Dig Down Music: An approach to life-long musicianship through the facilitation of flexible, stratified repertoire

Abstract

I believe that everyone can and should make music for their whole lives. This dissertation explores repertoire and facilitation techniques that encourage more people to participate in active music-making. I provide some context for this position through my experience as a music teacher and arts administrator at a rural community college. I look at the established method of teaching and facilitating music by ‘building up’ skills and competence, then I propose a new way of thinking about musical processes by digging down into artistic understanding. I begin a search for a flexible repertoire that is quickly accessible to a diverse cross-section of participants and features layers of artistic depth that can encourage participation by communities of performers with widely stratified levels of experience. I propose a gradient with ten domains of musical accessibility: availability of scores, instructions, or recordings; instrument requirements; notation or instructions; centralized time or ensemble coordination; technique prerequisites; part responsibility or ensemble flexibility; immediacy or ease of initial interaction; opportunity for genuine variation in parts; relatability of groove, harmony, or melody; and interpretability or room for aesthetic identity. Facilitators can use this gradient to assess repertoire choices and plan their own flexible Dig Down musical processes. I demonstrate how facilitators might use it to assess pieces of music and determine how strong a fit they might be for specific communities or projects. I look at pieces through the lens of each accessibility domain and consider how each one might be more accessible in one domain but less accessible in another. Finally, I take a close look at three specific pieces of this repertoire: “Life is (___),” (2012) by Jason Treuting, “By the Time We Look for It,” (2018) By Jenny Beck, and “Play Book,” (2015) by Danny Clay. I analyze these pieces in-depth, looking at them through the lens of the musical accessibility gradient and my own personal experiences facilitating them. I offer anecdotes and examples of ways this kind of repertoire and facilitation might encourage people to keep participating in music for more of their lives. I believe that our communities are stronger when more people actively participate in music-making. This dissertation ultimately identifies some repertoire and facilitation techniques to strengthen that reality in our culture. Through it, I am advocating that more musicians and music teachers adopt a Dig Down approach to affect the outcome of life-long musicianship in their communities. While I focus primarily on music for percussion, this concept can be applied more universally to music-making in general.