As a professor of music, or perhaps a band leader for your students’ music ensemble, you understand the importance of education. It is widely known that students need to perform in front of an audience to build their music performance skills. But what about listening to performances?
You already know that listening to music can be as important as teaching music. Students learn a great deal from watching musicians perform. Whether the performance is in a concert hall, at a music festival, in a large arena, in a virtual setting, or somewhere else, there is education at play
Field Trips for Music Education
Music field trips are an excellent way to showcase new types of music (or venues) for your students. Your music program might already be hip to the idea of music field trips for educational purposes. But if not, now is the time to consider.
Sure, lots of music programs want to take music trips to showcase their talents and introduce their sound to the world. This is important. But this year, take some time to educate your students about performance by attending and listening.
Regardless of where you are located, there are options available to you to make the most of your music field trip. Here are a few suggestions for incorporating music education field trips into your school music program.
Customize a Trip
Customizing a field trip for your music students can be done without any hassle. Additionally, by customizing the trip (instead of simply attending a nearby performance) you can select precisely what you want to see.
Is there a music festival that has a significant presence of music teachers happening in Los Angeles? Perhaps New York is a destination because you want to demonstrate a variety of acts for your students. Or perhaps your students are old enough for a European tour to introduce them to a wider array of sounds.
By customizing a trip, you can control not only the performances but also the experience. For example, are their music education museums on the way? Are there lectures happening at a particular college of music that you feel are worthwhile for your students?
By customizing a music field trip, these are all possible.
Destination: Anywhere
Each year has various music festivals and events that are worth seeing. And while some cities claim to be “the best city for music,” it all depends on what you are going for. It’s true that Nashville has become a destination for country pop music, for example. But does that matter to your classically trained student ensemble?
The destination should depend on your students and what they are hoping to achieve with their skills. Additionally. What is your music program trying to introduce them to?
Naturally, some places might be out of reach or simply not feasible. That’s no problem. Consider a virtual field trip for music education in these instances. There is plenty of technology available to provide your students with an entire world’s worth of music performances.
If you can customize a music trip to get them there in person, that should be the first objective. If not, don’t let distance be prohibitive when there are virtual tours and sessions occurring all the time.
Contact Peak Performance Tours to set up a music education field trip for your students this year.
