Music has always been one of my greatest passions, and around a year and a half ago, I learned one of my most coveted instruments, the violin. Since then I have continued to hone my skills on this musical tool and have improved a great deal, so much so that for one of my CAS experiences, I interned at the Echoestics Music Commune as a teacher for violin. During this experience, I visited the academy once a week and assisted the teachers, helping the kids to learn a new instrument. The violin is not one of the most popular instruments, especially within Indian culture, and by teaching it to young students, I was able to help preserve this relic of musical history. Also, I contributed, to a lesser extent, a basic teaching of music theory and composition, helping students to better comprehend written music while giving them exposure to the creation of their own creations. The duration of this experience was 6 weeks, during which time I visited the academy once a week for a duration of 1 hour 30 mins for each visit. This summed up to over 9 hours of total teaching time. This catered to SDG 4, quality education, as I was able to provide a new facet of musical education to the Indian music teaching system.

While executing this experience, I targeted two specific aspects of CAS – creativity and service. For creativity, I was able to communally create music with students, helping them to develop their own interpretations of music written by composers hundreds of years ago, while helping them to actually gain the ability to create music through the violin in the first place. My students learned several songs of their choosing, but were also given the freedom to create their own music. This was done using the technical techniques I taught them, but their own creativity and comprehension of musical theories, whether based on my teaching or their comprehension. Additionally, I had the opportunity to create music with other, more advanced students who had expertise in different instruments like piano or guitar. This helped my students as an audience to see the outcome of the work that I did by practicing, while also showing them my creative interpretation of the pieces that we performed. 

My experience also counts as a service, as I was able to interact with people and provide them a service in the form of an opportunity to learn a new instrument. Most music teachers in India do not have experience with violin, and if they do, it is likely with classical Indian violin rather than Western classical, which is played very differently. Since there is such a small percentage of people who may be able to provide this service, I was able to act as a gateway for my students to learn something that they would not have been able to if I was not there. Because of modern pop culture, electronic music and instruments, such as electric guitars, synthesizers, keyboards, etc. have become much more popular, causing classical instruments like the violin, viola, cello, and many, many more to die off, taking their music with them. By offering my services, I not only spread awareness about the violin, but also the musical repertoire that comes with it. Through this, I was able to do my part in combating homogenization of culture by representing a historically significant piece of the world’s musical past in a modern environment. 

I also gained experience in the form of multiple learning outcomes through this experience. LO 2 specifies that I should undertake a challenge while developing new skills, which is something that I have done. I have never taught music before, and this experience served as a way for me to experience something new – to learn how to teach in a way that my students could comprehend the complexities of the musical world. Also, I showed perseverance and commitment as I was able to consistently arrive on time multiple weeks in a row for a long period of time. Additionally, some students would not listen to me and continuously do things other than what I instructed them to, which led to their learning being impeded. I had to persist in my commitment to the learning of these kids and remained patient in my approach to their behavior. Finally, I followed LO 6 as I engaged with the global issue of the loss of classical music and its culture, as I contributed to the musical education of students and the spreading of awareness regarding Western classical music, helping to preserve a piece of our global history and culture.

Overall, this experience led me to gain a lot of new valuable knowledge and skills while allowing me to do my part in spreading awareness about Western classical music and instruments in a modern Indian world. I was able to learn about how the mind of a student works from an external perspective while building up my own character. The most valuable part of the entire experience was the smiles on the faces of my students as they succeeded in creating their own music through what I had taught them, a memory that will remain with me forever.