Garrett Godsey

Music Education
Interview with Rick Gamble

On the last day of high school, senior year, I remember hearing a lot of my
classmates say, Im never setting foot inside this place again. I remember the
horrible memories that people would share because it was all about to end. We
were about to move into another chapter of our lives. Though, I never thought of
high school as this awful place where you went to be brainwashed. Part of the
reason was because of my Choral Director in the high school choir, Richard Gamble.
Mr. Gamble had a large impact on my high school experience, my love for music
(specifically choral music), and even some of my college decisions. Gamble has been
teaching at Avon High School now for over 25 years. After studying solo voice and
opera at Indiana University, he gravitated more towards teaching in the choral
department. He has been a part of many large productions, as well as directing many
successful performances at the high school level. Having made such an impact on my
life, I recently interviewed him to gather information about what makes a great
teacher. Below is the conversation we exchanged.

What do you believe are the qualities or characteristics of an effective teacher?

Someone who is passionate and trained. Training, I received as a musician, [was]

primarily at IU. Now, as far as choral experience, I had that continually from the time
I was in fifth grade. Really, even when I was out singing solo works I was receiving
experience. In New York, I worked as a church musician, so I had an agent and all
that kind of stuff. So all of those things were training. [Also,] a wide and varied
amount of experience will help you in what youre doing. The other part is the
passion. Im sure youve already experienced one or two teachers who arent very
passionate about what theyre doing. I mean, you can know everything, but if you
dont really care about what youre trying to get across, it wont matter.

Yeah, weve talk about this sort of thing in class. The teachers who arent
passionate about what they teach usually give the boring lecture class that you
struggle to stay awake in. Obviously you want to try to avoid being that type of
teacher.

Right.

So, can you recall, then, an influential teacher that you have had in your life that
inspired you to either do music or inspired you in some other way?

Yes! You know that I tried making a living as a solo performer. When I gave that up,
I was about 31 and I was trying to decide what it was I wanted to do. Theres a
truism that says If you dont know exactly what you want to do, think of somebody
whom you truly admire; somebody living and somebody dead in the past. Think of
what they did, and maybe you should consider doing that. Well, Ive always been a
great admirer of C.S. Lewis, who in addition to being a great writer, his day job was
as a teacher. I still think of my best teacher of all time as being my high school
English teacher. She influenced me so strongly that when I got out of Fellowship to
go back to IU, I studied English. I took five English classes all at once and I was going
to be an English teacher. Then the Fellowship program finally said to me that I had a
lot of experience in music. So thats how close I was to being an English teacher, but
its also how I ended up being in the teaching profession. I thought of the living
person, and the dead person that I admired.

Do you find those English classes you took in grad school still useful today?

Well, when youre doing a choral song, youre reading a poem. I took classes in
poetry at IU, so yes; I use that to an extent. I dont give a lot of writing assignments,
so most of my English knowledge is only useful while playing board games. Haha!

Speaking to your job as a high school choir director; how do you find a balance in
managing student behavior while also being an effective teacher?

That is a tricky question, especially for me, as well. I did not have a full education as
a music teacher. [Rather,] I was highly educated as a music performer, and had a
smattering of education as a teacher. I had two weeks of Educational Psychology,
one class in Choral Conducting, that kind of thing. So went I went into the classroom,
I was relatively ill prepared, even though I was older. I had a lot of discipline
problems. So, like any other intense artist sort of person, I couldnt believe I even
had any problems, and my reaction was to correct the issue. Though, over time I
have been through a lot of workshops, conferences, and observations of better
teachers. I then began to observe that the most effective way to take care of any
discipline problems was to concentrate on the teaching. Concentrating on getting
the knowledge across to those students. In my advanced choirs, or any schools
advanced choirs, the students are there become they want to be. So it is rare for me
to have any sort of discipline issues in those choirs. In the beginning choirs, where
they are still learning what choir is about and who you are, there are some things I
have to handle. I tend to squash it like a hammer nowadays, as in If youre not going
to do this, then lets see about getting you out of the class. I know Im a good
teacher, and any student who wont respond to that, probably will not respond to
that in any normal circumstance. The Beginning Mens Choir, [for example], has a lot
of guys in there just to get the credit.

I do remember seeing that when I was in high school and even coming back to the
high school to substitute teach. You can clearly see those students that dont want to
be in the class, and will refuse to put in any sort of work.

It can be applied to almost any subject.

So going back to your time spent in college, what was difficult about studying music
then
Early Music History was very difficult because, like many typical high school
students back then, I didnt have a good grasp on [regular] history, even. So I felt like
while I was learning about music history, I was also learning about general history,
so there was a lot to absorb all at once. Also, sight reading was difficult back in
college because I didnt know anything about it.

Do you have any professional organizations that you are a part of or support in
some way?

Yes. I am currently finishing my term as President of the Indiana Choral Directors

Association. I am part of IMEA, the Music Educators Association, which is also
associated with NAfME.

Would you suggest that young college students or even high school senior try to get
involved with these organizations?

I think ACDA (American Choral Directors Association) is the main one I would
suggest at that age. If you are a band person, I would suggest IMEA or something
that tends more to that field. Im sure some of your teachers are also currently
involved with NATS, the vocal organization.

What are some of the ways that you stay motivated to teach?

You know, its so funny. Ive had that question put to me a number of years, and Im
guessing that the professors who make you ask that question are as much interested
in the answer as you are. When you start teaching, Garrett, in a few years, you wont
have any problem with motivation. Youre going to want to succeed and youre going
to love and be interested in what youre doing. Youll also love a steady paycheck.
There are those teachers who burn out immediately, including musicians. I dont
know why, and Ive never studied it. I know theres been a certain amount of
exhaustion that comes with teaching. You know, every day I teach 5 choirs, and
often I am teaching voice lessons afterward. I used to do the musical after school as
well, so it would be unusual for me to NOT have a nine-hour day. I dont know that I
was burned out as much as I was exhausted at times. Though, as far as passion goes,
I love choral music, and its something I listen to for entertainment. I love going to
conferences and competitions because I love listening to a great choir. So my
profession is also my avocation. I consider myself lucky to be teaching choral music
because I enjoy what Im doing.

How do you think Choral Music Education has changed from the time you were in
school to now?

This single biggest change that I have seen, personally, is the amount of physical
movement you see now in choirs during performances and warm ups. Im a big
advocate of warm ups myself. I was always taught to Keep your hands at your side
and dont move. But now I deliberately teach movement in warm ups. Another
aspect that Ive seen from Joe Miller, Rider University is to use motions to teach
rhythms or to cement a difficult passage. He would require students to do these
little [snaps and claps] for cutoffs, and it really helps these students work through a
difficult piece of music.

I do remember doing this in school. We would snap on rests and arch our hand for
long phrases. Even using hand motions to learn better singing techniques.

Yes, there are a lot of different motions that you can teach to help a student sing
better, and more as an actor would. You can say (emotionless) I hate you and it
doesnt mean anything, but when you say (standing up and pointing) I HATE YOU
theres so much more. Its very effective in choral music as well.

What do you believe is most important thing for a high school student to learn or
take from high school choir?

I hope that they have an exposure to the basic classical styles. By that I mean
Renaissance, Baroque, Classical, and Romantic. We also get plenty of [modern] choir
music nowadays. I want them to have an exposure to that literature. I think that they
should understand how to sight-read, and I dont think you are at all surprised by
that answer, Haha! I think that they should sing in a variety of languages, so that
they can know how music is international. Its almost certainly true that if a student
has stuck with choir all through high school, that they have found something in a
particular song that they can relate to in a very strong and emotional way. Music is
emotional. It is a great blending of your mind and emotions.

What are some of the other activities you are involved in outside of teaching?

Drivers Ed. is one of them, as well as voice lessons, though I dont have as many
students this year. After I spent an hour or so at the school, I go home and walk in
the woods for a while. Its a physical thing, its a mental thing and very good for you.
I go camping with my family and friends a lot. I go to movies with Bob (the high
school accompanist). I am active at my church by either leading bible studies or
singing in the choir. I also read; I read a lot.

Do you feel that a church job is important to have in college?

Most directors I have known usually end up getting a job at a local church or some
kind of church. So yes, I think its important to try out a wide variety of churches and
attend different services to possibly work in the church band. I would add a caution
to that, however. There are certain churches that would often invite me to either
sing a solo or to work, and my Christian beliefs didnt always align with that church.
So I would encourage prospective educators, particularly you, to be careful about
that. Dont always take a job that pays you a lot of money, but make sure you believe
what you are actually singing about. Theres a difference between singing in church
and singing on stage. I can be anybody on a stage. Ive played the devil on multiple
occasions, but I dont want to sing less than holy music in a church.

The last question I have for you is about your favorite part about being a music
teacher. What are some of the things you really enjoy about this job?

Well, you being in front of me is a very satisfactory thing. I have seen you since you
were in seventh grade, and I was able to watch you grow, watch you struggle, watch
you go through things, and that is a privilege just to be able to share that. But there
is a selfish side of that, too. You get to live vicariously through other peoples
experiences as well. Like I mentioned earlier, I find choral music very satisfying. It is
one of my greatest pleasures now. I just finished listening to the Purdue Glee Club
singing Psalm: 23, a piece that I know their director heard us do last year. I was just
about to email him and joke around about it. But I love performing great music like
that. I was talking to some girls (in the choir) at lunch, and they were talking about
how much they liked doing Arnesens Flight Song. Thats satisfying, you know, that
you can introduce something to somebody else that you know if great and they
come back and say Wow, thats a great piece of music. I also like that unifying
aspect of choral music. If you were to interview every member of any choir, you
would find a wide range of political beliefs, religious beliefs, and person beliefs. Yet,
theyre all there for one reason, and that is because they love choral music, and
thats a wonderful thing about music. I have a choice of choosing schlocky, sub-
Christian music, or I can choose something exalting, something uplifting. You know
pop music now, where maybe someone is just talking about getting your girlfriend
in bed or something like that. We wouldnt do that for the most part as choral
musicians, but Im pretty confident that even my non-Christian music friends are
making a choice of music that they consider to be ennobling, meaning making you a
better person.

Is there anything else that you would want to say to the future music educators?

There was one thought. I couldnt name a single opera going into college. As a small,
suburban white kid from Columbus, IN, I had no background in that kind of thing.
But in addition to changing the way I talked and expanding my knowledge, I was
also introduced to a new world, almost. That is the world of music; and I can tell that
it has already gotten a hold on you as well. It is a very cool thing and a privilege to be
a part of.

This interview was not only very informative, but also incredibly inspiring.
This is one of the only teachers I truly looked up to in high school and to hear his
story and what he loves was an experience. I learned that there is a lot more to
teaching music than just teaching music. You have to love what you do or otherwise,
you dig yourself into a hole. I also learned that you can choose to be passionate
about literally anything. Richard Gamble didnt have choral music education on his
to-do list of life long accomplishments, but he made the right choice in becoming
passionate and studying the subject enough to become a great teacher for it.