Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Why should students learn music?
Why should students learn music? Students do not need to become musical geniuses to participate in a rewarding way in music. We have never had any society since recorded history where music was not an integral part. How can we learn language without music? When we speak we sing and use rhythm. Pitch is married to phonetics and its expression. It is linked to language and language learning and is itself a language. It is physical, yet it can be seen as abstract and mathematical, represented by symbols. Pitches or tones are real and measurable and when heard make pictures in the brain as tangible as geometric shapes or colors. We have over the last 5000 years found numerous ways of dividing the octave. In the western world we have settled on 12 notes but other cultures see many variations and possibilities. Mandarin Chinese could not be spoken without pitch, hence the term tonal language. Music is used in propaganda, religion, marketing and story telling. From the time of ancient Greece modes and songs have been outlawed because of their power. Music is everywhere. When a child learns how to sing and play music their language expands.
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No doubt. The question, though, is whether music should be learned in school. What argument would you muster for that?
ReplyDeleteThis argument can be made for any subject. I do not feel a need to argue why they should be in schools beyond what I already said. I am not trying to ignore your point just that if music's link to language is not enough to justify its being a part of school, then I do not see what else will. Check out these books.
ReplyDeleteSteven Mithen, The Singing Neanderthals, The Origins of Music, Language Mind and Body.
These are excellent books that talk about language and music. Language and music evolved at the same time. Sound and language are inexorably tied. We do not express ourselves divorced from musical elements. Even when you read you give expression to the words like looking at musical phrases that are notated.