Equipping for life

My views on music education are all about providing a capacity for lifelong self-education in three clearly identified areas.

Firstly, music has to be created, whether composed or improvised. When teaching composition, I prefer a structured approach to harmony and melody writing using traditional musical notation and the music of the Baroque and Classical periods as a model. After all, if you don’t know what the ‘rules’ are you won’t know how to break them. Damon Albarn, formerly of the pop group Blur told the BBC Music Magazine that ‘If you don’t learn to read music then there’s a whole tradition that becomes very exclusive’.

Secondly, music has to be performed, and we as a Society should strongly promote the view that all who wish to should have the opportunity to learn to play a musical instrument, free of charge if necessary, and I mean one-to-one tuition from an expert player of that instrument. The social and emotional aspects of learning to play a musical instrument complement the physical and mental skills which are developed alongside.

I am very excited by the ‘In Harmony’ project which is to be the English model of the Venezuelan ‘El Sistema’. Children as young as four will be given free tuition on orchestral instruments and will have the opportunity to join ensembles and orchestras. We need to think about the next steps after the funding is completed as learning to play a musical instrument must equip the pupil with sufficient technique to be able to go on unaided to explore the repertoire of that instrument for as long as they wish to.

Thirdly, the music educator has to develop appreciative and informed listening skills so that individuals will be enthusiastic about listening to new music for the rest of their life. In many ways this is perhaps the hardest part of music education as youngsters have such strong likes and dislikes. Education should be about introducing students to new, unfamiliar areas, so we should not hesitate to place classical music at the centre of our teaching; it is undoubtedly one of the greatest achievements of Western civilisation, which we are part of.

A great deal is being made of creativity in education at the moment. The imagination is vital for this, but it is also essential for the development of our characters, our opinions, and thinking about how what we do affects those around us. Dominic Miller, Sting’s guitarist, has stated that classical music is the foundation of the popular styles encountered every day by young people, and any argument that classical music is somehow elitist has been defeated once and for all by the tremendous happenings in Venezuela.

How do you believe children can best be engaged with classical music? My answer is simple; through live performance. We can all remember the moment when we were hooked; that realisation, for some, perhaps, that music was to be our career and that there was no question of following any other path. If you love classical music, your life is full of golden moments, but none shine as brightly as that very first one.

Robert Marsh is the incoming Chair of the ISM's Music in Education Section. This is an abridged vbersion of his address from our 2009 annual conference, Exploring New Frontiers.

Add your comment

Your email address will not be published.

Add your comment

Name

Email

Location

Comment

Remember my personal information Notify me of follow-up comments?

Please enter the word you see in the image below:

Captcha