BRIDGING: The Journey of Asking Questions

By: Emma Lamberti

The Start: The Big Realization

Some of the biggest struggles I face in studying music education in college revolve around how the spaces I am creating are leaving out certain groups and individuals. I kept thinking about what I was doing to help make it more inclusive, which led me to be really interested in questioning the process of ‘typical’ music-making. 

Many of my own expectations were ingrained from past generations of teachers who preached playing the ‘proper’ music. This often aligned with the white, Western points of view within music. My first semester grasping with these, I kept asking questions:

  •  How could I tackle these engrained ideas around music, and then change these systems to be for the better? 

  • What was my role in creating spaces for creativity and making music? 

  • Who isn’t getting to participate in the typical environment that is found within so many music classrooms? 

Analyzing, Thinking, Gathering

This last question stood out to me a lot. When developing lesson plans for a preschool music lesson, my professor asked me how my activities would leave out certain children from participating. I didn’t necessarily need to change the actual activities, but I had to think about how it could be modified in order to include everyone. From analyzing the activity and thinking about it from a point of view that wasn’t my own, I was able to gather new ideas and solutions. 

For example, I planned a music activity for the preschool classroom that involved lots of body movements with arms and legs. My professor then challenged me to think about how this activity may present difficulties for students with certain physical disabilities, and how I might change the activity to be more universal. 

From my professor questioning the inclusivity of my lesson plan, I soon found a new passion for wanting to explore this question more: How can we make music more accessible? 

Advocating and Studying

I immediately noticed how the beginning of asking questions infiltrated the rest of my studies. I was not only asking questions in my education classes, but music as well. How could music theory begin to be more inclusive? Why didn’t I learn about a single female or person of color composer? I soon became disinterested in even learning this Western canon, and was soon incorporating modern, contemporary composers into my personal vocal repertoire. 

From my own journey of hunting and trying to find composers, such as women of color and LGBTQ+ composers, I found how difficult it was to find these resources. I soon became my own biggest advocate in my voice lessons and music class. Through asking these questions, I also began to become a stronger advocate for myself and my learning disability. I also answered many of my own questions such as how I personally was able to incorporate my identity into my work, how I could share this with others through performing, and how I could start to incorporate more diversity and inclusion in my classes. 

The Ultimate Realization of the Never-Ending Journey 

I have now realized that this process of bridging social justice and music was going to be a never-ending journey. I learn something new, am able to talk to someone with a new perspective, and form questions everyday. My story of beginning to realize the gap between music education and diversity has only just begun. I hope that others also begin asking questions to help find what is not only important to yourself, but what is needed to uplift others. 

To begin, it's important to ask how our values can be better aligned to the work we do. In the article, “Embedding Advocacy Into Your Practice” published by the Teaching Artists Guild, Jeff M. Poulin explains the importance of “advocacy for justice” through all efforts of self, field, and the sector communities. This is a wonderful way to begin to think of bridging our questions to action. 

Now, it is time for you to think about your never-ending journey: How can you connect the many aspects of your lives in order to best advocate for all? 

This looks different for everyone through their many sectors, yet is all rooted in the effort to create safer and more inclusive spaces in the arts.