Personal Narrative: A Career In Music Education

Christopher Demas received his Bachelor’s degree in Music Education from Louisiana State University. He has been working for the Monahans High School and junior high bands for four years as an assistant director. He directs the junior high concert band and the high school symphonic band. I decided to interview one of my directors since I’m planning on majoring in music education myself. I walked into the band hall feeling a bit intrigued and excited. I found Mr. Demas in his office, entered, and began the interview. I started the interview by asking Mr. Demas “How many writing assignments were needed in order to receive your degree?” Mr. Demas pauses for a bit, then starts to explain how scripted lessons were assigned more than research essays in the music courses. “The writing wasn 't necessarily in depth research based but it was lengthy”, he proclaims. He explains that he would have to video his lessons, pull them apart, and write about what he saw. …show more content…
I was curious to know how language comes about in music education. I am learning the languages as my music maturity level prospers, but I wanted to know if there was a specific subject or chapter in music education with the languages. Mr. Demas explains that if anyone were to take a test to figure their reading level on a piece of music, “it jumps to grade twenty-two that fast”. There’s such a jump because music is accompanied by three different languages. Italian and English are common forms of language in a piece of music. Music itself is considered a language, Italian is used for the dynamic labeling, and English is used for the markings. Mr. Demas states that there isn’t anything done with languages in order to learn them, such as vocabulary test or anything similar; you just learn what the word means, how the note is played in consideration of the word, and continue with the