Lina--Music in everyone

This week we have a fantastic music lesson. I wonder how it goes in Hobart. I think I can proudly say that I was a musician though it was ten years ago. I really hope that I have time to pick up the music and play piano again. Every girl has a dream that they can play piano or dance ballet like princess in the lightest stage. I did, and I once tried hard to be a “professional performer”. I learned piano when I was 11. My mum said I just stopped in front of the displaying piano in a mall. She thought I must interest in it. I was impressive when I saw how well my music teacher played the piano and amazing the sound this instrument produces.

However, the learning process is far more painful than I expected. The teacher was so strict. The traumatic learning experiences were still vividly in my mind.  I always got hit by the small ruler when something was wrong.  The miss connection was established between music and hurt at that age. I do enjoy play music, but I do not enjoy play under somebody’s eyes. It is too stressful, and I always made mistake when I felt tense.  As my music teacher said I did not have the spark for music, and that was the reason I stopped it four years later and never picked up again. The good result is that I passed the international piano level of six. However, the ironic fact is that now I have level six certificate on piano playing, but I currently do not have this skill! So when the teacher said there is nothing would assess music, I absolutely agree with it. 

   

I believe music can bring happiness, joyfulness and leisureliness to those who perform them. So for music teaching, I insist to place enjoyment at the first rather than practicing or performing. I believe each child is creative and capable as a music maker. You can see that for the young children, the music is often intrinsic to other activities as part of play, movement or the ordinary round of daily life. They apply songs spontaneously as early as they start to acquire language. When they play with instruments, they particularly explore the sound world offered and go on to pattern and order sounds into musical shapes. Therefore, as a primary teacher, she should not assume that music belongs to “musicians”.  It is important to let students know that the music is in everyone. Thus, children have to be introduced to music in school even if they do not have any music experiences.  In fact, all children come to school with extensive musical experiences (Glover & Ward, 1993). The children come to understanding the music only through being involved in it as “user” where has a myriad of different human contexts. So music can only make sense in the stream of action and experiences. Thus school must be a musical mini society, giving music its real-life contexts within which to locate the teaching of its skills and knowledge.  The outside world at every layer from that of professional performer to that of the everyday should be established continuity. The goal of accomplishing these is to build up a musical self-esteem.  The teacher must have musical self-esteem and let musical responses show. The teacher self must develop his/her musical (Glover & Ward, 1993).

Moreover, we need to respect students’ individual music behavior as different person experience music in very individual way. As music is not restrict to the long list of technical skill performance, teachers need to dispel students’ negative feeling of music, and build up quality musical self-esteem.

Last, I want to quote Blacking’s comments (1976, pp.8-9) on the important of musical education:

     “My society claims that only a limited numbers of people are musical, and yet it behaves as if all people possessed the basic capacity without which no musical tradition can exist—the capacity to listen and distinguish patterns of sound...

The very existence of a professional performer, as well as his necessary financial support, depends on listeners who in one important respect must be no less musically proficient than he is. They must be able to distinguish and interrelate different patterns of sound.” (Blacking, J, 1976, pp.8-9)  

 Reference:
Blacking, J. (1976) How Musical is Man? London: Faber.    

Glover, J., & Ward, S. (Eds.). (1993). Teaching Music in The Primary School: A Guide for Primary Teachers. NY: Cassell.