From Theory to Practice... (Reflection on Ch. 2)

Assignment: Choose 3 points of interest from this chapter (quotes & a brief reflection)

p. 21 "Musical play and socialization through music (and for the sake of music learning) can be bona fide means for children to gain information about the world around them. Various schools of child psychology have supported play as a natural process and a part of child development. G. Stanley Hall and Sigmund Freud were in agreement that young children are in training for adulthood through the games they play."

I think this information is strong support for early childhood music education, especially as incorporated into general play in pre-school and primary school. Musical play is easily interspersed in the less-structured environment of pre- and primary school, and would, ideally, strengthen a child's interest in continuing music in a more structured fashion in upper elementary school.

p. 28 "Musical intelligence is balanced by processes of both hemispheres, for it allows sequential (left-brain) processing through its perception of durational and pitch patterns and phrases, and simultaneous (right-brain) processing through its perception of various polyphonic textures, including harmony... the exercise of children's subjective, affective, and divergent qualities can be greatly served through lessons in music and the arts."

I'm always looking for evidence to support music education in schools - here's more! If I have evidence to prove that studying music exercises both hemispheres of a child's brain, that strengthens my argument that music should be included in the curriculum. I'm definitely interested in learning more about this particular fact (in this text, it's related to Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences).

p. 35 "Gordon's Music Learning Theory is a comprehensive model of skill development, founded on the principle of audiation, or inner hearing: the ability to "hear" notation and to notate what one hears... His music learning sequence is a prescribed succession of music skills (or performance behaviors), music content, and tonal and rhythm patterns, and it is intended to develop musical audiation and understanding."

I had a private teacher once (for keyboard), who would always tell me to "activate my ear." At the time, I couldn't for the life of me figure out what she meant by this. After an additional 2 years of study, I now understand what she was asking me to do, though she never explained it in a way that "clicked" for me at the time... Music in Childhood explains the Gordon's theory is "hierarchical in nature." It would seem that the process to audiation is similarly hierarchichal, in that you can't skip any particular step towards the ability to audiate clearly and effectively.