsic motivator. We get into the personality types of students who go “above and beyond” and discuss whether praising these students ultimately helps or hinders their intrinsic motivation.

This podcast focuses on teacher praise as a motivator – whether it is an external or internal motivator. We’re reacting to ideas proposed by Shelley Jagow in her book Teaching Instrumental Music: Developing the Complete Band Program. We pick up the conversation after discussing internal and external motivation.