An Interview With John Flora, Jayson Martinez

An Interview With John Flora

Jayson Martinez Arts High School, Newark jmarti37@webmail.essex.edu

It is my pleasure to interview John Flora for our October issue of TEMPO. As a music teacher for the Jersey City Public Schools, John has garnered countless awards and recognitions in his fifteen year tenure. Morever, he is also running for Congress NJ-10, a district which includes Jersey City, Newark, West Orange, and Montclair. Enjoy!

1) Please tell us about your own personal musical background growing up and your collegiate experience?

Growing up with a father who is a blues guitarist and a stepdad who could play the piano and accordion proficiently, it was difficult not to be lured in by the sonorous sounds that they regularly provided. Surprisingly, I chose the scholar-athlete route all the way up until my first year in college. But that is when music saved me...literally. It was during this soul-searching first year of college that I fully realized the effect that music has over human emotions. A Frederic Chopin nocturne in a music appreciation class in Hudson County Community College is to blame for helping me to realize my true calling. A few short years later at New Jersey City University, Ana María Rosado (who is retiring after this year) was instilling the theory and technique which inevitably led to my lasting respect for the classical guitar. Before graduating with a B.A. in Music Education, I also would serve as the MENC Chapter President.

2) What schools have you worked in and tell us about your overall music program?

To date, I’ve been employed with the Jersey City Public Schools for fifteen years. When I was first hired in the district, my time was split between several schools (PS#6, PS#38, & PS#42). In this role, I taught pre-K-8 general music, middle school chorus, and elementary school concert band. But it wasn’t until my fourth year that I was assigned to full-time duties at a brand new middle school, Franklin L. Williams Middle School #7. Over the past eleven years in this building, I’ve taught middle school students general music. The curriculum I utilize is derived from “Modern Band” and exposes students to the guitar (acoustic and electric), bass, keyboard, drums, and singing. The “Little Kids Rock” organization has been instrumental in providing these free instruments, teacher training, and countless performance opportunities for students over the years. With their pedagogical approach, I am able to infuse theory, improvisation, and composition into my instruction. The emphasis, however, is always on experiencing music with students before explaining it to them. At MS#7, after-school programs have ranged from guitar ensembles to performance-based modern bands and traditional choirs.

3) What obstacles did you face when you were first hired at your school?

In addition to the obvious logistical challenges of sharing a classroom with another full-time teacher, the main obstacle was assessing the new student body’s musical interests and establishing new after school programs. Many of the students entering our middle school had no prior experience playing an instrument. Seeing that there wasn’t a single feeder program to our school, the students’ levels of musical experience were also very disparate. Making the situation even more challenging was that a high concentration of the students who transferred into our building were acclimating to the United States as newly arrived immigrants.

4) What kind of classes related to the guitar do you teach?

Approximately five-hundred students annually are exposed to introductory guitar lessons for a four-week module during general music classes. This includes basic technique and identifying parts of the guitar. Typically, I’ll work with more advanced players before the school

day begins on reading chord charts, tablature, and classical technique. The most engaging experience for guitarists, however, is when the “Modern Band” meets after school. This group usually is comprised of 3-4 electric guitarists, 5-10 acoustic guitars, 1-2 electric bass players, 3-5 drummers, 5-10 keyboardists, and a small choir. Students in this after school program practice for annual concerts and field trip performances. They drive song selection through a process I refer to as “DeRockracy” and help create the final musical arrangements.

5) What would you like to say to the non-guitarist music educator that is about to or interested in incorporating the guitar into their program?

First and foremost, I’m a proponent of the “Little Kids Rock” program and have attended several of their trainings and the national “Rockfest” event. The organization prides itself in making even non-guitarists comfortable teaching guitar. Their approach has taught me the difference between being a guitarist and being a guitar instructor, which entails lowering the affective filter for beginners (my greatest takeaway from attending their trainings). Quality online instructors like Marty Schwartz also provide supplemental digital opportunities for students who would like to extend their guitar learning of popular music beyond the school day. Lastly, I would encourage music educators not to be afraid of making accommodations for their budding guitarists and students with special needs. This includes, but is not limited to, open tuning, placing stickers on the fretboard, and securing three-quarter size instruments or ukuleles.

6) Do you have any success stories you would like to share about students (musical & non-musical)

Our modern band program has been visited in recent years by guitar luminaries like Bootsy Collins and Billy Squier. The master classes and lessons that these artists have taught to our impressionable young music makers has been nothing short of inspirational and enduring.

Through the “Little Kids Rock” organization, our modern band has also been invited to perform at countless fundraising galas over the years which allowed students to share space with bands and artists like Lady Gaga, Brue Springsteen and the E-Street Band, Steve Miller, Darlene Love, Kirsten Maldonado (of Pentatonix), Alice Cooper, Green Day, and so on. Witnessing these teenagers having these life-changing experiences to play alongside some of their favorite musicians has made me more aware of the importance of also teaching them about the music industry and all of its challenges and opportunities.

7) What do you tell your talented students who are planning to pursue music or guitar studies in high school and college after they finish with you?

I advise them to be well-rounded and open-minded with their approach to music or the guitar. But that is not to say I want them to compromise their specific musical passions or interests. I might expose a student with a natural proclivity for guitar to different genres of guitar music (rock, classical, Latin, reggae, surf), opposing techniques (pick v. finger-picking), and various approaches to reading guitar music (tablature, chords, standard notation).

8) Do you have any networking or advocacy tools

that have worked for you in promoting your program that would help other educators?

YouTube has helped the most when it comes to networking and advocacy. I created a channel (John Flora) for our music program several years ago that has amassed over 1,300 subscribers and hundreds of thousands of views. Not only does the channel bring positive attention to the program from outside of the school, but more importantly, it helps the students to self-assess when they are practicing at home and also share with their families what they are learning in school.

Inviting elective officials and community leaders to school performances not only flatters them, but it also lets them witness the transformative effects that music has on children. This is important when considering their impact on education policy and future budgets.

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9) What kind of future do you see for the guitar, or music education more broadly in our New Jersey public school system?

Technology has significantly altered the way that students engage with music. This has positive and negative effects on how they will engage with the guitar in the future. For instance, more might prefer to watch virtuosic guitar videos or play a guitar video game like Rock Band. On the other hand, there are countless digital tools like apps and YouTube channels to help students of all levels learn. Other careers in music such as becoming a DJ or composing digital music for movies and video games are rising in popularity. Instead of having to understand music theory, music history, or learning how to play an instrument or sing proficiently, many students are gravitating towards these more immediate-gratification applications of music.

More broadly, with funding cuts to public education across the entire state due to rising pension and healthcare costs for public education, it’s hard to say that funding for the arts in general will remain at the same levels or improve. This has to be a consideration for anyone teaching music in the classroom. Soliciting donations from websites like “Donors Choose,” and finding ways to be more efficient with instruments and supplies will be paramount.

10) What type of arrangements have you used for school performances?

It’s helpful to remember that students like choices. For this reason, arrangements are not only a tool for differentiating instruction, but also for providing students with choices. For example, an after school modern band arrangement can have simple parts that include things like strumming only on the down beat or playing only one first position chord in a progression of four repeating chords. More advanced students in this same setting might take some of the leads or interchange between rhythm guitar and riffs. I’m also a huge fan of transposing songs so that they are in keys that are more friendly to beginning piano and guitarists. Chords like Am, F, C, and G work wonders because they provide an access point for beginners and an easily recognizable foundation for more advanced players to build upon. Finally, our program prides itself in creating mashups of popular songs to explore student creativity and challenging them to identify songs with musical similarities that can be put together for a performance.

11) Do you do any musical performance or activities outside of your public school teaching duties?

I teach private lessons to beginning piano and guitar students in the community I live in. Occasionally, I’ll organize a recital for these students to perform in front of an audience of family and friends from their neighborhood.

12) Any last thoughts to conclude our interview?

Over the past several years, I have intentionally expanded my role as music educator to one of public education advocate. I have realized through experience and networking that music educators are uniquely qualified to show off their classroom success to the public. Having recently graduated with an M.A. in Politics and Education from Teachers College, Columbia University, I also intend to use what I have learned to raise the status of the arts as they intersect with traditional public education. This includes emphasizing the value of teaching to the “whole child” to policymakers and parents alike, in addition to continuing to promote all of the good that students are doing on a daily basis. In the movie “Mr. Holland’s Opus,” the protagonist was saved by a former student turned arts-conscious governor who came back to relieve a fiscal crisis that the school district was facing. Sometimes, we have to be our own saviors and find ways to showcase our value and amplify our voices at the local, state, and federal levels of government.