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Each week we will be talking with music teachers at all levels about what it’s really like to teach today — and having real conversations about equity, identity, the systems we work in, and the small victories that keep us going.
So, pull up a chair, it’s time for our weekly staff meeting. Let’s talk about the things that matter.
Eggplnt (00:00.125)
Hey, y'all. My name is Christina Sisson. In the past 20 years, I've taught music at all levels to all kinds of students. I have witnessed firsthand the kinds of challenges music teachers face in the classroom every day. And it is my hope to address some of the issues that you care about most. Each week, we will be talking with music teachers at all levels about what it's really like to teach today and having real conversations about equity, identity, and the systems that we work in and the small victories that keep us going. So pull up a chair. It's time for our weekly staff meeting. Let's talk about the things that matter.
Today, I'm going to be chatting with Edward Ercilla Eddie has 20 years of experience teaching instrumental music in Miami-Dade County, has presented at numerous conferences throughout the United States, and is currently in his third year at the Frost School at the University of Miami where he is working on his PhD in music education. I have invited Eddie here because of his research and advocacy for students with disabilities, a topic that is very personal to him. Welcome, Ed.
Eddy E. (01:11.63)
Thank you. Thank you for having me. Always a pleasure.
Eggplnt (01:14.215)
So I was wondering if you could just maybe start off by just telling us a little bit about yourself and kind of what sparked your initial interest in working with students with special needs.
Eddy E. (01:24.536)
Sure, well, Eddie Ercilla I am born and raised and a native of Miami, Florida and I am pretty much part of the community, is what sparked my interest in disability studies. I am disabled. I am severely to profoundly deaf. Now, while I may not sound that, I am a product of parents who were very aggressive with interventions and finding me the resources to be able to gain the necessary skills needed to survive in life. While I'm not cured of my disability, I was given the sources and materials and anything my parents could get for me so that I could function in do what I do today.
Much of what I do now is a product of having been denied opportunities, having been excluded from opportunities, having been shut out from a lot of things, even the traditional music setting growing up as a kid. While I don't have sunshine and rainbow stories about those experiences, it did serve as a driving force of what not to do to future students of mine in the music world. So for a deaf person to study music is already an anomaly. It's not something that's very common. And so here I am breaking barriers, breaking grounds and breaking new territories and trying to make the idea of this deaf person succeed in music possible.
So while I'm stubborn, I'm persistent, and I have a lot of drive and determination, my drive and focus has been to become this teacher, which I never thought I would be to begin with, to then inspire and not only inspire everyone, but to provide all of my students disabled or not, a fair and an equitable opportunity for music. So with that in mind, that has been the philosophical driving point of my 20-year career through band, orchestra, choir, guitar, keyboard, and such, all the way up into my collegiate studies and research. And so that has been the driving force of everything that I do currently now as a PhD student, finding ways to create more equitable opportunities for music studies for all kids, not just the disabled.
Eggplnt (03:33.959)
I think that it's interesting. A lot of music teachers might find it curious that a student who has profound hearing loss would be interested in music in the first place. Can you tell us what kind of drew you to wanting to be a musician or be in music classes at all?
Eddy E. (03:52.918)
Absolutely. You know what most people associate music as is an auditory experience. You hear things and you hear the music and you hear tones and hear harmonies and melodic phrases and you hear all these theoretical terms that are taught to you as a music student throughout your study to describe this musical phenomenon. Right. But what most people forget is that hearing is part of the listening process.
It's a neurological connection. It's a sensory connection. It's in the skin, it's in the little hair and I'm a very hairy person. So little hair spike up in goosebumps when you see that tingly sensation. It's a it's an all-encompassing embodiment experience for music. And for me, music was vibrations. For me, I define music as vibratory sensations, not sound. I don't talk about sound. Sound is the movement of air molecules and air molecule is movement and vibrations. We measure it in Hertz. But yet we don't do that in we measure in intervales and harmonics and that has nothing to do with the actual vibrations itself So I started off playing piano because I love the way it felt on my fingers. I would take my shoes off I would put my feet up against the soundboard I would open up the instrument take it apart and just stuff my hand in there and just feel the living daylights out of that instrument and What that has taught me was to learn music from a vibratory sense and resulting for me in perfect pitch
As a result and you know, does a deaf person have perfect pitch and is it astounds everybody and my argument to that would be I can't hear perfect pitch but I can feel perfect pitch I can tell you what a 440 feels like to the precision because of that skin sense and ability that I have developed through my sensation through music and that touch and that vibratory idea and that translated into trumpet because I was told I couldn't do it in middle school I had a teacher that said, don't bother, you're not going to, you can't. And I'm like, me being the little Cuban boy that I am from Miami and stubborn as I am, I said, watch me.
Eddy E. (06:02.589)
And so I did and I took trumpet lessons and I liked the way it felt on my face. can feel it in my teeth. I can feel it in my nostrils, in my ears and in my throat. And so I learned through muscular memory, through vibrations and muscles. So not only am I feeling what A440 sounded like on the trumpet, but I can feel what the muscles felt like. So I've learned muscular repetition. Am I hearing the music? Probably, probably not.
But that in itself was a further extension of this whole embodiment idea of experiencing music. And much of what I've done, simply because it makes me feel whole. I can't hear voices. When I take off my hearing aids, the world is as quiet as quiet can be. My kids can go screaming down the hallway and I sleep peacefully and such. So it's a blessing and a curse in a way, because I can never describe what tonality sounds like, but I can always describe what the vibrations feel like in a Beethoven symphony versus a Maslanka symphonic band contribution or Chopin piano concerto and it's all a different sensation of embodiment. And so I am convinced that music is an embodiment experience that can be accommodated in all forms of delivery, even if it does mean that it does not correlate with the Western style of classicism and that approach solely.
So I embrace modern band, I embrace general music, I embrace other non-traditional, that can be digital forms of expression and such so that we can get that sensation. So music to me is that way for me to speak. A hearing world that cannot really hear me in my world of silence and such. So as philosophical as that may sound, but it's just my way of expression. And this is my way of being able to communicate to that hearing world when I can't.
Eggplnt (07:59.739)
I feel like we often have so many, like now, today, trainings that we can go to to learn how to better meet the needs of our students. But I think back to like when we were in high school and in middle school, and it was kind of a different world then. And I imagine that navigating that system was a challenge. Have you noticed, like, what was that like? Compared to like what you see today, is there similarities, differences?
Eddy E. (08:31.435)
nothing has changed.
It was the same in the 80s as it was now today. Nothing has changed. And so my premise is nothing has changed, but it's not without, it's not far from within your reach. You are already doing these things that should be done to accommodate students with a disability of sort. It's nothing more that you actually have to do. mean, people are so concentrated on the idea that when we accommodate, it leads to paperwork and paperwork means more work and how many to teach, you're already doing it. We have these Buds words like differentiated instruction. That's a fancy word that says we do a little bit of everything at the same time, aka multitasking, to teach the child. So what does that mean? You show a PowerPoint, you have a written thing in front of them, you have a recording that could be played, you have partnered up for students with language disabilities or language difficulties and we're all peer to peer.
That's another fancy educational term that we like to throw out there and most recently, this is called universal design and learning. It's all the same thing. How to find many different avenues to instruct and facilitate the child without one singling them out of their disability that could benefit everyone. Right? And so it's always been there. So I think the biggest thing that does need to change is the awareness of that fact that it doesn't take more than what you probably already have. And I mean, I did a session once where I said, you know, accommodations can start as easy as using a smartphone. And they look at me like I'm crazy. And I'm like, no, because with this smartphone, you can download all kinds of apps that can accommodate sensory disabilities, can accommodate hearing disabilities, that can accommodate visual disabilities, that there are things that an iPad can do. If you have someone that has limited mobility,
Eddy E. (10:33.155)
garage band is a godsend and they can play an entire drum set on that iPad. Now the traditional would say, well, that's not traditional music. But I would say if you recorded all of that and you listen back to it, could you tell if real instruments were in fact being used? Because I can tell you many cinematic examples in the Hollywood industries where many of those soundtracks were all digitally produced and you wouldn't have known it. So what is the difference? And so we come to that whole traditional versus non-traditional.
Eggplnt (11:00.701)
Thanks.
Eddy E. (11:03.135)
which is that barrier that still exists today. So I said not much has changed over the decades.
Eggplnt (11:10.139)
What were some of the challenges that you saw growing up, like being a music student in a program that maybe you work now to address?
Eddy E. (11:21.645)
Well for me, I think one of the most common things I ran into were I Wouldn't say they were malicious. They just didn't know how Right. They want to help but they just don't know how and they're not able to, they have the right intentions in mind, but just kind of made things worse out of frustration because they don't have the training and resources to be able to assist. And that was a good bulk and I don't fault them, it's not their fault for that. It was frustrating for me because it denied me access to some of the opportunities that my classmates would have, right? And then, go ahead.
Eggplnt (11:58.109)
Could you provide like an example maybe of like something like a so we can I can just I feel like so much of this stuff is so intangible and so difficult for people who have never experienced it to understand.
Eddy E. (12:14.07)
Sure, some of the, for example, me, communication.
Right? Hearing loss means there's going to be a deficit in communication. It's not uncommon for students with hearing loss to have to go through speech pathology and speech language therapy to develop the skills to be able to audiate some vocabularies and sounds and phonetics and also to increase the likelihood of being able to communicate with someone else. Statistically, studies does show that people with hearing loss, for example, tend to be more reclusive and tends to be by them on their own because we are isolated. We are separated from that hearing and communicating world.
So, you know, the perception has always been speak loud and slowly and over articulate, right? And that was the commonality. And if I showed you my early IDEA when IDEA first passed and I had my little report for disabilities and that was one of the things, speak slowly and articulate. And I'm reading this, I'm going, this is barbaric. This is, you know, I'm hard, I'm deaf. I'm not dumb. I can understand. I do have the intellectual capacity to understand you. So communication becomes a barrier on there. Now in today's world that can be facilitated somewhat because we have technology like closed captioning on everything.
Everything and I mean everything has closed captioning right about the stigma was in the early 80s and 90s was for hearing loss and you didn't want that. It was annoying. Now you see everybody who travels on a plane and there's closed captioning everywhere because you don't want to miss a thing. You don't want to miss a good gossip or a good moment in the movie. You backtrack and you reread right. Well closed captioning also has some benefits because now it helps you increase reading literacy without you knowing increases uses of vocabulary. It also enhances the mode of communication.
Eddy E. (14:01.875)
had some of these unintended consequences that arose from an accommodation that was designed for me, for people that needed audio cues. And by the way, you know, the whole idea of television creating pictures on a box was created by someone who was deaf. And most people don't know that. What? The idea of creating moving pictures in a box so that deaf people can see the action of what was happening created a historical landmark in technology for the world and that such. So I think those are some of the most tangible things you can come across. mean, and for the most part too, I think part of that is the stigma of disabilities, right? As a disabled child, I was this poor thing, poor me.
we do with you, poor you're so fragile. I'm not fragile. I was the first one to get in trouble. I was the first one to get kicked out of class. If I was a troublemaker, I was hyper, I was joking. I had fun. I had lots of fun as a kid. I have my fair share of being grounded as a child. This didn't work, but you know, everything else was fine. So with that stigma, I was always set aside. I was dealt with differently, therefore included, but not included because I was something about me made it seem awful and not cool and you didn't want to be that kid. You didn't want to be isolated as that one. So I found myself separating myself from my class in a lot of cases because of that feeling that I wasn't part of something because something was wrong with me and everybody else was normal. You know, those are some of the things that still happen today with a lot of people that do not understand how to interact with disabled people. And disabled is not a bad word by the way. It's a great word to use, a neutral term to use, it's fine to say that for all folks who are disabled.
Eggplnt (16:03.821)
I think I've seen that like there's a I mean it just everyday life there is a real disconnect between people with disabilities and people without and there's I mean how it's we're human we understand things through experience and when you haven't had the experience of disability how can we begin to understand how can we begin to understand the experiences of our students in order to better reach them as teachers.
Eddy E. (16:35.2)
The best way and the first way should be to ask questions.
just ask if you don't know. And I tell everybody that has a conversation with me. And when a child taps on my arms and says, what are those? And they point to their ears. And I'm like, don't do that, don't do that. That's so rude. I'm like, what's rude about it? She wants to learn. So I squat down and I show her, look at these cool radios in my head. And yeah, I can do all of these. And I explain it. And my camera just got out of focus or something there.
You know, with that in mind, I explain, I educate. I don't ever get bothered by that. You know, they come up to me and they say, you're deaf, do you sign? And I go, absolutely not.
because I don't want to, but I was gate-capped in a way that, you know, my culture saw disabilities as a weakness. So by signing that is publicly displaying this idea of that you're disabled and broken. So it was masked. It was hidden in a way. So I never got the opportunity to learn how to sign. But no, there's nothing wrong with asking the questions and getting to know these folks, you know. Tell me a little bit about your cerebral palsy. What hurts?
hurt? What's your favorite thing to do? What can you do? There's nothing wrong with asking and engaging a conversation with the person with disability to see what they can and cannot do within their limits. Because oftentimes as educators we get an IEP and it has a list of things they can and cannot do or what they perceive the child can and cannot do and so therefore we go by that.
Eddy E. (18:15.509)
What would you like to do? How does that work?
And therefore, what can we do to spread those wings? What can we push boundaries on? What would you like to play? What makes you smile? And you'd be amazed at how much more positive that will have on that child's experience when they now have a voice with their experience in there. They get to voice a contribution and not be told you're gonna sit there and smile and look pretty. But they get to do more than just sit there and smile and look pretty. They get to actually participate.
That's the best first step.
Eggplnt (18:49.533)
think that's something maybe we forget with, I think that's what we forget with all of our students sometimes, that we can talk to them. We can actually engage them as individuals and learn who they are and what they're about and what they're interested in. All right. Can we get it fixed? We'll just cut this out.
Eddy E. (19:06.987)
Absolutely.
Eggplnt (19:50.587)
So yeah, think that we have this sense, and I remember an undergrad, and we were in undergrad together, so often it was drilled into us like this wall that we were supposed to put up between ourselves and our students. And I understand why.
Eddy E. (20:02.729)
Yes, seems like so long ago.
Eggplnt (20:14.363)
I mean, it's a large institution. They're protecting themselves. They don't want a bunch of graduates going out and making inappropriate decisions with students. But I think that I went out with so much fear about being close to my students. I mean, you have to though, you have to build those relationships with your kids. And especially when you're working with students who have experiences, life experiences that are different.
from your own, the only way that you're gonna be able to understand is just to try to hear what they have to say about it. You'll never know their experience, but you can at least listen and try to, first, take whatever they say as fact and valid and 100 % true, and then meet that need. So when we're talking about these, like how to meet these needs, like where do we find the answers? Where do we go?
as music educators because it seems like a small group of people that are very knowledgeable and really aware of what's going on. So yeah, I'd love to hear your thoughts.
Eddy E. (21:25.309)
I think as an educator.
One of the most important attributes you must have, and I learned this the hard way, because I've always had to fend for myself and do things myself, because I was isolated to do my own self. You talk about that wall from undergrad, how we had that wall built, but I was made to feel after undergrad that I wasn't good enough to be in the profession, that I barely got out of undergrad, mind you, I've been in it longer than most of our peers that graduated with us and such. So I think the first thing that any educator needs to do is ask for help.
Find the resources. are organizations out there that can assist. are non-for-profits that can be assistive, that are available now with social media and internet. Facebook was brand new when we were in undergrad, still relatively fresh off of its whatever it was at that time. But technology has evolved so much to the extent that you can reach as far and to the other ends of the world for help and suggestions and connecting with other people like you in your situation.
and what have you done and this is what I'm doing and let's share lesson plans. Let's share some resources together. Let me try this out. What do you think? Or I took a video lesson. Can you watch that and help me engage how this is going? How would you rate that? You know, maybe a more senior educator can use that as a mentorship process and stuff, right? It's not always about having all the right books and all the right articles. You can have all of the right tools, but if you don't know how to engage with them, it's all useless to you, you know? And so it's just a
Eddy E. (23:02.539)
matter of being able to, like you said, being able to reach the child and connect with them to find out what their needs are. What can we prioritize with that and how we can address them bit by bit. You're not going to cure everything overnight. It's going to take years. And that's what I like about our profession and our teaching strand is that we have these students for years. It's not just a one and done math class and see you later. She was my student. No, this is your child, sixth, seventh, eighth grade. I taught him a sixth through 12th grade school for the last 14 years, so it was 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12. And so these were my creatures now. These were my people. They are my moldings of what I've been doing with them for seven years of their life, and that is substantial. That is in a substantial time of interaction that you get to really learn who these individuals are and such. So ask for help, seek some resources. Training and learning is evolving as we go. new research going out and coming out.
Some great, some not so great, but at least something is coming out. There seems to be a greater awareness now about disabilities and advocacy studies recently than there has been in the last, 20, 30 years and stuff. And much of it has evolved to an extent that we have better understandings and we have better ways of interacting with these many different types of disabilities out there. But also, you know,
advocating is also just as important because while there are laws in place and there are resources available, no one's going to do a thing for you unless you speak for the child. So you are advocating as well for yourself, for your classroom to be better, for your teachers. So those are the two or three things that I would strongly suggest. And it seems like a lot, it's actually very simple to do. And you can just do little bits by bit. You don't have to go out and, you know, conquer the world in one shot. It just takes time and persistency.
Eddy E. (25:04.913)
and the desire to want to improve and to be better for your students. We're all learning and I'm still learning.
Eggplnt (25:13.373)
Yeah, hear things like, I mean, we all know how to go online and find our communities. And if you're on Facebook, I know like, I'm in like the elementary music teacher groups and the music ed communities. And there is always somebody asking a question in there. Good ideas are always flying. And I find that those communities tend to be pretty positive for the most part. mean,
There are certainly negative ones that exist and I just kind of see my way out of those. But when it comes to things like advocacy, especially for a young teacher, that word almost seems like it carries so much baggage, we're just gonna put it in the closet and shut the door.
Can you kind of guide maybe like, let's say we have like a second year teacher who has no idea what that even means. What does that look like?
Eddy E. (26:08.331)
Kiss.
Advocacy can be a number of things. From a curricular standpoint, advocacy could be what you choose to teach your children, what you choose to expose them to. You know, we often in the band world talk about incorporating more compositions from people of color and diversities and different ethnic backgrounds and such to provide a more rich engagement of the varieties of music. So advocacy could be a curricular decision on what's being covered and to what extent.
Determined dictated rather by our curricular demands by the state and school districts I understand but you still have the ultimate say as to what can be Exposed to the students and I take that as a very important thing for my students and every year is something different and a different theme Something that I want to stress maybe something has happened and I want to emphasize, you know societal is whatever For that particular theme. So that's one way to advocate Another way is community involved
getting parents involved because part of education in fashion music education is to educate your parents. What's happening in the classroom? How does it work? When I do my first band concert for my first year students, we do what I call an informants. And basically, how do we start class? When do we pick instruments? What does it sound like when they buzz for the first time? And they think it's the funniest show. It's the cutest thing ever. Right. And then I demonstrate that and we demonstrate posture instruments up instruments down instruments up and then we make it funny I look away and got turned on and back up ago you know and they're laughing they think this is comedy but this is my reality every day I'm teaching order I'm teaching structure I'm teaching following direction I'm teaching working with 80 people in a classroom with noise makers and doing things at the same time that's classroom management you know but I'm educating my audience so that's part of my advocacy right there it's not just come to music class and we're waving our arms nice and high singing kumbaya and it's magical music time no this is work right so they learn what's happening
Eddy E. (28:09.239)
There's order there's structure and then hey, this is I play a recording of their first day playing their first note on the loudspeaker ladies and gentlemen This was the most glorious first day I've ever had in my life with your child and you think this is gonna be miraculous No, you hear one two breathe out breathe in and the first glorious sounds of buzzing and honking and squeaking and loud and they're laughing and if after three months of tears and they're not tears of joys ladies and gentlemen as tears of agony and pain we finally get our first note and it's like this on stage and they're applauding my god that's miraculous that's wonderful this is outstanding you're such a miracle worker and i go i know i know so now i'm to play some songs for you and then mary had a little lamb and baba black sheep and twinkle twinkle and jingle bells we have to do jingle bells in december right and so i'm training my audience on what to expect right with their child that this is the process step one step two step three step four so that they have their expectations in line with me so now i'm advocating for my program
So year two, step five, six, seven, eight, but I'm advocating for my program so they stay on track with me so that they understand. And when they do understand what's happening chronologically with my program and they see the problem with their children, they're better able to help advocate for you outside your classroom about your needs. Hey, you know, they're working so hard on making their scales sound great, but they're working on subpar equipment and we need funding for this ABNC or, you know, Susie needs some adaptive instruments because she's having trouble now with a full-size flute and I to be able to plug them in plateau keys or get a flute holder and we need these resources that they understand what their child is going through in the learning process and it's not just it's music class it's fun time they honk and tweet and twak and bang on some drums and boom boom boom and everybody's you know having a grand time right so the community involvement and with that comes with other organizations and PTAs and booster groups or maybe you find an non-for-profit that wants to collaborate I never say no to outside collaboration because you never know you never know one year that's led to a $20,000 donation to my program because the guy was used to be a band kid growing up and it just hit a spot and we had a performance for this medical program that he has and he was like call me next week I'm gonna give you a check to help you out absolutely you know so advocacy communication right
Eddy E. (30:37.265)
And then there's advocacy for your students. You are their first in line.
You advocate when kids don't have a voice because kids are taught not to speak up. I teach my kids to speak up for yourself every time. If you're hot, I'm hot. If you're cold, I'm cold. This isn't right or something's wrong. I feel this. know, advocate for yourself. But sometimes kids aren't allowed to do that. They're viewed as disruptive. They're viewed as rude and disciplinary problems. No, when a child acts out it's because they have no other way to respond anymore. They have been negated for so long. So as a teacher,
We advocate for our students to say something is up. Suzy needs this. This is what I'm seeing and this is indicative of maybe we need this resource, you know, maybe we need this help. We need someone to come in and help me help her and vice versa, you know. So advocacy can be a variety of things. It's not necessarily a political word which most young educators associate with and, fat me, I said something, you know, it's not about the politics. While we may agree or disagree with our political environments of where we are. Unfortunately, our job is to educate and try to keep all that stuff out. But within that education process, we do have to provide. And that's why I keep coming back to this theme, provide a voice for our students. Because as we accommodate, yeah, we help and we stick them in, but they're still not heard. They're not at the table and they're still not contributing. So that's really where that fine line comes in between that and advocacy is a great way to cross that and enhance that and improve situations for that child and the teacher.
Eggplnt (32:19.811)
Absolutely. mean, kids have less than a voice in a school. And I know that in a lot of cases, that the deck is definitely stacked against them. I think back to my experiences of going to marching festivals or concert festivals or events where you've got multiple musical groups from multiple schools in one place at the same time.
And when you're watching these groups come through and perform, I know that you can tell the difference between the band directors who get it and the band directors who don't.
For those who maybe haven't observed that scenario, what might we see from a music teacher who understands advocacy, understands supporting students with disabilities, understands getting the resources versus a teacher who's just meeting the very minimum demands of the job?
Eddy E. (33:26.149)
As weird as it may sound, you can feel it.
you walk into a band program and you just know it. The kids are engaged. are actively contributing. They're not just being told what to do, but they're including input on their side of what they can do. So it's a matter of, you know, not me, these are the things you got to make better and go home, practice and come back and do it. But they say, these are the things you need to improve. Now go home and practice and then come back and say, well, I practiced this and I realized that I can also do these other things that could probably help and if it does outstanding if it doesn't thank you for that contribution we'll save that for another type of piece that might work you know but it's not a discrediting of although that you wasted your time with that throw that out but rather outstanding you discovered something new and so therefore let's find something to put that to work later this song doesn't do that but no problem we'll put it on a little safe box for later and they love that because then you got to follow through though you got to find something that highlights what they discovered so that they feel like wow I found this I brought it in and now we're using it for something else and you would be amazed at how powerful that could be for a student participation they are participating they understand the culture they buy in all your kids buy in some more than others and such but they understand that what they're doing is a collective cohesive effort but that only happens when everyone feels that they are contributing in an
It's not top down, but it's all around. I often tell my kids, a good leader doesn't dictate and give commands. A good leader is the one that just gets in the group and works with you to get the results. So that they're with you to push through and struggle with you as opposed to watch you struggle and then why are you struggling? Why you sound so bad because you are struggling? Pardon my kids for a second.
Eggplnt (35:31.006)
That's like good.
Eddy E. (35:31.185)
Yeah, video games, sorry. But yeah, nonetheless, you you feel it. And there's a level of respect across the board, not just for the art, but for the people, right? Everyone feels worth it. Everybody feels valued. Everyone is contributing in a somewhat that.
Eggplnt (35:52.125)
Yeah, you're not going to see the student in the wheelchair sitting on the sideline.
Eddy E. (35:59.293)
You're not going to see, you're going to see that child in the middle of the field being pushed by somebody so that they can just play their trumpet. You know, you're going to see that person in the pit with a mallet station because we can bring that down and they can play the four key marimba, four mallet marimba and have that mallet station at wheelchair height and not the traditional because we can't. You're going to see all kinds of adaptations because it doesn't matter. And if it's traditional, wonderful. If it's not,
Who cares? I don't care who I upset if it's not traditional. Because for me, the experience of that child is way more valuable than a traditional bassoon part on a concert stage in True Story I had someone play it on an iPad.
I had someone play it on an iPad and they're like, well, that's not a real bassoon. So this performance is invalid. And you know, have not observed the traditional sense of things because you used an iPad to fabricate a traditional instrument. And I'm like, when does that matter?
Eggplnt (37:03.111)
That was so, I just need you to clarify. That's how you were adjudicated?
Eddy E. (37:08.069)
I was given an adjudicator who had issued with me using digitized instruments to fill in parts because the player was no longer there for a medical emergency of some sort. I had adjudicators tell me, and this is what drove my desire to leave the classroom and start presenting and educating because my hearing aids have blacked out.
died with my worst nightmare ever happened on that day and it was sweaty and it got wet and they died right before that downbeat. The kids saw the look on my face. I looked like I was about to ball. I was completely in the dark. I could not hear anything anymore. It doesn't matter and I'm on this terrible stage with horrible acoustics and the orchestra band, the ensemble itself, they try to keep it together for me. They knew I was in
panic mode but it all fell apart completely. We got straight goods that year and one of the commentary from the judges were one that stuck with me profoundly and said that I should learn to listen to my ensemble and do a better job at hearing my group's progress because if I can't do that then I'm in the wrong profession and I need to reconsider my educational direction and such.
Eggplnt (38:36.426)
I just, I just want to sit on that for a second.
Eddy E. (38:39.752)
You
Eggplnt (38:41.671)
Because how often can we as teachers easily, maybe not so harshly and maybe not so bluntly, but so easily dismiss our students because they can't do it this way or that way?
And are we not the same?
Are we not the same? Doing the same thing?
Eddy E. (39:07.14)
we're all guilty of doing that. Even myself, I'll catch myself. But I ask myself, what am I about to say? Is this going to be productive or not? Some folks don't care if it's productive or not. They're expressing their frustration. Because again, in the music world, it's about the performance and that performance getting that superior rating or that top trophy or bands of America or Midwest or wherever they want to go. And it's about the token, the award. The thing about the token system is that the token becomes the it. And for a director, how many plaques do you have on the wall? If you came to my band room, you would see zero band plaques on the wall.
zero because it was never my goal to get a plaque. My goal was the music experiences and if the adjudicator, that year was the last year I went to an MPA for band for over a decade and instead I took my kids to Disney or I took them on another trip. I took them to Washington. I've had orchestras go to Carnegie Hall. I did Washington. I did all over the country. They've had amazing musical experiences. New World Center, stages that were bigger than some random school's auditorium with three adjudicators telling you're doing a good job. So I find other avenues to provide success of a program to cater to the needs of my kids that will benefit them in the most profound way.
Eddy E. (40:34.416)
And kids remember Mickey Mouse more and their music making that they did with Mickey Mouse than what happened at an MPA stage and stuff. So when I think about what I say to my kids, I want to say something that would be direct, honest, but also something that they can benefit from it, something that will help them build from it and not destroy them from it. Like if someone had told me, man, your tone on trumpet, true story, it's just got
Eggplnt (40:40.689)
Right.
Eddy E. (41:04.33)
You can't hear it. Please quit. Those were real worries. You shouldn't be here.
I've even had it at collegiate levels. You shouldn't be here at the collegiate level. The response should have been, you're struggling with this. I don't have the answers, but let's try this thing. Let's try that. Let's find a way to make something successful so that we can make you better and get you moving forward. That should have been the response for that. And that's where the teachers can have the most profound effect.
Instead of bringing the student down, find something to help them with. You're struggling with something. What can we do? I want solutions. I don't want complaints. I tell that with everybody I work with. Where my kids tell me all the time, this band sounds bad today. Okay, so what's your solution? How would you like to fix it? Complaining makes it worse. How do we fix? That's all I wanna hear. Can we try this to fix that note? Can we pull out a tuner and check that pitch right there? This chord is off. Good idea.
And now I'm teaching independent listening and independent engagement and there's learning to diagnose themselves which also helps me because I don't always catch everything with being it not being able to hear like yes, they found the wrong note I missed it completely. I'm gonna play it off. That's a great contribution. Thank you for that one Alright guys, let's tune it go blah blah blah blah blah blah blah. I found it everybody here Yeah, okay fix it and then I don't make the assessment anymore. They fixed it class. Was it better? They're like, yeah, yeah, they gave you thumbs up. Alright back to the downbeat. Here we go
So I took a potentially negative situation and turned it into a contributory aspect of everybody engaging with each other to make each other better. And there's where the cohesion and buying in comes into play and that culture of everyone together or nothing at all, right? Or all one ensemble and so forth. Lots of tricks in there that I could probably suggest to help foster all that.
Eggplnt (43:02.261)
Well, I think, and I think at the root of it, it comes down to us remembering like, well, and it's hard. It's hard for music teachers because we are dual people. are, we are passionate about music. That's why most people end up becoming music teachers. And at the same time, we got to remember that we're music teachers. We're teachers of music. We are not musicians out for ourselves trying to get.
Eddy E. (43:24.956)
Yes.
Eggplnt (43:30.801)
the best, the first chair clarinet part in the Chicago Symphony. No, our focus now as teachers has to completely shift from music being the end-all, be-all goal that now it's about the kids themselves.
Eddy E. (43:47.325)
that.
That's the problem with our profession right now. This is what I'm wrestling with and this is what kind of rail against this because it music education has always been about commercialism. mean, band historically has always been about selling instruments and band concerts out in public in the early 1900s marching bands. Right. And then it became football and and the incorporation of bands in the traditional school setting because it was a commercialistic thing for a competitive outcome. Right. And P.A.'s, festivals, competitions, bands of America,
this a lot. think they changed their names now and such but prestigious festivals is prestige right is that ultimate prize but what most people forget is we are in the people business. That is our business. We reinforce these musical opportunities. My thing is I want to light that fire and that little flame in you so that you go down your path and totally kick butt. If you want to become that principal Chicago Symphony Orchestra player
Go for it. If you're go into business, are you gonna go into wherever entity? That's right. Go out there be awesome make lots of money and please don't forget me Give me five percent when you're rich and famous all right to help me out here But my goal is to get you where you want to go and such and that's really the ultimate goal of my music I just use that as an avenue to keep them engaged so I can teach them The skills they need to be functional people contributing people because we teach more than just music
How to function in a society how to work with other people differences how to? Critically think in certain situations how to think outside of the box how to be creative how to follow instructions You know there's so many things that are learned that are fundamental to just living that we do through music So that is what I really stress. We are in the people business Itself as long as people keep being made teachers will always be needed so that's one of those things
Eddy E. (45:47.561)
It's important and it's a very important role regardless of what our subject matters are.
Eggplnt (45:53.137)
Yeah. Well, Eddie, I thank you so much for coming and talking with me today. I'm hoping to be able to make some resources available. I'm hoping that they will be in the description of this episode. So if you're looking for, you know, things for students that are struggling with hearing loss specifically, we're going to try to provide some resources for that. And then some general resources so that you can find things for whatever
Eddy E. (46:08.284)
Sure.
Eggplnt (46:23.249)
concerns you have in your classroom.
Eddy E. (46:25.479)
I
be more than happy to send you some links and resources and also if you'd like to share the brand new NAFME Symposium that's happening in November, Dr. Hamill put, I was invited by Dr. Hamill to present at that national symposium and it's a four hour session that's gonna cover a variety of topics within disabilities and students with poverty, living in poverty as well on November 15th. It's the first of its kind. I was shocked that this actually is going through and I was asked to present on that.
So I'm like, okay, cool. But I think, thank you, I appreciate it. I'm still in awe seeing that posted on napkin. I'm like, me, me, like that, me by Dr. Hamill? Wow, you know, like, okay, I guess she likes me, you know.
Eggplnt (46:58.385)
Well, congratulations.
Eddy E. (47:13.073)
guess I'm doing alright, but I can't complain. But if you want to share that, because I think that would be a very valuable resource, it's going to provide a bunch of topics. I'm focusing on sensory disabilities with a colleague of mine, but there's also neurodivergence in autism, and there's going to be one on poverty, and there's one on...
Eggplnt (47:14.237)
Now that's awesome.
Eggplnt (47:22.759)
Sure.
Eddy E. (47:33.017)
social economics and there's going to be one on ELL and ESOL kind of stuff so it's a little bit of everything to cover all the diverse topics and trends of what's happening currently you know
Eggplnt (47:44.413)
That's fantastic. That's awesome. I'm glad to hear that that's happening. Well, I'm going to go ahead and sign off. But you hang on because I want to talk to you for just a second. So thank you guys for watching and for listening. And we will see you next week.
Eddy E. (47:53.603)
Okay, well hopefully that's enough.