Brian Vincent Introduction
Brian Vincent is a current High School music educator at Thomas A. Blakelock and has been my teacher from Gr.9 - 12. He trained as a trumpet player at the University of Toronto. Then after spent 2 years performing in local orchestras and ensembles. He went to teachers college for his Bachelors of Education at Simon Fraser in Vancouver. Upon completing his undergrad in education he started working for the Halton district school board. He has been working as a music educator for 13 years. Brian was able to motivate, inspire, support, and challenged me to become the musician I am today. Not only did I learn to play my instrument but he showed us the importance in community within a band and when to take leadership. Through the course of 4 years, he brought out my curiosity for music and how I can constantly improve as a musician.
The Interview
Q. What is the purpose or significance you being a music educator?
A. Purpose behind music education is to allow children a glimpse at anything which is behind the sphere of who they are as people. When we make music with people we have some really great studies about how oxytocin and dophamine looks and when people make music together, those particular hormones are released at certain points int he music making process. Music making also effects the brain and how developing musical skills effects anything from better fine motor skills or better recalling certain types information under pressure, certainly the aspects of personality which are developed from making music and making music with others. The purpose behind being a music educator at the end of the day, although that is all important and interesting, is I think probably best quoted by Benjamin Zander who is a composer, conductor. He has talked about when musicians eyes are shining. He uses this as a litmus test for being successful. Basically he is looking for a certain reaction for either the music making or to their interaction as an ensemble for when he conducts. I guess its the exact same purpose that I take into the classroom everyday. Now do we always get to that point? Well of course we don't. Sometimes the purpose behind what I do is to simply move students one cent further. And sometimes we take ginormous leaps. Neil Armstrong esque bounds whether one small leap for musician kind and a giant step for an ensemble or something like that. Its a good question and its something that i certainly think about a lot. As far as giving an answer its the best thing I can do. I think its a micro question and a macro question at the same time. I think it boils down to you make music and kids make music because we are human beings. Its that simple you have to make music because it is in us and around us; and to learn about and it makes us better people. An so you have all the brain research in one column and then you have all of the intrinsic benefits in one column and under the third column is i guess at he end of the day its just there and we should be doing it.
Q. How do evaluate yourself as a teacher? Do you see yourself progressing and in what way?
A. The answer to that is yes and I've been talking about that this fall with a number of my senior classes. I;m just better as a teacher, stronger as a facilitator, more prepared for what comes next in whatever that may look like. I certainly think that I've grown personally and that journey is not going to stop. It will be over some time soon I'm 38 years old and I have 13 years of career under my toe. And in 13 years I've done a lot and you yourself have been part of it and we've done some pretty remarkable things. I've gotten there because many people have supported and challenged me, so lots of the times we have to put ourselves out there in different scenarios whether its from bringing a special guest into the music room and it doesn't have to be somebody who has a remarkable career. We've worked with some pretty great people and sometimes the best feedback you can get is from especially bringing a feeder school colleague into conducting part of the rehearsal or even an alumni. Its about being open to feedback and sometimes feedback can be really raw. When you ask students for feedback you have to remember its like a patient going to the doctor. I'm not saying the patient wont have insight but you have to keep that into perspective so I think you have to do both. We would sort of couch that under the classroom management piece sort of now which we call student voice. That kind of feedback is really important for people in music education. I think the biggest piece for me is that I'm a growth mindset kind of guy i just came by that naturally; we didn't have a label for it growing up but hat kind of mindset is i think the only kind of mindset that really makes you successful in a music classroom. I think if you're not a growth mindset kind of person meaning if you don't have that mindset which is, "I love challenges.", "I'm going to do everything i can to get through them." and "Sometimes I'm going to get it wrong and sometimes I'm going to get it right and both times I'm have to learn from it." So if you don't have that kind of mindset you really shouldn't be a music educator. I'm not saying you shouldn't be a music educator at all but in music education I think I've really fallen into calling the music room a laboratory and everything we do is experiment.
Q. What motivates you the most to keep teaching?
A. Some of the other questions you asked me is maybe kind of obvious that I do a lot of thinking, reading and soul searching about the answers that I'e given you. You sort decided to take your scalpel out and cut right into the heart of a lot of thing I believe very deeply. But I don't have a long answer for this one. It may be a little bit cliche but I just cant imagine myself doing anything else. What motivates me? Music motivates me. Its just that. I think its a very thought provoking text and I've put you through the experience of reading this text. But the more I've seen of Victor Wooten online doing different kind of teachings the more I believe in this text. Hes written a novel called the music lesson and its out there for sure its on the philosophic side the sort of post industrialist side of philosophy for sure but basically if you treat music like a tennantite, if you believe the force that brings music into existence is real, then we have both most incredible journey to interact with that force. And when we start to interact with that force which we describe in English as music then we also have a responsibility to the composers and other creators of that force to honor all of the things that come into this realm. Victor see's music as a force of nature. So why am I motivated? I don't need to be motivated because music motivates me intrinsically. I'm a smart guy and I could have pushed my brain in different directions. But I would have been miserable. I would have been a horrible person and I wouldn't have been serving myself. I don't need a lot of motivation other than knowing that ill get up in the morning and knowing that I'm going to walk into a classroom and make music with kids. Its just fascinating and fabulous.