What If We Stopped Preparing Students for School Music?

Kevin Droe, PhD Associate Professor of Music in Music Education / Coordinator of the UNI Spectrum Project, University of Northern Iowa

I sometimes wonder if music education has created a self-feeding monster.

We teach students the skills they need to be successful in school music so they can continue participating in school music. We build programs designed to sustain those programs. Students become better band, choir, and orchestra members, helping us build stronger bands, choirs, and orchestras, which then allows us to train the next group of students to do the same.

But what happens when school ends?

Imagine if physical education worked this way. Students spend twelve years becoming really good at one activity. It requires 40 other people, a specialized facility, expensive equipment, scheduled daily practices, and a trained adult to direct every session. Then graduation comes. The facility disappears. The coach disappears. The equipment disappears. The scheduled practice disappears. Most of the other participants disappear.

And we say, “We hope you remain physically active for the rest of your life!”

That would seem ridiculous.

Instead, we expect physical education to help students develop ways of being active that can extend into adulthood. They might run, hike, bike, swim, lift weights, play pickleball, or join a recreational softball team. The goal isn't to create lifelong PE students. The goal is to help people develop the knowledge, skills, confidence, and desire to remain physically active.

Why shouldn't we think about music education the same way?

I've been thinking about this because of a childhood friend of mine. We grew up together in Southern California and I regularly see his posts about his band playing another gig. He's the bass player. He's still out there making music. Here's the interesting part.

He wasn't in school music.

Not in elementary school. Not in junior high. Not in high school.

Meanwhile, I think about all the people I knew who were in band and choir. We rehearsed every day. We performed concerts. We went to contests. We spent years becoming better musicians within that system. Some may very well still be making music, but I don't see many posts about the bands they've started, the songs they're writing, the gigs they're playing, or the music they're making with friends.

I'm not suggesting that my Facebook feed constitutes research. It doesn't. But it has made me wonder about something.

What exactly were we being prepared for?

My friend somehow developed what he needed to become an adult music maker without school music. Many of us became quite successful at school music. But those aren't necessarily the same thing. What if our goal were not to create lifelong school musicians, but lifelong music makers?

That changes the destination.

Start with adults who actively make music and work backward. What do they actually do? They play guitar on the couch. They sing in church. They join community bands and choirs. They make beats on laptops. They DJ. They write songs. They play in cover bands. They record music. They play piano for themselves. They run sound. They jam with friends. They create music for videos. Some play in orchestras. Some play drums in their basements.

And they make decisions.

They decide what music they want to make. They figure out how to learn it. They find people to make music with. They decide what sounds good. They solve problems. They create, arrange, improvise, record, perform, listen, and collaborate.

So here's an uncomfortable question: Who makes those decisions in our music classrooms?

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A student can spend years playing an instrument while the teacher selects the music, assigns the part, establishes the interpretation, identifies the problems, determines the solutions, decides when rehearsal begins and ends, and ultimately determines when the music is good enough. The student may become an outstanding performer. But have we prepared them to be an independent music maker?

Perhaps graduation is the ultimate test of transfer. Take away the conductor. Take away the assigned repertoire, printed parts, daily rehearsal, school-owned instruments, organized concerts, rehearsal room, and predetermined ensemble.

What is left?

This doesn't mean eliminating bands, choirs, or orchestras. Those can be incredible ways to develop musicians. But perhaps we need to stop treating success within those experiences as the destination. School music should not exist primarily to sustain school music. Maybe the real measure of a music program isn't what students can do while they're in it.

Maybe it's what they do with music when we're no longer there.

The Spectrum Project brings together children of all abilities, UNI students from diverse fields, and the community to co-create music, drama, dance, and art. Our mission is to expand arts access, celebrate creativity, and inspire more inclusive communities. Learn More...

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Kevin Droe, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Music Education at the University of Northern Iowa, specializing in teaching undergraduate and graduate music education. He founded the UNI Spectrum Project. This initiative offers children with differing abilities a weekend of music, movement, drama, and art activities. His research focuses on special populations, innovative music education, and popular music. In 2018, Kevin established AmpCamp, an annual summer popular music youth camp. In 2022, he launched Spectrum JamFest, an annual youth music festival. Kevin Droe teaches workshops in audio, modern band and popular music education throughout Iowa. https://www.kevindroe.com/about https://music.uni.edu/spectrum-project/directory/kevin-droe