Music really is a shared language, unique to the Homo Sapiens species (well not really – think about birds, whales etc), no matter what our skin colour or cultural beliefs. Music not only “calms the soul” of the amateur player, it also humanises and softens us, breaking down communication barriers of all types. ![]() For people of all ages, learning how to make music, at an amateur level, is a very constructive, healthy and pleasurable activity – much more so than just listening to it. While the opportunities for playing music professionally are diminishing rapidly, the need for music teaching in society is a completely different story (see Amateur or Pro ?). No matter what our level, we are all permanent students, as well as potential teachers, of ourselves and also of others. Benjamin Zander has a brilliant idea on this subject: when we make a mistake (or if something is sounding bad) then instead of getting angry, sad or upset, we should think “gosh, how fascinating” and then take it from there.īEING BOTH A PERMANENT STUDENT AND A TEACHER Almost any piece of music (or musical situation) will present us with at least some problems – technical, musical, emotional, philosophical etc – which we can then use as fuel (food, a starting point) for our continuous learning process. ![]() One of the best (and most fundamental) of these is: “make your problems into your teacher”. Many important pedagogical concepts can be “stolen” from other aspects of life. What’s more, just like a GPS (SatNav), these great artists will never get tired or annoyed with us no matter how slow we are to “get it”. We also now have the best seat in the house, they will repeat anything we want over and over for us (even in slow motion), and we can even play along with them, over and over. And not only can we watch them play, but we can also see them teach (see Johannes Möser, Alban Gerhardt, Pablo Ferrandez, David Finkel) at the flick of a switch (or the click of a mouse). We no longer need to travel to see the world’s finest cellists play: just switching on the computer is enough. They can even do damage, but ultimately we are all autonomous, self-taught (but much-helped) musicians.Īnd a lot of lessons can be had for free. Teachers can help us greatly, slightly, or not at all. It’s also about how we can teach ourselves. ![]() Pedagogy is not just the science of teaching others.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |