Klarinet Archive - Posting 000463.txt from 2004/04

From: "Patricia A. Smith" <arlyss1@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] general teaching of music basics; was, Music exams in U.S.
Date: Thu, 29 Apr 2004 15:41:16 -0400

Ormondtoby Montoya wrote:

>I *do* feel that something is lost in this
>process, and the "gut" aspect of music shouldn't be excluded from music education. Doing so narrows a person's view of how the world really is.
>
You don't offend at all.

Interestingly, I tend to experience things and enjoy them more along the
"gut level" as it were, the emotional level.

I wish to differentiate enjoyment on an emotional level from rote
learning, however.

Perhaps I need to clarify my viewpoint. I do respect students'
learning *styles&, whatever they may be; teachers must understand these
if they are to be effective! What I have difficulty relating to, is how
a student can enjoy, and not become bored with, learning music,
continually, by rote, without gaining some sort of understanding of its
structure, of how it is put together, even if that understanding is on
an intuitive level. To me, that sort of learning would be quite similar
to memorizing multiplication tables - it would be interesting and
challenging for a short time, but after a while, it would become
repetitive and boring, and one would need something more complex, more
intricate, in order to gain any sort of understanding of how mathematics
worked, how it was put together, even how to actually enjoy
mathematics. Perhaps that is something of a poor choice of comparison.

At any rate, it's kind of like a kid playing with a toy of some sort.
They can race it around, or have it do what it's shown doing on tv, for
a while. But, a good number of kids eventually find that dull. They
want to know how it works inside. So, they take it apart, and try to
put it together again! Of course, the parents go nuts and carry on
about the kid "tearing up" his/her toys.

I guess I'm like that little kid: I want to take things apart and study
them, then put them back together in a new way. Or something like that.

At the same time, I do agree with you: music is not merely a structure
to be analyzed to death. There is a cohesive whole to be experienced,
and it is this aspect of music that is the reason houses of worship of
nearly all faiths have a ministry of music of some sort or another. We
worship the highest and the best that is either within us, or within all
of Reality, through the experience of music. That is an experience
which does not lend itself to analysis.

(hmmm, mysticism and metaphysics this early in the morning? My brain hurts!)

Patricia Smith

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