Sometimes creating a musical culture at a school where there is none can seem like a daunting task. Ideally we all want to work in a place where the students, teachers, administrators, and families view the music program as an important and vital part of the school. How we get to that point, is less clear. When I started at my first job teaching elementary school music in Tucson, Arizona, the blankness of the slate for music at my school was matched only by the blankness of the stares from my students when I tried to get them to engage in some music making. It was clear we had a lot of work to do. In addition, the expectations on what the music program should be and what it could be were extremely low. However, by the time I gave my tearful goodbye at that same school 5 years later, the culture of music had transformed completely. The musical culture at my school had grown to reach an ideal standard of what a music program should be. With this article, I try to highlight some of the things (above and beyond good instruction and consistency in teaching) that I did that helped turn our school into a great place for music.
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