Music Will is the largest nonprofit music program in the U.S. public school system that provides access to music education to 1.8 million students regardless of their socioeconomic background. Mary Claxton, Music Will’s Director of Teaching and Learning, designs and facilitates workshops that empower educators nationwide to reimagine what music education can look like.

According to Claxton, “Music Will utilizes a ‘do-before-explain’ approach with multiple entry points for students to engage at their current level and challenge themselves to learn and grow.”

A Music Will classroom focuses on:

• Engaging students through decision-making (repertoire selection, rehearsal leadership, showcase design) and music creation (songwriting, improvising).
• Teachers are facilitators and co-creators with students by creating a safe and engaging learning environment and honoring multiple ways to be musical.
• Multiple levels of community (students’ identities, school sites, geography, etc.) are honored, and there is a place for everybody.

Claxton takes a tremendous amount of time and care when it comes to designing a workshop. “Teachers’ time is precious and it’s not acceptable to take their time with something that is less than excellent,” she says.

It often takes a year to get a full-day workshop off the ground because “we want the activities to be creative but also infinitely flexible and possible in a variety of classroom settings. We experiment a lot with our sequences, song choices and more. And we revisit and refine workshops every year based on the feedback we receive,” she explains.

Claxton advocates for culturally responsive and student-centered approaches — the outcome of these approaches really speak for themselves, she says. “When people see students collaborating on music that they love, writing songs, running sound, etc. there’s no question of its value. The work for me and folks I collaborate with is to help shine a light on the amazing work that’s already happening and to help teachers and administrators envision how they can incorporate these practices alongside what they’re already doing.”

Claxton also teaches culturally responsive music pedagogy at the University of Northern Colorado where she is an adjunct professor. “I love this class because we write songs, play silly games, experiment with live sound, and get curious about the many forms music can take in the classroom,” she says.

Most of her college students are limited by what they’ve seen and done as music students, so making them aware of the many different ways that exist to teach music is incredibly powerful. “It helps them to make more thoughtful and effective choices when they start building their own school communities,” she says proudly.

During the pandemic, Claxton organized and facilitated online Music Will training sessions, daily livestreams and how-to resources. “We learned so much through that time, though it was sometimes a painful process,” she admits. “The switch to online has had some really long-lasting effects. We launched Music Will Academy, a free online platform for teachers to do self-paced learning, which allows Music Will to reach educators who previously weren’t able to attend workshops due to geography, travel challenges, scheduling issues, etc.” 

On top of Music Will and her role at the University of Colorado, Claxton is also a performing drummer in a mixed-gender band called The Burroughs. “The more I’m out there in the world, the less it seems novel for people to see a woman playing drums,” she said.

Claxton calls herself an effective and enthusiastic synthesizer. “I love to listen to people’s ideas and look for patterns and big ideas that we can turn into something tangible. … I am enamored with the ‘what ifs’ that people can make reality when they’re given the space and the resources,” she says.