After seven years of supervising music interns for Arkansas State University, I’ve noticed several themes that recur every year. This is not meant as criticism of the students or their college instructors. The intern experience is a part of the journey, not the end product, and it sheds light on what needs more refinement. The ideas presented here are in no way comprehensive; they are just thoughts on filling some possible gaps.
Expectations
Setting expectations starts from the beginning. An intern’s experience is necessarily somewhat limited. Your observations at the school can serve as a baseline for future expectations, but it should not be a fixed baseline. This experience may or may not be representative of other classrooms.
When some of my music interns teach in elementary music classes, it is the first time they have worked with elementary kids. I had one intern who was placed in a third-grade class where students were ill-behaved for the regular classroom teacher and even worse for the intern. After talking to her, I discovered that she assumed all third graders must behave like that. I assured her that they didn’t if certain things were done correctly.
If you are fortunate enough to intern in a music program with high expectations and achievement, be inspired by what kids will accomplish in a great environment. If you are in a program where the teachers say, “kids won’t do this” or “kids won’t do that” you should be wary about setting expectations based on that situation.
Technology
The pandemic forced all educators to be creative and increased the use of technology, but this is a double-edged sword. Don’t become overly dependent on it. Use it, but don’t let it use you. Nothing can replace the human impact you provide.
Professionalism
No matter how your clinical supervisor dresses, you should dress at least one level above the students. (Unless it’s a spirit day of some type.) You already look young to the faculty, parents, and students, so a dressier look provides some distance between you and the students.
Overprepare
Leave nothing to chance. Prepare a detailed lesson plan that allows you to move quickly from one aspect of a lesson to another. This should extend even into your career. As the years go by, you will be able to do some things with your eyes closed, but the mental template for this is established early and over time.
Explain the Whys
Take every opportunity to explain why you are asking students to do something. This leads to greater understanding. When you don’t do this, students do something just because you said so and are less likely to transfer that knowledge to similar musical passages. Instead of saying, “woodwinds, play the notes light and bouncy there,” it would be better to say, “woodwinds, play the notes light and bouncy there so it will contrast more with the heavier notes in the brasses.” Composer Robert W. Smith, one of the best clinicians I ever observed, was great at giving the composer’s perspective on musical choices that he made. He would often explain why he wrote a passage the way that he did, and the best way to perform it.
Know the Musical Score
Although intern work is exhausting, find time to study scores. Your time directing the ensemble is limited, so this makes thorough score study imperative. The ensemble, which may doubt some of your abilities already, will have much more confidence if you give great cues with eye contact, know what you want musically, and don’t have your head buried in the score.
Also, you may not have your listening ears that come with experience, so the better you can anticipate problems, the quicker you will diagnose and correct them.
Student Behavior
This can be tricky if class discipline is less than optimal under the main director. However, you can still try a reset each time you work with the group by setting and explaining expectations during your time with them. Even if they don’t behave perfectly, it is good practice for when you have your own ensemble.
Purposeful Warm-ups
Don’t go through the motions on the warm-up. To me, the term warm-up is more all-encompassing. Have at least one daily goal, however small, that the warm-up will help with for the concert piece you are conducting. This could be tuning, tone, articulation, technique, or style.
Response Time
When responding to your university supervisor, be prompt. With the prevalence of smart phones, this should be pretty easy. In my experience, the correlation between response time and the quality of an intern’s overall work product has been surprisingly high.
Punctuality and Attendance
This would seem to go without saying, but I will say it anyway. This has to be good. Future employers who know nothing about music will always ask about this because it’s something they understand and value in their employees.
Everything you do for your intern experience is setting the stage for your career. When you get into the music field on your own, you will fall back on doing things, you observed or the way you were taught. This is good as a survival technique but as you move along in your career, keep what’s best and throw out the rest. Find better ways to do things. Imitate, but grow.
