Music lessons – more than pushing the right buttons

We have students of all ages and abilities in our school. Students are so eager to make music. This is a good thing! But little ones often are not physically ready to play what they imagine. And adult beginners often have too much knowledge and are frustrated that they physically can’t play what they hear in their heads.

So everyone has to learn to push the button (or strike the key, or move the bow) before they can make music. Learning music definitely builds patience in a student. But to my dismay (along with other teachers) often music learning stops with the button pushing. Once a student becomes skilled at playing fast, slow, high, low, and playing songs and tunes, the music learning ends.

They are playing the mechanics of music, just like machine operators work machines that produce objects. They are producing sounds. But music learning is so much more than this. It is about listening – to yourself and others, in all sorts of settings. It is about really understanding the theory of music – why a note is spelled as a G# and not an A flat when everyone knows bands don’t play in sharp keys! And also a critical part of music learning – that of understanding the context and history of the piece of music.

Much of this lies with the marching band craze. I get it – schools need marching bands as a mechanism to support music in the schools. But after marching band is over, often the students are doing the same thing they did for three months on the practice field, just sitting down. And that is pushing buttons.

Time is to blame too. In addition to private lessons and rehearsals, students should take classes in musicianship and theory. They should be attending concerts of music that they might not play themselves. We should be helping them become well rounded musicians.
But this takes time.

The answer? I wish I knew. I think I know though. Choices need to be made. At our school we recognize that many have little time but sorely want to learn music. We compromise and do the best we can, and often go beyond pushing the buttons. But we know how much more there is to learn. Parents must make choices that are the best for their children. And adult students – I love them! They often come into music lessons because they have a well-rounded understanding of music in the broadest sense and now want to do it themselves.

Yes, good musicians do so much more than push buttons and make sounds. They experience, create and understand music in a holistic sense, and it shows and sounds!