About Teaching Music The teaching of music requires more than just an understanding of music and teaching techniques. It demands of its practitioners a wide-ranging base of knowledge of the field of music itself, including theory, composition, its history, and its impact upon society, among many other areas. In addition, graduate students in the field of music education will also gain an understanding of how to teach this subject that is so different from the more "typical" ones like math and science. Your training will likely include such diverse courses as the sociology of music, the philosophy behind its composition and its teaching, music performance, and various teaching skills that are unique to the field of music education.