Philosophy of Music Education
University of Wisconsin Oshkosh
October 22, 2002
Music is an essence that is general but can be molded into any shape or form by use of any vehicle to create the desired expression of any human or creature in the world. This is why music is so important in everyday life because music, in its purist form, is sheer creative expression. In the corporate world the phrase “think outside the box” is often used. Music teaches this concept. That is why by introducing music into every child’s life, via a competent teacher that has a passion for music and teaching children, and nurturing their creativity by using music that gradually challenges them there can be assurance of a bright future for the human race knowing that, thanks to the creative nurturing of music, there are new ideas and discoveries being made everyday.
Music teaches that (in a figurative sense) a house need not be just a square building with four rooms and a peaked roof. A house can be of any shape and size. It could be one story, two stories, or even three stories high. It could have wings and gables sticking out from either end of it. The point is that no matter what type of creative form or expressive design a house is given by its architect it is still, basically, a house. However, to be able to imagine such an extravagant house the architect building the house must first have a certain sense of creativity. This creativity can be learned through music. A piece of music, no matter how it is performed, is still and will always be the same piece of music. If every performing group in the world played this single piece of music the exact same way, flawlessly, and with the same instruments, there would be no need to see another group perform the same piece because there would be nothing different to hear. However, in real life, a music student is encouraged to put his/her own inflection on the piece while playing it. This is why multiple performing groups can play the same piece of music but yet make it sound entirely different from another version of the piece. The same holds true with the architect building the house. Sure that person could build it to look exactly like the one next to it but why would this person do so when he/she could design something entirely original. It wouldn’t just have to be by looks either. Just building it to be more cost efficient would be an example of using the creative process, the same process that is taught and nurtured through music.
The philosophy of music education is one that stems from the general philosophy of education itself. That being that we teach what is already known so that future generations will not make the same mistakes of the past. In other words teach a child that a wheel is round so that he/she need not reinvent it while at the same time improving on its current design. The same holds true for music. In fact in any school curriculum music is just as important in a child’s education as English, math, science, or history even though many people don’t think of music as such. For even these four subjects are important in teaching students what mistakes not to make and what rules to follow, music teaches how to break those rules and learn about new mistakes that should not be made.
Just because the architect in this analogy chose to have a career that requires creativity, does not mean that only students that might later on choose careers that demand a high level of creativity need to be taught music. The reality is that all students should be introduced to music even if it means teaching music at its most basic form. For teaching music of any kind can open the flood gates in a child’s mind thus giving way to a whole new world to a student by letting them explore the vast ocean of creativity in their mind. Many schools today are cutting music from their curriculums in hopes of cutting expenses. But what they don’t realize is that by doing so they are not just cutting expenses but are cutting developmental stimulants in their students’ minds. For example, a child can be taught, on any given instrument, to play a simple melody for a nursery rhyme. He/she is taught how to play it properly and well which is defined by the most commonly heard version of that particular melody. Once the ground rules for the song (such as tempo, dynamics, style markings, etc…) are laid down and are well known by the student, that student then has the ability to start using his/her creativeness. This is accomplished by purposely breaking the rules of the song. By doing so the student is discovering new ways to play and express the same song. He/she could even change it to such an extent that it becomes an entirely new song. Either way the student is discovering something that is brand new to them. What he/she has discovered might even be brand new to the rest of the world. The point is that just learning the rules of math, English, and science can only take students so far. It is a student’s creative ability that allows them to purposely break those rules in order to push the envelope and further benefit the human race. However, having a student reach his/her full creative abilities cannot be accomplished without the proper teacher.
For the teacher, the creative nurturing for the student does not stop when the student can manipulate a simple melody with simple rules. The teacher must then teach the student a new piece of music that is more difficult and has more rules while at the same time not replacing the rules set in the previous piece. This way the student is forced to apply what he/she already knows in order to break the new rules and generate new discoveries. The same process should be repeated over and over again while the pieces become harder and harder and with more rules until the student knows all the rules that there are to know for only then can the student truly use his/her creativeness to make brand new discoveries that were virtually unheard of before in the field of music.
However, not every student will take his/her knowledge of music to the nth degree. But since this child was creatively nurtured through music, he/she will have a greater understanding on how push the limits of any subject in a school’s curriculum and hopefully this student will someday make discoveries in those fields that will benefit the human race.
For the student, however, he/she cannot be encouraged to their full creative potential without proper teaching and guidance. To be a music teacher, a person has to be someone that understands children and how they learn so that only the method that will lead to the best possible results will be used. Also, this person must have a passion for what they are teaching. Not only will the teacher be more happy, thus improving classroom morale, but also the students will actually find learning music more interesting and when a subject is more interesting it more fun to learn. A music teacher also should choose music that challenges students’ abilities while at the same time not overwhelming and discouraging them. Finally a music teacher must have a system of means and ends worked into their curriculum for the year meaning that a music teacher should teach an idea that leads into another idea which leads into another idea and so on, thus creating a never ending cycle of learning for the students.
All of the ideas that have been mentioned in essence make up the idea behind music education. It is a system that can only benefit a student. Studies have been done that have shown in some cases that a student’s test grades overall have been higher after learning music. In other instances some students’ math skills had improved after having musical education. This leads many people to believe that the purpose of teaching music is to have children become naturally smarter. Others believe that since music education promotes dedication and self-discipline its only great benefit is keeping children off the streets and out of trouble. Although in some cases these are great side effects of music education, it is the nurturing of a student’s sheer creative expression that is the greatest positive effect. This is why by having a teacher that is competent and has a passion for music and teaching students, the stage can be set for creative inspiration by teaching them music that is gradually challenging and allowing them to explore all other possibilities of playing that music through ways that are not printed on the page. Through the vehicle of music, a better future can be ensured for the entire human race knowing that music students of today will be tomorrow’s creative minds.