[Main visual] Anita Dey
Brand Stories

Anita Dey

Elementary school music teacher

“Music is my Solace”

We sat down with Anita Dey to discuss her career so far and thoughts around music and education.

To begin with, I would like to know details about yourself and some background on your music journey.

I am an elementary school music teacher. I teach approximately 450 students weekly and all the students in my school from grade 4 to grade 8 (ages range from 8 years to 14 years old). I teach the students every year, so I get the wonderful opportunity of watching their musical growth over a span of 4 years.

My music journey started when I was 5 years old. My parents were immigrants to Canada from India. To connect me with my heritage they enrolled me in singing lessons with an amazing woman. This woman was the Music Professor at the University of Calcutta. There were many very special things about her that I learned at a very young age. The most important of those is to recognize and build on the individual joy of music that each person has.

How would you describe your relationship with music and education?

I have a great relationship with music. It is like a playground for me. When I play music with others, the focus on collaborating, or jamming is almost like a mindfulness technique where you have to be in the moment, using many of your senses at the same time. You use your hearing to check rhythm & pitch, you use your vision while reading charts and you use your sensory and motor skills when your brain is directing your fingers while playing an instrument. To me it is an excellent way to practice mindfulness.

When I play music, I feel free. Unencumbered by daily burdens and stress. I let go of all thought to focus on the music. I drop all expectations of perfection and strive only to find enjoyment in the music in the present moment. I feel relaxed, even when playing upbeat music or drums. Like I’m connected to a higher power or tuned in to a particular universal spiritual frequency.

Have you ever faced any gender equality issues? How did you overcome these issues?

Being a middle-aged woman can make it difficult to connect with adolescent boys, especially if they like rap, or metal or angry music because they have a preconceived notion that a woman would not appreciate these music forms

I make it clear that music is a personal preference, and it is not anyone’s place to judge the other person’s taste. Also, I tell them that listening to angry music can help to dissipate anger instead of inciting it. Just like listening to sad music can help you get through sadness. I encourage the students to create whatever types of music speaks to them as long as they can identify why they like it. As for swearing, that is not allowed in the classroom, but they can find alternative words to express their feelings. Hello thesaurus!

On the other hand, I feel some easy success with girls. When they are younger, they see the patience in me as they learn the fine motor skills of playing the recorder and reading music. But when they are closer to 12 years old, I end up showing them more of my skills while teaching them. They see me rocking guitars and drum kits and saxophones. This shows them that they too can play these things. I believe this empowers them to learn and play music and opens the gate to any instrument for them. Being a woman, and a person of colour, reflects the diversity of students that we have at our school, and it shows the girls that anything is possible in the music world for them.

What changes do you think need to be made to empower women and girls in the field of music?

The biggest changes that should be made to empower girls and women in the field of music are access to diverse music education and access to diverse music creation tools. The reason I say this is because we traditionally think of music education in the colonial sense. We teach how to read standard notation on a standard European instrument. This is fantastic and gets people excited about music for sure. However, kids are often limited to using these instruments at school only due to affordability. Of course, this is great that kids get to try these expensive instruments in school and every adult remembers what they got the chance to play when they were young. In order to empower girls in the field of music, I would add access to common instruments that students could afford if they wanted to continue outside of school. Some examples of common instruments would be piano, guitar, ukulele and drums. But I wouldn’t stop there. I believe as technology continues to dominate our world, girls should be taught how to produce music on their own using platforms available on their devices. This is something that I am very passionate about and have had great success with, with girls writing and creating songs in GarageBand or similar DAWs. Which reminds me that the biggest change to empower girls with music would be to have more time for them to learn, so they could find the form of music creation they love, grow it and blossom.

Message to the next generation

My message to the next generation of girls in music is, find the spark that inspires your musical creativity and let it light your world.

View Dr. Nadia's Journey