by Melissa Haworth-Cox
Staff writer
In coming to meet up with Dr. Tristan Eggener, a first year teacher in Southeastern’s music department, he was found having a “jam session” with a fellow colleague.
When asked if he would still be available for the interview, Eggener said, “I have five minutes,” and retreated to copy some pieces of music for his next jam session.
When he returned, Eggener said he had just learned that he was to judge possible new students at Southeastern on their skills in 10 minutes. “But, I would rather do this interview with you,” he said.
Sitting on a desk beside the wall of Eggener’s office are his degrees from the University of Stony Brook in New York where one of which is his Doctorate of Musical Arts in in December 2011. On his desk sat a Mac notebook with many cords separated and spread among his desk.
This sprawl of chords was shown on his desk. His office is also home to many instruments including a double base and multiple tubas. These are only a few of the instruments that Eggener helps students to learn.
Eggener said he teaches base, trumpet, tuba saxophone, trombone and some percussion.
He teaches these instruments through a variety of ways. Eggener said he conducts the University Jazz Band, teaches music theory, gives private teaching lessons and helps with jazz improvisation.
Eggener said jazz improvisation is a meeting with students once a week to show them how to practice fundamentals and learn their scales and arpeggios. According to Eggener, this will make them better musicians and give them the ability to “make up” music on the spot, which is what improvisation is.
In this way, Eggener is greatly involved in the music department in Southeastern as a whole.
Eggener said he teaches three classes, Music Theory 1, 3 and 5, with the number of students ranging from one to 25 students. This is in addition to jazz improvisation meetings and private lessons.
Before coming to Southeastern, Eggener toured for about three and a half years to different universities teaching and critiquing them.
According to Eggener, teaching in one place is very different from what he was used to on tour.
While teaching at Southeastern, Eggener said he has grown to care more about the students and their feelings and is able to see them improve which he said is an exciting development he never got to see on tour.
Eggener said he chose to teach because it was his responsibility as an artist to teach what he knows and so he searched for a teaching job after touring.
The two teaching jobs he found were here, at Southeastern, and in Korea for the Cheongshim International Academy.
Eggener chose to teach at Southeastern due to the distance and the belief system affiliated with the International Academy. Eggener said this belief system was “the unification church of Korea. They believe that Rev. Moon was the messiah and that Nixon was innocent and should have been forgiven. As far as international cults, this one is up there as one of the worst and widest reaching.”
Eggener said he enjoys teaching because he is able to utilize his experience to guide students to success in a difficult career field. According to Eggener, his favorite thing about teaching has been finding correlations between his actions and what motivates students.
Eggener said, “I’m like a cheerleader, go practice!”
The decoration of his office includes the wall of memories which displays a referee’s costume provided by the Southeastern soccer club, a playing card from the Kappa Kappa Psi concert and a plank from the band hut by the lake where he did a lot of his studying for the summer.
Eggener said he interacts with his students much like he does his colleagues. He is open, honest and goofy with them. Overall he said he wants to treat them how he would like to be treated.
Eggener said he enjoys working with his college students at Southeastern because they have an enthusiastic, polite and fun attitude towards learning.
Breanna Strouse, who is currently taking music theory and jazz band with Eggener, said, “I completely enjoy Dr. Eggener’s teaching because he makes things fun. He knows how boring lecturing is and tries to find other ways to help us learn.”
Eggener said he has also learned during his time teaching, including how to better control his ability to be distracted, that advice is highly helpful and how to better manage his time.
Eggener is available many hours of the day, 8 a.m. to 7 p.m., to his classes and to help students. He said, “I have disposed of my personal life.”
Eggener said he hopes to be able to change his teaching methods and style in the future. He said it is essential for teachers to adapt in their teaching: “If I’m stagnant, I’m dying.”