On Sunday, April 21, 2024, teachers Monika Zerzánová, Jana Hošková, and Yuliia Tkachenko traveled to Warsaw for shadowing. We were full of impressions, emotions, and thoughts on how to apply the knowledge gained in our field of education and make the most of it. We spent 4 days at the Fryderyk Chopin State music school together. Here, older students learn to play instruments and work intensely on their technique, focusing on intonation, phrasing, dynamics, and agogics. We visited orchestra, choir, violin, piano, and cello lessons. We were especially impressed by the high level of theoretical subjects, including harmony, intonation, music history, and score analysis. We were fortunate to attend a concert by the school's graduates, held at the concert hall of the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music. The concert featured students of organ, piano, singing, violin, cello, and guitar. We enjoyed the phenomenal performance of the student symphony orchestra the most.
We accepted the invitation to also visit the State music school for younger students named after Oskar Kolberg, where we spent our last day. It was a very interesting experience, as this school teaches younger children, the same age group as those we work with in our school in Vysoké Mýto. The teaching methods for music theory, educational approaches, and the teacher-student relationship were democratic, yet based on hard work, dedication, and responsibility towards education and improvement.
The stay was very inspiring and provided future opportunities to use new methods and techniques in our teaching practice.
It was a fantastic week surrounded by professional musicians, professors, and talented, hardworking children.
We thank the school directors and our kind colleagues for organizing the trip and allowing us to compare the music education systems of Poland and the Czech Republic.
