Just a couple of thoughts. First, when you say that music is like a foreign language, I know what you are getting at, but I want to encourage you to not imply that music is anything but a natural part of human development. It has its own history and language, but it a product of culture—and yes, very much a cross-cultural subject (but I think math may hold the patent for being the “universal language”). The other thing that struck me as particularly noteworthy are your thoughts about how instrumental music is beneficial to students. This is not something that we discussed in class, but you are absolutely correct that music offers students immediate feedback in a way that perhaps only sports and video games can match. In many academic subjects, students must wait for feedback, but music teacher constant bombard their ensembles with how good/bad the playing a piece was and why—we call it rehearsing, but it relatively unique to our discipline—good thinking on that!!!
Austin,
ReplyDeleteVery well organized blog! Nice.
Just a couple of thoughts. First, when you say that music is like a foreign language, I know what you are getting at, but I want to encourage you to not imply that music is anything but a natural part of human development. It has its own history and language, but it a product of culture—and yes, very much a cross-cultural subject (but I think math may hold the patent for being the “universal language”). The other thing that struck me as particularly noteworthy are your thoughts about how instrumental music is beneficial to students. This is not something that we discussed in class, but you are absolutely correct that music offers students immediate feedback in a way that perhaps only sports and video games can match. In many academic subjects, students must wait for feedback, but music teacher constant bombard their ensembles with how good/bad the playing a piece was and why—we call it rehearsing, but it relatively unique to our discipline—good thinking on that!!!
1.5/1 NS