C.A.M.P.

Curiosity, Affinity, Motivation, Perseverance.

These are the things I believe people need to succeed at anything, the Arts especially.

Every fall I start hundreds of curious students on band and orchestra instruments. I think that most of them have no idea what the endeavor they have undertaken really demands of them. They are just curious. That, and their friends signed up too. There are a few students at every school who have zero curiosity about playing a musical instrument. If the music instruction is compulsory, they go through the motions, barely, and I can only hope that something has sunk in when all is said and done, and that there will be some residual benefit to their brain development in spite of their lack of interest.

Within a few weeks, I can see the second thing on the list begin to manifest, or not. The students who have chosen an instrument they have affinity for, or those who have affinity for music in general begin to blossom. Their enthusiasm is what I live for. They are the students who run down the hall, across the playground to music class, bring me practice buckets full (more about this below) every week, who say "Yes!" when I say let's play Hot Cross Buns. They may not be the best players at first. Their love of playing may be way ahead of their skills and ability, at first.  The students whose initial Curiosity is their only impulse to play begin to falter, forgetting instruments at home, leaving them in the classroom all week, forgetting to come to class, or choosing to skip class. Some merely-curious students fake it for a while, but without the affinity, they don't last long.

It is in the second or even third year that the real motivation issues come up. Children who have the first two characteristics are self-motivated up to a point. Extrinsic motivations must also be present, in my opinion, to keep them going. Parental support, a growing sense of belonging to something cool, the thrill of performance are just three things that can motivate.

Where I have the most difficulty as a teacher is in this part of the equation. I'm not much for stickers or prizes or charts. What has been fun this year with the elementary students is the "Practice Bucket". It's a 4x4-inch paper with a bucket drawing on it. There are five lines inside that bucket. I tell the students they get to color one lined section for each 20 minute practice session. When they bring the colored buckets back, I hang them up on the wall. They are proud to see their buckets hanging there. (This comes from an idea I read somewhere that the work we do in class fills a small portion of a "bucket". If the students then go home and practice, the bucket fills up and we can move on to another "bucket". If they don't practice, not only does the bucket not fill up, but the work we did in class evaporates.) Even still, there are students who practice- as evidenced by their playing- who don't color their buckets. There are students who color buckets, but don't bring them back to school. And, of course, there are students for whom this is no motivation at all.

At the middle school, we use practice logs, and I started the year with a chart for each class. The class that got the most practice minutes by the end of the semester was going to have a pizza party. Great idea, but only about 3 students ever bothered to fill in and turn in their logs. They were practicing, or not, but the incentive of the pizza party was not enough to spur the lazy ones to practice, and the hard working ones didn't need that incentive. I have tried basing grades on this practice log, and still only get a handful of submissions. So, my part in Motivation remains mysterious to me. When it's there, it's there and when it's not, there's not much I can do, it seems.

The last letter in the acronym- P for Perseverance- is the one that carries the student into high school and beyond and leads to adults who enjoy making music for fun or profit. These are the kids who may have been great or mediocre or even terrible players in the beginning, but who kept coming to class, kept working- even a little- at home, who enjoyed being in concerts, who kept trying and are now maybe the leads in their marching band sections or who aspire to major in music in college. Maybe they are the last chair in the second violin section, but love being there. Maybe they get together with their friends and jam in the garage. Maybe they play in a community orchestra. Maybe they will be doctors or programmers or teachers or parents or join the military, and I believe they will succeed at any of those things, given enough C.A.M.P.