Philosophy of Music Education

Kendra Lindsay

Univeristy of Wisconsin Oshkosh

October 19, 2001

Music communicates directly to the soul. Good movie directors understand how to use music to create in us the appropriate emotions. Scary music gives us a feeling of apprehension in a horror movie. Romantic music makes us fall in love with the heroine. Fast music pulls us into the action scenes. Just as the director uses music to enhance our enjoyment of the film, we as teachers can use music to enlarge the souls of our students, to make them better people for having passed through our classroom doors.

Listening to a beautiful performance enriches the lives of every person in the audience who is prepared to understand the music. That preparation is the job of music teachers. Some marvelous music that has enraptured listeners for years will be immediately liked by students who have not been taught to understand music. Other beautiful music will leave students cold until they study it and become prepared to love the beautiful music. Students who aren’t prepared to hear the beauty in classical music will miss the aesthetic richness of that genre.

When we participate in creating music we can understand the music, we can feel the music, we express a part of our soul that we can’t put into words. The music becomes part of us, and we become part of the music. The better we perform, the more satisfying it is to us. The teacher’s role increases the students joy in performing music.

Every important holiday or ritual of our lives is accompanied by music. Think of Mendelssohn’s “Wedding March” heard at weddings, or “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” at baseball games. Don’t forget “Happy Birthday to You” for birthdays, and even “Taps” for funerals. Christmas without music would be dreary indeed. Music is universally important. Every culture has its own vital music. When we perform or listen to music of another culture, it helps us understand that culture in a way that mere words can’t approach.

The essential part music plays in our culture is part of the reason music should be included in the curriculum of every good school. Students are vastly benefited if they can understand the music of life. They are enriched if they can competently perform the music of their souls. A skeptic might say that there are many enjoyable activities which are not included in school. Why should we include music in the curriculum? The answer is that music belongs to the curriculum as rightfully as math, literature, science, and history. It is as important to understand the important musical works of our culture as it is to understand the important literary works, the important stories of our history, and the scientific and mathematical principles at work in our world.

Music teaches us valuable lessons and skills that translate into other areas of our lives. Music performance teaches us how to concentrate. Learning to read music improves reading skills. Learning to play the piano for some unexplained reason might improve students’ math skills. Learning to perform a piece of music teaches us that sometimes a lot of practice is required to reach our goals. Performing something well teaches students that all the work is worth it in the end.

Every student needs a well-rounded background. No one knows at an early age all the skills they will need in life. Everyone needs to be enriched by music. Everyone needs to have the option to choose music as a career. If students have no experience and no competence in music because they are not taught, musical careers are effectively closed to them. A man was a hoof trimmer for many years. He visited dairy farms and made a good living trimming the hooves of cows. It wasn’t until he was forty-two years old starting a new business that he discovered he needed algebra. Others learn algebra in school, but don’t know until later that they would prefer to work in music. Creed Haymond, an award-winning sprinter once said that instead of learning to run, he wished he had learned to sing. It would have given him more enjoyment in his life. His school didn’t provide universal music education. It should have. Children need to develop competencies in a broad array of fields to preserve their choices for later in life. Every child needs music education.

Elementary music curricula should include teaching students to use their voices well. Young children can more easily be trained to match pitch than older students who haven’t been properly prepared. Students should learn basic understanding of written music notation. They should become familiar with the great composers and their most important works. These great composers have been deemed to be great because their music brings joy to the hearts for many years. They have withstood the test of time. There is only time for a small number of works to be studied each year. They should be some of the best, including works that are appropriate to the ages of the children, such as Peter and the Wolf and Carnival of the Animals for the youngest children.

Music for performance ideally is high quality music that is enjoyable to the children. There are high quality fun songs, and high quality songs of beauty. Folk songs are ideal for teaching young children. Folk songs are important to the culture and have extra-musical information packed in them. Music can involve movement or dance. The whole body can be involved.

Older students, who are more proficient at performance can perform some of the great classics of music as well as more contemporary pieces. There is no better way to appreciate the unique value of a piece of high quality music than to perform it. The students who make it to this level in secondary grades will appreciate great music for their whole lives. They have grabbed a bit of joy.

The successful music teacher will be a cheerleader for music: able to stimulate interest by finding wonderful pieces of music, able to coax students to try it one more time, able to show students that all the rehearsing is worth it because of the moments of beauty. A teacher should be competent at performing music so that the students see good ability modeled. A teacher needs to be a hard worker, because teaching is work. A teacher needs to be organized. There is a mountain of paperwork to keep on top of. Every detail of class needs to be thought out in order to avoid pandemonium. The teacher will plan a whole year of instruction, a whole practice and performance schedule, and each class’s activities. Yes, the teacher needs to be organized. The teacher needs to be a good writer. Believe it or not, even music teachers end up writing documents that need to be carefully composed. The teacher needs to be able to work positively and professionally with teachers, administrators, and parents.