Join in the Journey, Get out of the way!

As a quirk of Covid and working in a very small school I have a 6th grade band class that is 4 students. Its teeny. 

We've been working on playing pop/rock music on rock band instruments and these students are developing some great musical skills and vocabulary. 

At first we were just learning how to play Stand by Me or Bad Guy but as we continued getting better we started working on our arrangements. Talking about how to think of a tune in its elements of Form, Tempo, Texture, Text, instrumentation etc. 

We started breaking songs apart as a group, figuring out how we could best tackle the challenges of each song with our 4 instrumentalists.  How to we make the song our own?

They enjoyed the process so much that they decided they want to be a real band, picked out a name, and told me their first target was "Believer" by Imagine Dragons. 

We talked as a class and decided that we are going to make the rest of the in-class learning year about learning how to be in a self-directed rock band.

Today we talked about how a rehearsal should run. They decided that we should probably start with a warm up song that we know well just to get our fingers moving, then we should move on to songs that we had started but not finished and then we should finish with new stuff. 

One student volunteered to be the band leader and keep us on track, count us in and call the endings of tunes and I sat in a student seat (distanced!) and was just there for the ride. 

We practiced our tunes, listened to the songs we are trying to learn and identified parts we should make sure to do, learned what a "break" is. Mapped out forms, talked about textures, created our own arrangements, had to count out our parts and ostinatos so we didn't play through the breaks, and a student led the whole thing. 

Music education doesn't have to be one thing, one way, to be valuable. My students today learned and grew a lot because I was able to get out of the way, let their interest guide them, allow them the room to grow, and assist when needed. 

They started learning the skills to be lifelong self directed musicians. They took agency over their own learning. They set the stage and did things they thought were impossible on their own. They left the room glowing. 

A lot about this year has been very hard but the new flexibility has had some really great results too, and this morning made me appreciate that.

Continuing questions:

What are some ways that you could cede the front of the classroom and join in?
What are some experiences you’ve had where there was a more collaborative learning environment? How did that make you feel as a participant?
How do you know when students are ready to take the helm?
Why would a teacher be reluctant to hand over leadership to students?