"Making music, in fact, is the very best way of learning about music." --Richard Baker
As a college music supervisor, one day I was observing a music student teacher at a middle school teaching a music class to eighth graders. The students sat in neatly ordered rows. During the 50 minute class, the student teacher verbally taught the seven note major scale (Do-Re-Mi-Fa…) and how to write one on a music staff. She showed the students note by note and had them write the same. Then she allowed the students to work independently to write a whole scale on their own. After a brief time of walking around to help them, the bell rang and the students went on to their next class. In my discussion with her, I asked what kind of class she had just taught, and she told me, “A music class!” To which I responded, “But I just sat through 50 minutes and I didn’t hear one single note of music.”
DOING MAKES MUSIC. Unfortunately there are far too many music teachers across the United States who spend more time “talking about” music than “doing” music. Music is an aesthetic art form that is performable by active participation. (Aesthetic is explained in a later section titled Only When Performed.) In one sense, music does not even exist unless it is BEING performed. Take your hands off an instrument for playing or close your mouth for singing, and the music instantly disappears. In a music classroom, MUSIC HAPPENS by singing, chanting, moving, playing, performing, improvising, creating, composing, and arranging. These are all active participation (doing). Very few activities for music are the understanding part; such as, listening, reading, notating, describing, and evaluating (thinking or talking about). Successful music teachers know that developing great music students requires 90% active participation (doing) and 10% inactive (talking about). The not-so-successful ones turn the percentages around and mostly talk about. [Remember sitting in a school music class talking about music and how much you hated it?]
In my music classes, students rarely ever sat in their seats. We were busy doing. Great benefits were accomplished from this way of teaching music. Parents would come to me and ask, “Does anything else happen in this school besides music? The conversation around our dinner table and into the evening is all about music class as if everything else in the school died!” I will never forget another parent, who I found out later was a school board member, who asked, “What did you do to my ninth grade son? Before he had you in the high school for the first time as a music teacher, he has despised music since kindergarten. Now he cannot stop talking about it!” (You guessed it, not even my high school students sat down. This is explained further in The Intimate Risk paragraph in Take Risks and Give Away Control.) In this manner, I produced well-skilled musicians and lifelong music participators. My former students now email me to tell about all their lifelong music activities from hobbyist community theater groups, community bands and choirs, to professional career singing and playing in exclusive city choirs and symphony orchestras.
DOING MAKES CHRISTIANITY. All of this makes a great analogy for pastors, sermons, and churches. In Christianity we have both the “talking about” (doctrine, preaching, etc.) and “doing” (witnessing, healing, praying, etc.). Which did Jesus do most with His disciples? Were Jesus and His disciples mostly learning in the classroom (synagogue) or out doing? Check out John 21:25. Remember the discussion about spectators vs. participators? Check out James 1:22; and James 2:18, 26. Why do churches teach the pillars of the faith, but completely neglect the activities (skills) of the faith? Why is the focus on information instead of transformation? Like the ninth grader mentioned above, can you imagine having a church whose members are so well practiced in all spiritual skills that they cannot stop talking about their church wherever they go?
Pastor, if I came to your church as a supervisor to observe any worship service, Sunday school class, small group, or Bible study, would I see your students sitting in their seats learning about, or up and doing? Which 90:10% ratio do you practice in your church? Are you producing pew-sitting spectators, or well-skilled lifelong participators for the Lord? Do you focus on information or transformation?
Your Belief System and Your Church:
(1) Introduction
Your Belief System and Your Church:
(2) Your Paradigms
Your Belief System and Your Church:
(3) Bondage or Freedom
Your Belief System and Your Church:
(4) Gateway Skills
Your Belief System and Your Church:
(5) Teacher Accountability
Your Belief System and Your Church:
(6) Talking About vs. Doing
Your Belief System and Your Church:
(7) Student Accountability
Your Belief System and Your Church:
(8) Assessment
Your Belief System and Your Church:
(9) Bury Dead Tradition
Your Belief System and Your Church:
(10) Teaching vs. Learning
Your Belief System and Your Church:
(11) Teachers' Three Phases
Your Belief System and Your Church:
(12) Excellence is NOT a Goal
Your Belief System and Your Church:
(13) My Teaching Limits Were Their Learning Limits
Your Belief System and Your Church:
(14) Unlearning Creates Success
Your Belief System and Your Church:
(15) Pioneers vs. Settlers
Your Belief System and Your Church:
(16) Real and Lasting Learning
Your Belief System and Your Church:
(17) Problems With Memory
Your Belief System and Your Church:
(18) Ownership Creates Success
Your Belief System and Your Church:
(19) Not Perfect, But Honest
Your Belief System and Your Church:
(20) Take Risks and Give Away Control
Your Belief System and Your Church:
(21) Out of a Job
Your Belief System and Your Church:
(22) KCAASE and Proverbs 24
Your Belief System and Your Church:
(23) Responding vs. Reacting
Your Belief System and Your Church:
(24) Only When Performed
Your Belief System and Your Church:
(25) A Supervisor's Vision
Your Belief System and Your Church:
(26) Glimpses Into the Spiritual
Your Belief System and Your Church:
(27) One Reason Alone