Dr. Darrel Walters is a Professor Emeritus of Music Education at Temple University. During the 24 years at Temple, he taught a variety of classes that focused on topics including music learning, assessment, and professional writing. He also advised a multitude of graduate thesis and dissertations. In addition to being co-editor of one of the seminal books about Music Learning Theory, Readings in Music Learning Theory, he has written books about improving writing skills, books about assessing musical skills and knowledge, a book clarifying Shakespeare sonnets, and books of original poetry and essays reflecting on life. See Appendix Table 1 for a list of some of his publications. Prior to teaching at the university level, he taught instrumental music in Michigan.
About the author
Dr. Jill Reese
Dr. Jill Reese is Professor of Music Education and Director of the Office of Student Creative Activity and Research at SUNY Fredonia. She has degrees from Temple University, University of Michigan, and Michigan State University. She presents workshops and publishes research on topics including ukulele, technology, improvisation, general music, and early childhood music development. She founded Fredonia Ukulele and a YouTube channel that provides play-along videos for ukulele. She is on faculty with the Gordon Institute for Music Learning and her books include “Q & A for MLT: General Music Perspectives on Music Learning Theory,” “Navigating Music Learning Theory: A Guide for General Music Teachers,” and “Q & A for MLT: Choral Music Perspectives on Music Learning Theory” (available through GIA Publications).
I met Dr. Walters when I was a first-year doctoral student at Temple University in 2007-2008, near the end of his time there. I was lucky enough to enroll in his graduate course about professional writing, sign up for an independent study with him, and audit his undergraduate course about assessment of music learning and development. My goal was to spend as much time with him as I could before he retired! Dr. Walters is a generous and supportive mentor and one of the most kind and authentic human beings I’ve met.
My interview with Dr. Walters occurred over Zoom in Summer 2024. Although we scheduled an hour together, we ended up visiting much longer than planned (special thanks to his wife, Carol, for her patience). After catching up, he recited one of his poems, Simple Love, about a beloved golden retriever. Then—in true Darrel-Walters fashion—he generously offered to send me his two books of original poems and his book of personal essays on life. I’ll admit I’m not really a poetry fan, but I’d read his poetry and essays any day because reading them feels like spending time with him!
In this interview, you’ll learn a bit more about Dr. Walters’ thoughts about teaching, learning, and music development. You’ll also learn about his experiences with Dr. Edwin Gordon and Music Learning Theory. Darrel Walters is one of the researchers and pedagogues with whom Dr. Gordon interacted (and was inspired by) as he was developing Music Learning Theory and his ideas about audiation, aptitude, and musical personhood. Although Ed Gordon has many solo-authored books, Music Learning Theory (like music aptitude) is a socially-constructed product of experience, opportunity, and interactions.
Earliest memories of music making and learning:
Dr. Walters described his childhood memories about music making and learning.
DW: I'm sure there were other experiences prior to this, but I think back to when I started playing an instrument. When I was in fifth grade, I went to the band director. I said, “I want to play the drums.” I had an instinct for rhythm. That was my passion. The band director said, “We have too many drummers. How's this?” and he held up a cornet. I said, “I guess that'll be okay.” That's how I chose my instrument—not a very good method. I was a decent trumpet player. I played Purcell’s Trumpet Voluntary and Trumpet Tune at weddings in big churches. I played in the symphony band at the University of Michigan and in several brass quintets. So, I was a decent trumpet player, but it was never natural.
He continued to reflect about his childhood experiences with trumpet, in light of his music aptitude test results.
DW: When I took the music aptitude test as an adult, I found out that my tonal aptitude was good but not excellent. My rhythm aptitude was at the 99th percentile, indicating that I had the correct assessment of myself as a fifth grade student, but I was set on another path. During all the times that I played instruments (as you do when you're an instrumental major), I found that if I were going to play a wind instrument, my most natural instrument would have been the clarinet. I got a beautiful, big, lush, velvety sound on the clarinet. Loved the sound of it—enjoyed playing it! So I should have been either a percussionist or a clarinetist, but I spent my life as a trumpet player. The blessing may be that playing one of the other instruments could have led to my playing professionally, and that may have been less fulfilling than teaching and writing.
He also spoke of his family’s music making and his experiences before joining the band in school.
DW: My father used to play tunes that ran anywhere from the 1890s through the 1940s, and he would sing with them. So, yes, I remember the popular songs of that day. And I sang in a church choir from the time I was a little kid. This predates the trumpet. Of course, I was in what was called the cherub choir when I was five years old. I remember Mrs. Frye, the choir director, a dear lady who had no musical training and couldn't play the piano. I never heard her sing, and yet somehow she made it enjoyable. And the choir did pretty well, with my mother as the accompanist. She played piano, and I sang with all these little kids. I was in church choir all the way through until eventually, after I left college, I ended up conducting church choirs at a couple of churches.
I asked him to describe his school music experiences and how he came to choose music.
DW: Band was emphasized in our music program, which was truly excellent. The exceptionalism of the high school band was built by an amazing person named William Stewart, beginning in 1936. He had the band and the orchestra play at the Midwest clinic in Chicago on multiple occasions. The marching band was creative, musical, and truly outstanding. Later, I taught in that system.
Influential Experiences and His Curvy Pathway
I asked Dr. Walters how he came to be a music teacher and professor of music education. He described how he had three main interests early in life: writing, visual art, and music. He shared about his journey and how people and experiences influenced his pathway. He began with a memory of a high school teacher.
DW: I was thinking (as happens in high school), “What can I do for a living? Maybe I could do this or this or this.” I had three interests. I loved art. I drew and sketched a lot. And I loved writing because of an amazing high school English teacher (Marcella O’Connor) my junior year, and then my senior year (she switched to teaching senior English). She was tough as nails. The first time I met her, she said to the class, “I think you have all the friends you need in this school. I'm not paid to be your friend. I'm paid to be your teacher. Let's get started.” And she was like that. I had earned nothing but A's with no marks at all on my papers. I figured I was a writer. Then I got a C with red all over it from her, and I figured there's something wrong with her, but eventually I found out that she was just a very bright lady. And she knew that there were five or six kids in each class who wanted to learn something. She turned the papers back, and she said, “You can do anything you want. One option is to come up and talk to me about your paper.” A handful of us went up and had private writing lessons every time. I improved to where I could nearly satisfy her.
I relocated Mrs. O’Connor when she was about to turn 98 years old in North Carolina. I was writing The Readable Thesis. I went there to see her, and we had a conversation. I told her I was dedicating the book to her. The release of the book was delayed and she turned 100. Eventually I got the book, and my wife and I flew down there and rented a car. I said, “This is the most expensive book delivery in history.” I wrote an inscription thanking her for setting the bar high and encouraging us to clear it. I talked to her for about a half an hour, and then she was worn out. Six days after I delivered the book, I got a phone call from her daughter. She had died. And her daughter said, “This last week, Mom was higher than a kite. It's as if you had given credibility to her whole life's work.” And then I decided it had not been an expensive book delivery at all.
His reflection continued to describe his experience as an undergraduate, public school music teacher, and university professor.
DW: As an undergraduate, I was an Art major at the University of Michigan for three days because Art was my first choice. And then the art studios went so late in the day that I couldn't play in an instrumental music ensemble. So, I solved that as an impetuous 19-year-old would: I just withdrew from one school and re-enrolled in another as a music major, because that was my second choice anyway. And then I taught music in the public schools. In time, I became a Temple University professor of music education. Lingering in the background was the third choice, literature, along with all my experience with Mrs. O'Connor and my university students’ writing challenges. So I wrote The Readable Thesis and actually changed my profession. I'd gone from art to music to writing, and launched a writing program in the college of music at Temple because all the other departments needed it. I ended up becoming the English teacher for the College of Music. With university students having had a variety of experiences, and even different native languages, the instructor’s challenge was to enable all students to take themselves from where they are to a higher level. That was a very gratifying teaching experience for me.How Did You Meet Ed Gordon and Learn about His Ideas?
I’d never asked Dr. Walters how he met Ed Gordon and became familiar with Dr. Gordon’s ideas about Music Learning Theory. I knew that Dr. Walters contributed to the seminal book “Readings in Music Learning Theory,” but I wasn’t sure how his interest and involvement with Music Learning Theory began. I’d imagined that he met Dr. Gordon when he began teaching at Temple University (where Ed Gordon also taught), but I was wrong! His introduction to Dr. Gordon and Music Learning Theory began before he arrived at Temple University.
DW: I read his first book (which is extremely dense). I somehow figured out what he was saying and used it with some of my students. ...I sent that videotape to him just because I thought he might be interested. (I didn't know him from Adam.) I got a call past 11 o'clock one night, and my wife answered the phone. She said, “It's for you.” I said, “Whoever it is, just tell them to call back tomorrow.” She said, “It's a guy named Ed Gordon.” And I said, “Oh yeah, I used his book. Let me talk to him.” He had gotten home late at night, watched the tape, and was excited about it. He wanted to see me and said, “Can you come to Philadelphia?” I said, “Yeah!” and I thought, “Well, as long as I'm going, I may as well confront a problem. I rewrote the first three chapters of his book so that it was understandable, and I took it with me. I met him at his house. We talked for a while, and finally I said, “Here's something for you to look at.” (I had nothing to lose. I was just visiting him.) As he leafed through the writing, he kept saying, “Yeah, yeah, that's what...yeah, yes, oh yes.” Soon afterward, I got a call from him. He had an opening at Temple University. He wanted me to apply. I think he imagined that I could be his interpreter on paper to help him become more understandable. And that was how I ended up working at Temple University and being involved with him very heavily.
Discussions and Development of Music Learning Theory:
As our conversation continued, Dr. Walters described discussions that he had with Ed Gordon during interactions early in their relationship. His stories captured the importance of intellectual exchange and critical dialogue in the evolution of Music Learning Theory. He considered the ways in which these interactions likely influenced the way in which Gordon thought about and wrote and his theory. Although Gordon’s books are challenging to read and intellectually thicker than fudge, they are examples of extremely intentional writing and word choice that often grew from rigorous discourse and deliberation. Walters described one such exchange:
DW: I said to Ed Gordon, “audiation is to imitation as drawing freehand is to using tracing paper.” When I said that in one of the seminars, he became very excited about that idea. In fact, he wrote an article about audiation and the publisher pulled THAT analogy out and placed it right up next to his picture! [Walters laughs.] Each edition of his books became a bit more clear. I found gratification in helping Ed Gordon make his theory more easily understood, and then being able to [use Music Learning Theory to] teach students from all kinds of backgrounds and take them to where they could be.
Another Impact of Discussions with Gordon?
Dr. Walters recalled another discussion he and Ed Gordon had about tonal and rhythm patterns and word choice. He remembered that Gordon referred to tonal patterns as composed of pitches. However, the terminology Gordon was using for rhythm patterns and their components was not parallel to that of tonal patterns. Walters recalled:
DW: [In relation to tonal patterns, Ed Gordon] called the aural entities pitches. But in rhythm, he called them notes. I said to Ed, “But notes are written. The issue is how long the sound lasts, so why don’t you call them durations? Pitches and durations.” And so he went with that term. Those are the kinds of things we worked with.Passion for Writing and Language
Many of Dr. Walters’ stories about Music Learning Theory and about teaching and learning connected to his passion for writing and for language. As his career and life progressed, he began following that passion, and through that work, Dr. Walters influenced many lives.
DW: Writing was really my passion. I became so interested in writing things that I wanted to write, and that often had nothing to do with my position at Temple. That influenced my retirement in December of 2010. I wanted to write poems and short stories and essays. I wanted to read Shakespeare's thoughts and write a book about them. When I reconnected with my old high school English teacher, Mrs. O’Connor, I wrote a poem for her called “Wisdom of the Aged:”
Long time has passed since last I felt
like running to and fro.
From seat to feet I pull myself,
and dotter where I go.
But gradually I've learned, the keys
to life aren't fast or slow.
Life's keys are loving whom you love,
and knowing what you know.
—Poem from “Late-Life Ponderings” by Darrel Walters
I remember one day I pushed aside my department chair business and wrote a children's poem, “They Can Do What They Are:”
A fly can fly around in a path.
A flea can flee when the dog has a bath.
A whale can wail when it's feeling sick.
But a bear's never bare,
‘cause its hair is too thick.
—Poem from “Wings to Fly” by Darrel Walters
I ended up writing a whole book of children's poems called “Wings to Fly.” It’s self-published, like Late-Life Pondering and Windows to My Mind, all commercially unavailable.
(Dr. Walters says a copy might be had with a text or call to 215-872-6406.) As with many of Dr. Walter’s poems, “They Can Do What They Are” seemed so clever and playful—I couldn’t resist writing a tune in Lydian and using his poem for the lyrics (see notation below).
Dr. Walters continued to describe other writing projects he’s completed and reflected on his book “Windows to My Mind” which is a collection of his thoughts over 40 years.
DW: I’m glad I began to collect my thoughts each year in 1983. I recommend it to anybody who thinks he or she has thoughts worth saving, because they disappear into the air very quickly. I also found that my way of expressing myself continues to grow. You never stop becoming a better writer. I still—at my age—hope to be writing better a year from now than I am now. I frequently went back, reread an entry, and found a way I could say it better. So a lot of these [ideas in “Windows to My Mind”] have been edited half a dozen times over the years.
He discussed why language and precise communication are important.
DW: What human beings have over all other animal life is the use of language to communicate in detail. That makes it one of the most important things to pay attention to. And unfortunately, recently humankind has become less attentive to the quality of language, the only reliable means we have of communicating with each other. I think we could probably have prevented many problems, and the need for laws, and even wars by simply having people communicate clearly. It's that important.
Advice for Writers
I began to reflect on my own experience with Dr. Walters and I realized that, before I took the graduate writing course he taught at Temple University, I had never been taught how to revise my writing. I’d never realized there was a process you could use to make your writing stronger. I’d been told many times to revise writing assignments but was never taught how. That’s equivalent to listening to someone perform and then providing the feedback, “Okay, play it again but better.” I asked Dr. Walters what his advice was for writers.
DW: Revise, revise, revise. Number one, know that anything you write is a first draft. Today's first draft is tomorrow's trash. I once wrote 14 versions of a chapter before I got to what I really wanted. So revise, and in revision, you can revise in two modes. You can revise as you're writing, and when you're finished. Sometimes the paragraph I'm writing is not what I need to work on; I need to go back to the previous paragraph and change it so that it is prepared to lead smoothly into the next paragraph. So you have to revise as you're going: forward, back, forward, back, forward, back. That's one mode of revision. The other is to revise when you're finished. Never say hastily “Okay, now I'm done,” and send it out. Go back and read it again the next day. Always sleep on it at least one day, because you'll always find that it's not as good as you think it is. And finally, when you are revising, constantly think brevity, brevity, brevity. I don't remember ever revising something and making it better by making it longer. Nearly every time I revise for improvement, I shorten. Sometimes I re-read a piece with the specific goal of getting rid of words. Invariably, if I shorten it, I improve it.
Advice for Educators at All Levels
Dr. Walter’s advice for educators reveals much about the interactions and relationships he established with his students at all levels and in all contexts. Throughout his career, he’s taught music in public schools, he’s taught writing and various other topics at the university level, and he’s delivered writing seminars for business professionals. Regardless of context, Dr. Walters focuses on the personhood of those with whom he interacts. Here’s his advice for educators:
DW: Truly love and respect the students. You're not just teaching; you're not a teaching machine trying to put things into the students. You're a person there with another person, both human beings who ideally should respect each other. It’s good to keep in mind that a 12-year-old student (10 years from now) is going to be the 22-year-old adult you meet in the grocery store. And if you degrade and disrespect that person rather than develop a healthy relationship, you're going to regret it, and that person will as well. Now, that has nothing to do with content—NOTHING to do with Music Learning Theory. It has everything to do with humanity—with human relationships.
Wish for Person Legacy
As we finished our conversation, I asked Dr. Walters what is something for which he hopes to be remembered. What followed was authentic Darrel Walters.
DW: I would want to be remembered, most of all, just for being a decent person who people want to be around and maybe enjoy a little bit of this or that. And I'd like to think that anyone who I associate with would have picked up something that, after I'm gone, would register as a contribution of value. One of the things in my book “Windows to My Mind” is an observation I make that if a raindrop falls into the ocean, the ocean will become infinitesimally either more pure or less pure, depending on the level of purity the raindrop brings with it. Similarly, we are dropped into the world, and during our lifetime the world infinitesimally improves or degrades for our having been there. I hope my legacy to be that I offered a substantial amount of improvement.
I know that my life is better having known Dr. Walters, and it’s my hope that—even if you haven’t been lucky enough to interact with him—your life is better having now read this interview or some of his writing (Appendix Table 1). Although Music Learning Theory is attributed to Edwin Gordon, there are a host of individuals who contributed to the way in which Gordon thought, wrote, and spoke about music teaching and learning. Darrel Walters (whether cited or not) is one of those influential people who contributed to the evolution and application of Music Learning Theory. He also contributed to the ways in which his students and colleagues think about music teaching and learning and about living and being in the world. You have the privilege to do the same with the people with whom you interact and collaborate. I encourage you to take the time to read some of the formative articles and chapters written by Darrel Walters and (if you’re able to) get your hands on his books of poetry and reflections. Just one drop and your life will be changed for the better.
APPENDIX
Table 1. Some Articles, Chapters, and Books by Darrel Walters
Walters, D. L. (1980). William Stewart, the man who built an exceptional instrumental music program for the Muskegon, Michigan public schools. |
Walters, D. L. (1983). The relationship between personal tempo in primary-aged children and their ability to synchronize movement with music. University of Michigan. |
Walters, D. L., & Taggart, C. C. (1989). Readings in music learning theory. GIA Publications. |
Walters, D. (1989). Audiation: The term and the process. In D. L. Walters & C. C. Taggart (Eds.), Readings in music learning theory (pp. 3-11). GIA Publications. |
Walters, D. (1989). Skill learning sequence. In D. L. Walters & C. C. Taggart (Eds.), Readings in music learning theory (pp. 12-25). GIA Publications. |
Walters, D. (1989). Coordinating learning sequence activities and classroom activities. In D. L. Walters & C. C. Taggart (Eds.), Readings in music learning theory (pp. 141-153). GIA Publications. |
Walters, D. L. (1992). Sequencing for efficient learning. In Handbook of Research on Music Teaching and Learning: A Project of the Music Educators National Conference, ed. Richard Colwell (New York: Schirmer Books, 1992), 535-545. |
Walters, D. L. (2010). A concise guide to assessing skill and knowledge: With music achievement as a model. GIA Publications. |
Walters, D. L. (2016). The wit and wisdom of Shakespeare: 32 sonnets made thoroughly accessible. Roman and Littlefield. |
Walters, D. L. (2019). Late-life ponderings. |
Walters, D. L. (2021). Edwin Gordon's music aptitude work. Visions of Research in Music Education, 16(2), 9. (Reprinted from “Edwin Gordon's music aptitude work,” 1991, Quarterly Journal of Music Teaching and Learning, 11[1 & 2], 65-72.) |
Walters, D. L. (2021). Simple, brief, and precise: How to write with clarity. GIA Publications. |
Walters, D. L. (2023). Wings to fly: A collection of verses for children. |
Walters, D. L. (2023). Windows to my mind. |