Why Teach Music?
As a music teacher, the answer for me is an easy one. I love music, and I love helping my students understand how music works and how to make music with their instrument. So I teach music. Simple and true, but certainly not compelling enough to convince parents, school boards or other governing bodies to give music study as high a priority as science and math.
For many, the study of music is considered a waste of valuable time that should be spent on so-called serious academic studies. From the time I was very young, even though we still had vibrant music programs, sadly, music was considered by many parents and students to be the easy A, or the goof off subject. Sandbox and Basket Weaving as a family friend used to call my major. His attitude made me feel “less than,” and almost like a slacker because I wasn’t majoring in worthy pursuits such as science or history.
Certainly not everyone thought that way, but as the years have passed, more and more music programs have been cut because they’re considered not serious pursuits, and the shrinking budgets need to support the more traditional courses (and cramming for tests). We thought the cutbacks were bad back in my day — the 1970s — but compared to now, we had amazing programs.
A while back I ran across a fantastic explanation on Facebook why music should be taught.
It can even cause sexual dysfunction like erectile deficiency gets it harder go to these guys buy viagra to enjoy agreeable physical intimacy. Herniated disc: Herniated disc is often a medical condition which comes under the category of sexual disorders that are faced by the men around. viagra on line pharmacy discover for more info Only a licensed physician can evaluate your health problem so that you can treat it effectively and buy levitra have great time with your partner. However, cialis levitra generico one should understand that impotency is not a big deal at all.
I’ll admit right now, I did not write the following explanations (well, except for the last two). I swiped them from a friend’s Facebook post. She swiped it from someone else and he… well, you get the picture. We’re all musicians and music teachers so, as they both said, “It’s too good not to share.” Oh yeah, that’s right… we shared the info, we didn’t swipe it. Ops — my bad.
At any rate, as my dear friend, the amazing musician, performer and teacher, Desha explained when she shared the information on her Facebook wall… well, I’ll just go ahead and quote her right now,
“…not everyone is a musician or desires to be more musically educated, but not everyone is a mathematician either, and we expect our students to study that discipline beyond mere simple arithmetic. It’s good for a well-rounded education, regardless!”
It’s so true. Those of us, myself included, who were not inclined to enjoy math still had to study it. As it turns out, math really does come in handy from time to time as you go through life. Who knew? Oh, my teachers, of course!
Okay, so here’s why we teach music, or why we should teach music to all students:
Music Is A Science
It is exact, specific; it demands exact acoustics. A conductor’s full score is a chart, a graph which indicates frequencies, intensities, volume changes, melody and harmony all at once and with the most exact control of time.
Exactly. In college, as a music major, I was fortunate enough to “have” to take Musical Acoustics for my Physics requirement. What an eye-opener that course was! I had never considered music science or math or anything other than art and something I loved to do. I have never listened or played music since without a certain level of awe at how precise, exact, scientific and mathematical it all is. Which brings us to…
Music Is Mathematical
It is rhythmically based on the subdivision of time into fractions which must be done instantaneously, not worked out on paper.
In music teaching, I’ve found there are creative, artsy types, there are the music lovers, and there are the mathematicians. I love teaching the mathematicians because they so easily get what others so often struggle with — initially, anyway.
Music Is A Foreign Language
Most of the terms are in Italian, German, or French; and the notation is certainly not English — but a highly developed kind of shorthand that uses symbols to represent ideas. The semantics of music is the most complete and universal language. Also, many songs we study are from other cultures.
If you’ve studied with me, you’ve heard me say a million times that music is a language. To learn fluency in music, you must approach it similarly to how you learned to speak English or any other language. We didn’t think about talking when we first started, we talked. Or we tried, anyway. In the beginning it was mostly gibberish, but as we continued to try and practiced speaking, it got easier and easier. The same is certainly true with music.
Music Is Physical Education
It requires fantastic coordination of fingers, hands, arms, lip, cheek and facial muscles, in addition to extraordinary control of the diaphragmatic, back, stomach and chest muscles, which respond instantly to the sound the ear hears and the mind interprets.
Whew! That was a mouthful! But every word of it is true. When my beginner piano or stringed instrument students begin with me, they have very little muscle strength or control in their hands, arms and fingers. It doesn’t take long, however, before those small hand and finger muscles begin to buff up, making playing considerably easier and far more coordinated. Vocalists exercise and strengthen their diaphragms, and their lungs as they learn singing techniques, as horn players do, too, when learning their instrument. Better breathing techniques sends more oxygen to the brain and cells, which enhance health.
Most Of All, Music Is Art
It allows a human being to take all these dry, technically boring (but difficult) techniques and use them to create emotion. That is one thing science cannot duplicate: humanism, feeling and emotion.
Wow, pretty difficult to top all that, isn’t it.
Now, I’m going to add a couple more reasons I believe we should teach music.
Music Is History
In so much of the music we love, hear, play, learn, teach, there is a rich history to it. Whether it’s a work by a famous composer, a blues song, a folk song or a gospel, a genre, an aria, there’s history behind the music. When we learn music from a certain era, we learn about that era, including the politics, the dress, the life of the composer and so on. When we explore genres, we’re introduced to a time in either our history or another country’s history.
Music Is Poetry/Literature
I like to look at music as a storytelling vehicle. When I say music is literature, am I talking about highbrow literature in the traditional sense? Well, yes and no. To elicit a response from the listener, the lyrics must be compelling and tell a story that pulls the listener in. An opera is a form of musical literature — in my opinion, of course. A folk song is a story, blues is all about the story, country music… A story with which the listener can personally relate is not accomplished without one being a wordsmith who can craft lyrics successfully within a musical structure.
I could go on and on about lyrics and storytelling, but suffice it to say, lyrics and storytelling are an extremely important component in a large percentage of music from today, going all the way back to the beginning when people first started telling stories in the form of songs.
Exposure to music in school from pre-school all the way through university not only creates well-rounded individuals, but for all of the above reasons, creates individuals with myriad skills. Those skills might include everything from reasoning and coordination to a better grasp or understanding of other subjects.
So the next time your school district, school board, parent, friend or whomever suggests that music is a frivolous study, or just fun that should be eliminated for more academic studies, please feel free to share this post that explains why teach music. I won’t mind.
Why teach music? Why on earth wouldn’t you?