Music in Education

A Guide for Parents and Teachers

Malcolm Carlton

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2014
• ISBN:
  9781317827597
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Pedagogía
• Subtopic: Educación general

First published in 1987. This book is for parents, teachers and others involved in the education of children. It aims to provide, in easily understood language, a guide to music in education; it includes some historical detail, but is mostly concerned with what actually occurs or ought to occur in the class#2;room in both primary and secondary schools.

Part One

Pre-School and Primary Education

Chapter One

The First Five Years

… particularly for parents to read

The pre-school child, at nursery or home, can only benefit from a rich aggregation of music experience. There are some experiences to be shared by parent and child; there are others for children to discover and experience for themselves, but which depend on the appropriate opportunity being provided.

However, without parents providing anything exceptional, most young children are subjected to a number of musical experiences. As a direct result they reach school age with a wider experience of sound than is generally realized, a good deal of it accruing from the mass media. From television children hear a variety of musical styles ranging from electronic sound patterns used as a background for a science fiction series to simple advertising slogans usually referred to as ‘jingles’. They will probably have experienced the emotional response which music is capable of stimulating, for example, by creating tension at a critical point in a film.

Many will have shared songs with pop stars simply by ‘singing-along’ with radio, television, record or cassette. Regrettably, fewer children are arriving at school with a repertoire of nursery rhymes; the influence of the mass media has dictated that few parents now actually sing to and with their children, and although ‘singing-along’ has replaced this, it could be argued that children are deprived of an extremely sensitive act of communication with their parents.

The majority of children live within urban areas and will have contact with music provided to accompany shoppers in supermarkets and department stores, and travellers in railway stations. In Western civilization there appears to be a need to fill almost every moment with sound, a contrast with many Eastern cultures where quiet meditation plays a major role in the way of life. Many primitive societies have used sound to keep evil away, so perhaps today’s society is attempting to do the same by using music to dissipate the pressures of twentieth century living patterns. The tendency is for listening to be entirely unselective, a process to which a large number of young children are subjected.

This then is the range of experience which most children take with them to school, but such wide exposure to sound can and does produce a major identifiable problem. A young child is very aware of sound and is readily attracted by anything new; from the age of a few weeks the head will quickly turn to identify the source of a sound. A constant background of music can however dull this response very early in life and accordingly may tarnish awareness of the environment in general. A dulling of sensitivity in one area may affect sensitivity in other areas; if the blunting occurs at an early age, the emerging adult is likely to be less than a complete person. Awareness of surroundings and of other people would appear to be a fairly basic requirement of life.

In practical terms can anything be done to counteract this process? To restrict or prevent listening would be negative, but a great deal can be done to provide children with the opportunity to experience the raw materials of music individually and practically; in other words music from the media reaches children second-hand and this needs to be supplemented by first-hand experience.

Rattles are one of the first instruments or sound sources with which a child will experiment. The need to shake, throw out of the pram, observe and listen to the impact it makes, are all ways of finding out the limitations of the ‘instrument’, even where the action of throwing appears to be a direct result of frustration or of devising a game to gain attention.

But is it noise or is it music? The dividing line varies according to individual viewpoints. The raw materials of music are sound and silence; it could be said that music exists when a predetermined length of time is filled with these elements either in a carefully organized or entirely random way, but if so what is noise? Noise to one person may be sweet music to another; the sound of a baby crying at night may disturb a person in a nearby room and cause feelings of frustration and anger, but to the mother, especially if it is a first child, this could be a most welcome and reassuring sound. Murray Schafer, the Canadian music educationist, in his book Ear Cleaning (1967), puts forward the view that noise is simply unwanted sound which prevents the individual from hearing what he wants to hear, for example an unsuppressed electrical device interfering with hi-fi listening, a form of aural pollution. A parent able to accept this definition may find it easier to see the relevance of providing and permitting suitable experiences for a young child.

Other ‘instruments’ are discovered, for example at mealtimes the possibilities of sounds from cup and spoon are exploited instinctively. At some point, almost all children sit on the floor with a collection of saucepans and lids together with other kitchen utensils, and from these materials organize, in a seemingly unbearable way for the parent, a ‘piece of music’ from the sound. The music may appear to the adult to have no structure and to make no logical sense, but it must be remembered that a child is relatively unconditioned at this age by either formal structure, conventional scales or rhythms. It is first essential for any individual, adult or child, to explore an instrument to establish possibilities in terms of sound potential. Familiarity helps; playing with saucepans once is not enough; only after repeated experience and exploration will there emerge any possibility of organizing the sound to any effective and satisfying degree. To the parent, it may appear to be meaningless play, but to the trained observer considerable development may be seen. It is imperative that parents do not interfere by showing the child how to organize sound in a way which conforms with ideas of the adult mind, although it would be reasonable to help the child discover some of the sound potential.

In the pre-school period, then, the parent ought to surround the child with a variety of sound making materials and allow exploration and experimentation. This contact with the raw materials of music is as basic as allowing a child to explore and discover through sand, water or paint.

A question of some concern for parents is whether very young children should learn to play ‘real’ instruments. It is thought by some that in order to produce top class performers, training must begin at an early age, although this is not necessarily the case.

A three year old insisted on having a violin for a birthday present having seen and heard one on a television programme. Although there were no musicians in the family, it became apparent that nothing else would satisfy the child and so the parents duly made a purchase. Child and violin became constant companions, even to the extent of the instrument being taken to bed complete with case. The parents were sensitive enough to search for a teacher who was sympathetic and able to help the child explore the instrument. The teacher in turn made it clear to the parents that if the child displayed any sign of losing interest or enthusiasm, then that would be an appropriate time to consider releasing both pupil and teacher from the commitment. This did in fact occur, but it is worth conjecturing that at some time in the future the child will return to the instrument to build on the early experience.

Woodwind and brass players rarely start before they reach the upper end of the primary school; the reasons for this are largely due to the physical problems created by the size of the instruments, the necessity to guard against teeth realignment, and the possibility of causing physical stress such as lung damage, although this point is often disputed by teachers.

Many parents are aware of their own musical inadequacy. This very fact may make it easier for them to see how children’s musical skills develop, whereas the highly trained musician, who has undergone a formal musical education, can find it difficult to adjust to these levels. The qualities required of a parent are those of patience, awareness and a constant willingness to encourage.

To summarize, activities provided for the child should include a substantial amount of singing experience, preferably some together with the parent, an opportunity to explore a wide range of sound making materials, and focussing attention on the natural sounds of the environment in which he lives. The pneumatic drill is part of the city child’s environment and therefore not necessarily a sound from which to withdraw; on the other hand, a town dweller would benefit from a visit to a contrasting environment. Faced with unfamiliar surroundings, a first reaction is to be more aware visually than aurally, and unless assisted by the parent or teacher, the child may not be fully conscious of the sounds created by, for example, a gently flowing stream or by shoes treading on bracken.

Pre-school children should be encouraged to take advantage of modern technology and use battery operated cassette recorders with built-in microphones to record and play back sounds both of their own making and those already made. The development of pocket size synthesizers of the Casio type is an exciting one, for they are both safe and stimulating to use.

The constant addition of experiences can lead to a growing facility to select from those which please, stimulate and excite, an essential part of the process of expressing ideas and feelings through music. How the experience gained can be developed will be seen in the following two chapters, but it can be said that this growth of experience is reflected in an ability to absorb all that is around, much of which a less aware person may live through without recognizing its existence. The true value of this enrichment can only be appreciated by those who possess it.

References

Schafer, R. Murray, Ear Cleaning, Universal Edition (Canada) Ltd., 1967.

Suggested Further Reading

Ash, B., Winn, A. and Hutchinson, K., Discovering with Young Children, Elek, 1971.

Chazan, M., Education in the Early Years, University College of Swansea, 1973.

Crowe, B., The Playgroup Movement, George Allen & Unwin, 1973.

Kent, J. and P., Nursery Schools for All, Ward Lock Educational, 1970.

Parry, M. and Archer, H., Pre-School Education, Schools Council Research Studies, Macmillan, 1974.

Phillips, J., Give Your Child Music, Elek, 1979.

Chapter Two

Music in the Primary Schools (5-11 years)

… mostly for teachers but containing useful information for parents

In 1969 a group of primary teachers made this statement:

Education must not be a substitute for living but living itself. We must ensure that it includes spiritual, emotional, intellectual and physical development, in fact, the whole child. There must be opportunity for growth in every aspect of the person … Education is not only the acquiring of skills, but also the development of feeling and sensitivity, which requires flexibility in the individual… Whatever way we choose to organize, there must be freedom for individual development, flexibility so that no child feels he is being forced into a pattern that is unacceptable to him as a person. Too often in the past children have become distressed because of their inability to conform. (The Worcestershire First Schools)

It does not require much imagination to see how music can contribute to the development of the qualities listed, but then the same claim might be made of other subject areas; so it could be argued that unless a subject offers a unique contribution, it is merely duplicating other areas of learning and experience.

Music is a means of communication and therefore a form of language which communicates directly through its own language rather than by words, and it is particularly concerned with emotions and feelings. The uniqueness of this language reinforces the view that it should be part of the curriculum for every child. Further to this, as will be shown later in Chapter 9, p. 95, music education is able to contribute towards developing qualities ultimately sought by potential employers, but which also are beneficial to any emerging adult. This process begins during the early years of education and not much later as is often assumed by both parents and teachers.

Alice Yardley has this to say in her book Sense and Sensitivity (1970):

the education of feeling doesn’t just happen, it needs as much attention as any other form of development. If we hope for the child above all to have an adequate intellectual adjustment to his world, then we must educate him to feel as well as think. We can merely pass through experiences, or we can be fully aware of them … However many people who are influential in educational affairs do not recognise the importance of feeling. In some, deep personal feeling has never really awakened and they plan for children along the lines of their own limited education.

This inability to feel deeply or become fully involved emotionally with experiences and indeed with other people may in part stem from a negative attitude adopted by school towards aesthetic areas of work. Few people can live without music apart from those deprived by the disability of deafness, but regrettably for many it has to be a listening and reacting role, rather than one of any practical sig...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half Title page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Foreword
• Introduction: Communication through sound
• Part One Pre-School and Primary Education
• Part Two Secondary Education
• Index