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Music and Me
Jason Naewon Jung
EDCP 410
University of British Columbia
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Music has taken me on a journey that I could have never imagined. The fact that I’m
currently at UBC to become a teacher, I would have laughed at. My history with music is a long
and complicated one so hopefully you’ll enjoy the ride.
Music has always been a part of my life in some form or another. My parents never
studied music but they both sang in choirs ever since I was little. They played recordings of
classical music (Bach, Mozart, Beethoven) for me when I was a baby. They enrolled me into
piano classes at the age of 4 which apparently I hated and quit soon after to take Taekwondo
lessons. My fondest memories of music during childhood was when I sang in a children’s choir.
It was during this period I learned how to match pitch and to sing. Our choral director would
create little games to help us learn solfege very similar to the ones in class, always singing
cadences and finding Do. My years spent singing in the choir would instill a “musical” side in
me.
When I was ten years old, my parents decided to uproot our family from Seoul, South
Korea and move to Victoria, BC Canada. The move led to a complete shift in lifestyle and
because we weren’t financially privileged, arts and leisure activities were put on halt to help out
the family in every way to help settle into life in a new country. I remember vaguely having
music classes during my time in elementary learning how to play the recorder and playing the
bells. We didn’t do anything like we did in class last thursday in EDCP 410. I didn’t learn any
musical concepts like syncopation or study music involving movement nor music history. I
didn’t learn how to read or notate music in these classes. We learned recorder fingerings and
memorized patterns to be able to play them back, what I remember to be bare minimum, just for
time to pass by. Music class wasn’t enjoyable or memorable for me during this time.
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But what we did last thursday somewhat opened my eyes to how I would want to teach in that
general music class setting. For lack of a better word, it had flow from one to another, made
sense and had connection from activity to the next. From singing and recognizing patterns,
introducing ‘new’ musical concepts, presenting notation in a different way, it all made sense
even though it felt out of the box (to me anyway). Involving movement was a huge awakening
for me, moving around and feeling Du, I tried to think like an elementary student singing
different patterns and fitting them in between the Du’s. I thought how easy and natural it would
be to teach subdivisions in such a way using Gordon’s Beat Syllables. I also remembered how
introverted I was during elementary and wondered if ten year old Jason would have participated.
I never felt during the last lesson that I was put on the spot during any of the activities, and I felt
a natural urge to participate more so because everyone else was doing the same things. I felt safe.
I look forward to learning how to create this type of safe environment as the course unfolds.
When I entered high school, most of my friends were joining band and told me about all
the fun trips they go on every year. Having a fond memory of choir trips as a child coupled with
being a teenager who cared only for fun hangs with his friends, popularity and girls, I joined as
well. Playing music and learning a new instrument was the last thing on my mind. I played alto
sax in concert and RnB band for two years and enjoyed every minute of it. This is when I fell
back in love with music, but didn’t understand what forms it could take on outside of band class.
There weren’t any suggested listening or personalized instruction during my time in band. This
period in my life, anything I was listening to was a ‘top 40 hit’ on the radio. I guess I was that
middle of the tier student who kind of had it together enough to get by without getting noticed.
My band teacher wasn’t the greatest teacher and didn’t nurture my curiosities in music but I
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wasn’t the greatest student either when it came to inquiry (or what I thought of as extra work). So
when I reached grade 11, I quit band to focus on athletics (Track, soccer and competitive golf).
My return to music happened after high school in the form of learning how to play the
guitar. I attended college down south in Texas at UT Tyler on a golf scholarship. Both of the
roommates at the time played guitar and naturally I wanted to play as well. They took me to a
metal concert in Dallas, I watched a band called “Between the Buried and Me” and thought “this
is incredible!”. I’d never seen that kind of energy on stage before and I wanted to begin
‘shredding’ immediately. So I began taking lessons from a fellow UT student who had been
playing the guitar for ten years and I learned more about music theory. I became so obsessed
with the guitar and ‘the music scene’ that my golf game and academics started to slide and I
ended up losing my spot on the golf team. I moved back to Victoria after the first year with a
bittersweet taste in my mouth. I was sad to see golf slip away from my life (and all the
tournaments, competition that came along with it) but happy to begin a new journey in the form
of music. I met as many musicians I could and played with other musicians as much as I could.
From garage jam bands on tuesday nights, a metal band on wednesday evenings to youth groups
on friday nights and main services on sundays mornings, I played with as many people as I could
for the next few years while taking random college classes part time and working, trying to
figure out what was next for me. I began to perform in bars and shows around town and
eventually joined a progressive metal band that was making good music (or so I thought at the
time). I was burning out slowly especially after experiencing the tour life, living in a van for two
months across Canada and eating fast food every day. My life took a turn when my interests
turned to the process of recording music. After playing on a few albums over the years past, I
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decided I wanted pursue the recording arts further. In 2008, I attended the Los Angeles Film
School to study recording arts with the pop industry leaders. After the 12 month intensive
program, I was hired on as a runner at a local LA studio called Brandon’s Way, by the main
engineer who taught one of my classes at LAFS. It turned out the studio was owned and run by
Babyface, a threetime Grammy winning producer, and Damon Thomas, a multiplatinum
producer. During this time I learned a different side to the music that I knew and was
comfortable with. RnB and hiphop was not something I was familiar with and I had to get
acclimated quickly. I was incredibly lucky to watch and learn from these greats, as writers and
producers, to see them in action as they wrote new songs and worked with incredible artists. I
learned about professional musicianship and how they communicate and talk about the business
side of music. After spending 5 years in LA, I came back to Canada and applied to the Selkirk
College in Nelson, BC for their contemporary music program. I went there thinking I would
transfer to Berklee in Boston after two years (Selkirk is a sister school that is allowed direct
transfers to Berklee) to study songwriting. But after completing my time at Selkirk, I decided to
attend the Capilano jazz program instead of Berklee (thanks to my wife, my fiance at the time,
who strictly forbade me to go live in the US again).
My passion for teaching actually began long before Selkirk, when I taught golf privately
to dozens of students. But it was at Selkirk my passion for music education began. For the first
time in my life, I experienced great music teaching in the classroom. It was there I had my first
‘aha!’ moment in a classroom setting. And it continued on through to Capilano and eventually
now to UBC where examples of great teaching continue to stack up in my mind. The notion of
becoming a teacher in the public school system was recommended to me by past instructors at
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Capilano. My peers confirmed the notion, complimenting how my personality, musical and life
experiences would be well suited for the classroom.
Something I look forward to most during EDCP 410 and this year as a whole, is to
conceptualize music as a lifelong endeavor, as a lifelong journey for myself first so that I can
later on pass on the concept to my students. The presence of music in my life has been sporadic;
it was everything I did all day, every day to completely gone at times as well. I wish for my
students, music would endure beyond the classroom.