So said the late, great Ray Charles.
Heard on the Today programme this week, some thoughts by Professor Michael Spitzer:
Professor Spitzer has written a book called “The Musical Human“. His publishers say, “It boldly puts the case that music is the most important thing we ever did; it is a fundamental part of what makes us human.”
Music is what we take to our lonely desert islands, along with the works of Shakespeare and a copy of the Bible, the Koran, whatever. It helps to nourish and elevate our spirit, and lifts our spirits.
Music is the friend we take on holiday, listen to in the car, walk with in the park. It gives us energy, ideas and comfort. It’s a teacher and a healer, according to John Lee Hooker. Rhythm is a dancer.
As an important part of the arts, music and singing should be at the heart of every school, at the heart of every child’s curriculum. Every child can find joy in music and find ways to make music – often with the encouragement, support and mentoring of other learners. Often with the support of good generalist or specialist teachers and the loan of school instruments. Sometimes by taking part in choirs. Sometimes with the input of professional musicians and tutors, though not often.
The pressure to succeed academically is enormous – for schools, teachers and young people. Music education in schools is withering, becoming scarce, and in some places dying a sad, slow death. Many parents don’t give this a single thought, especially when they can afford to buy instruments themselves, and can afford individual tutors for their children. Pity those poor children, however, who are bored to tears by ‘traditional’ teaching for grades and tests, when they just want to explore different instruments, improvise and experiment with their friends – and play for fun, not tests. We’ve met some of them. Sad children who decide to give up, hating the one to one sessions with less than gifted tutors, feeling like failures and incompetents.
Which is not to say those who enjoy and do well with formal learning shouldn’t practice hard and achieve those grades. Of course they should. This is, as ever, about personalising learning according to the needs and preferences of the learners. Been there, done that, and some of us manage to enjoy our keyboards, guitars, ukuleles, recorders, tin whistles, percussion instruments, etc without the benefit of an ability to read music on a page. For those interested in this topic we recommend a book by Lucy Green of the London Institute of Education – How Popular Musicians Learn (A Way Ahead for Music Education). Believe it or not, some of the world’s best musicians and writers of music never learned to read or write a single note on a page. Many because they weren’t interested in doing so, many because they were never encouraged to do so, many because their schools and their parents couldn’t afford to employ tutors, and many because it was assumed they would be likely to fail and possessed no musical gifts and talents.
Adults may not have noticed but many children are using some excellent YouTube videos to learn about their various instruments and how to make music with them. No time constraints, no fees, no tests and no pressure.
We look forward to reading Professor Spitzer’s book.
“If music be the food of love – play on!”
Twelfth Night, William Shakespeare“Music is the movement of sound to reach for the soul – for the education of its virtue”
Plato“Music is the shorthand of emotion.”
Tolstoy“Music is a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosophy”
Beethoven“Music in the soul can be heard by the universe”
Lao Tzu
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/53138191-the-musical-human
A previous blog post:
The Intelligence of Music
(Music and multiple intelligences)
https://3diassociates.wordpress.com/2012/10/22/the-intelligence-of-music/
3D Eye 