Music as a Language, Education as Growth Jasmine Riel 2012

Introduction In almost every music class weve attended we have heard this apparently fundamental idea that music is a universal language. This implies that every individual understands music as they understand their respective languages that they use to communicate on a daily basis. To this extent, most music-lovers would agree. On the second day of my Music Historiography I class, my professor tried to dispel this concept. At first I thought, This guy has to be insane. During that class time, our professor played various recordings of foreign music. After each piece he then asked us, What is this song about? I remember specifically one song he played it sounded like middle-eastern women bellowing high-pitched shrieks of mercy to each other. Most of my peers guessed that the song was a cry for help. Maybe they were oppressed in whatever country they came from. One student even jokingly suggested that it was a song about child-birth. The professor smugly smiled and denied our attempts. He told us it was a song sung by mountain-women, calling everyone to come together. While the whole class thought it was a plea for salvation, it was in fact a celebration of coming together. So I realized, This is what he meant. Because we, as a class full of gifted musicians, could not correctly interpret a song completely foreign to us, it proved that music was not universal. I had to give him credit where it was due of course, since his notion made sense. But it only made sense in regards to how he defined a language.

A language, in each culture, is structured around a system of grammar and syntax rules. Language is clear and concise and to understand that particular language means to be able to be able to speak it and express thoughts with the use of its respective words and grammatical confines. According to my professors personal beliefs, music is a language. The notation system can be seen as a system of grammatical organization in which a specific type of musical structure can change the meaning or feeling of a phrase of music. Text can be chosen carefully for a specific piece whether it be in English, Italian, or Arabic. But when I thought of music as a language, I never thought of it like this. I think of what language does. Language is how we communicate, how we express. Language is an innate ability that develops as we grow older. This is what music does. This is the integral aspect of music that I wanted my professor to understand. Rather than saying that music is universal language, I would say that it is an adaptable one. Even simpler, it is individualistic. Music is communicative in that it is understood by the performer or composer herself. In Music As Therapy, Dunja Degmei, Ivan Pogain and Pavo Filakovi (2005) said according to American philosopher Susan Langer, music expresses the forms of feelings that the individual is not able to express otherwise, experiences that are not lingual and non-discursive, such as bodily rhythms and other experiences anchored to the early childhood of the individual as well as to unconscious and traumatic experiences (288). Music is a language that we adapt to ourselves that is why we have different interpretations of music. We reference personal beliefs in order to form connections and understandings to the music we are exposed to. Does this mean our interpretations our wrong? It is only wrong to opposing arguments, but not to us. So from one perspective, yes, our understanding or analysis of a piece may be incorrect. But in another way, our comprehension of music is humanly genuine and innately honest.

But does that mean that music is not universal? I disagree. While we understand music individually, it is still universal. It is a dialect we all possess naturally. We are musical because we are human. Music is an intrinsic value, a natural demeanor that we are born with. Teacher as an Interpreter Music education has two components, music and education, obviously. Therefore, music education is the combination of both of those passions. An educator has to be not only bilingual, but multilingual. This does not mean that a teacher has to be an interpreter of multiple tongues and dialects. According to Simpson, Jackson & Aycock (2005) in their interpretations of John Deweys philosophy of education, we as educators need to understand specific students (p. 75). In the process of education, the student is the raw material. Like a seed being planted, the students current stage of development, their present knowledge and skills, are the starting point of their growth. The way a student learns, retains, and reproduces knowledge varies from child to child. Bernice McCarty (2000), developer of the 4MAT System, informed educators of the four main learning types that are seen amongst students in our classrooms. She stated that All learning begins with the Self The cycle moves from personal connection at 12 o clock, to the knowledge of the experts at 6 o clock, and back to the Self as the learning is personally adapted (p. 21). Where a student spends most of his/her time on this visual clock of the learning process helps determine the students learning type. As a student, I am extremely reflective. When my voice teacher hands me a new piece of music, I try to break down the music learning process into steps. I play the notes on the piano, sing the piece on a neutral syllable, and then when Im

finally comfortable with the melody, I add words. I like to predict problems and avoid obstacles as Im learning. I have a friend who, once he receives a new song, dives right into it and starts sight-reading it all at once, text and all, and take care of mistakes later. Does this make my other friend a better musician than me? No. McCarthy described this variation in learning styles very accurately. She says When we are in our comfortable place, we are graceful and sure of ourselves, we feel at home. And these places are very different for different learners (p. 25). According to Gardners multiple intelligence theory, students should be taught flexibility and provided with multiple views for understanding the physical world, the social world, the human world, and the artistic world. If we teach only one way, we will reach only one kind of student (Beliavsky, 2006, p. 6). Just as we should be flexible in our teaching methods, we should teach our students flexibility. Like a room with several doors, there are various entrances to learning and various facets of the world from which to understand it. We need to guide our students to the point where they can finally choose the door they want to enter through. Teacher as Communicator But understanding our students and getting to know them is not merely enough to provide a profitable education. As educators, it is our responsibility to build a curriculum of learning that is adaptable to our students. An issue that we currently face in todays society is that education is extremely standardized. While there are standards that should be met in the classroom to ensure that all students gain basic skills and knowledge of their teachers respective areas of specialty, much of the classroom material is based solely on these standards. Students are only learning what they need to know for tests what society says they need to know. They are not growing in

knowledge, but rather in accommodation to societal requirements. Because of this, it makes it very difficult to widen the scope of teaching methodologies. According to Beliavsky (2006), Vygotsky believed that everyone should be given the tools to live up to their highest potential (p. 2). What if our students highest potential exceeds the school standards? How can learning possible be static? It is inherently grounded in change (Wink, 2011, p. 21). As a communicator, a teacher must demonstrate his/her knowledge of his/her students. This involves guiding each student in becoming an independently-choosing thinker, using their individual strengths to develop their weaknesses, and having a vision for the student based on their present capabilities and possible future successes. To have a vision for a student does not mean to force a single opinion on him/her. It means opening up the student to the opportunities they could indulge in.
Dewey implies that the teacher neither dismisses the interests of students nor sticks strictly to a prescribed curriculum or preconceived agenda. Nor does she abandon her responsibilities as a professional and leave decisions entirely up to students. She clearly understands that impulses and interests have to be wisely supplemented by a thoughtfully prepared learning environment and guided into appropriate activities (Aycock et al., 2005, p. 47).

No matter how independent students want to feel, they still seek guidance. As educators, we must be healthy facilitators. We should not dictate their choices, but give them the skills they need in order to make them. We should pose problems and give our students the tools to solve them. Giving them the answer is not a method of teaching. But problem-solving is. Our curriculum has to be adjusted to suit our students needs. According to Dewey, a teacher never settles for a single masterpiece. Despite previous successes, we cannot continually

compare our students to one another this is the foundation of standardization. Schools are not about winning; Schools are about learning (Wink, 2011, p. 56). We also cannot focus solely on what students need to know. We also need to fit our curricula around what they want to know. We must honor their world, in order to fully acknowledge where they come from. Learners choose what they want to learn and if what we teach doesnt matter to them, then it doesnt matter. We need to ignite some sort of drive in our students to get them motivated to learn more. As educators, its important that we take what we are teaching and make it into something usable, because that is one of the most powerful demonstrations of knowledge being able to take what youve learned and use it, therefore integrating it into our out-of-school lives. In terms of music education, it is finding that connection of music inside the classroom to the music outside of the class, the link that forms between the teachers passion for music to the students. Teacher as Student But just because a teacher is a teacher, it does not stop the learning process for him/her. The teacher never stops being a student. Just as a student learns something new every day, so does the teacher. When a student finally understands a concept, when that light bulb finally lights up in their brain, a teacher also understands something about that student. As learners, students are our greatest assets. Being a teacher is also about being extremely reflective. A teacher needs to understand why he/she is a teacher. A teachers beliefs should be made vulnerable. A teacher must always be open-minded because there are too many methodologies and educational philosophies to ignore. Effective music educators are multiminded. They have an intense interest in the many dimensions of musical expression at the same time they possess a genuine interest in social

problems and general welfare (Housewright, 1970, p. 36). Educators are always aware and always knowledgeable. Being a teacher also means to be a leader. According to Marguerite V. Hood (1952), to assume leadership is to take initiative into making plans and setting new standards. As a whole, music educators already face criticisms everyday with regards to what we do and how it benefits society. But we have answers to these criticisms and we all have philosophies that spell out who we are and what we believe in. But it has become too common-place to wait until there are new problems to fight against. We ought to take action. We should always look ahead and come up with new ideas. To be a teacher is to be innovative, imaginative, creative. We do not need to only defend ourselves, but defend our students. But we should not have to only be defensive anymore. We should be voluntarily driving forward in our profession and taking action as necessary as possible. Conclusion Music is one of the most powerful connections we have to the human spirit. Music is both something we understand and we still seek to understand. Music is not a definitive language. It is accommodating because we shape it into our own. But it is universal because it is an internalized aspect of human life. To be a teacher is to be adaptable. To be a teacher is to make sacrifices. It is one of the most self-less acts imaginable. Our philosophies are always vulnerable to change. We are never sure of ourselves as teachers because there is not one right way to teach or learn. But that does not mean we cannot be confident in ourselves as facilitators of learning and leaders of society. A teacher is just another word for a student with a philosophy well-grounded in both personal beliefs and experiences.

We, as musicians, all understand the language of music. That's not to say we all agree on every piece we hear or every rhythmic pattern we feel. It means that we all understand what the language of music means to us and does for us as human beings. As music educators, we ought to bring about the musical language that exists in every student - whether they know it or not. Bringing about this innate musical spirit is to create a connection between the mind, the body, and the soul. Music exists everywhere - it's our responsibility to expose our students to this reality. The way we adapt our curriculum to our students learning styles is similar to how we adapt our language of music to theirs. Education is not about what is right and wrong, or who is better or worse. Education is about coming to a universal truth. Reaching that final tipping point that conjoins opposing sides. Education never ends. Education is unending growth.

To my historiography professor, Yes, we were wrong. But so were you. That is education.

Works Cited Douglas, S. J., Jackson, M. J. B., & Aycock, J. C. (2005). John Dewey and the Art of Teaching: Toward Reflective and Imaginative Practice. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc.

Wink, J. (2011). Critical Pedagogy: Notes from the Real World (4th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc.

McCarthy, B. (2000). About Teaching: 4MAT in the Classroom. Wauconda, IL: About Learning, Inc.

Degmei, D., Pogain, I., & Filakovi P. (Dec., 2005). Music as Therapy/ Glazba kao terapija. International Review of the Aesthetics and Sociology of Music, 36(2), 287-300. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/30032173

Beliavsky, N. (Summer, 2006). Revisiting Vygotsky and Gardner: Realizing Human Potential. Journal of Aesthetic Education, 40(2), 1-11. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/30032173

Rush, R. E., (Feb.-Mar., 1954). Music Education in a Democracy. Music Educators Journal, 40(4), 21-24. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/3387787

MENC Commission Teacher Education (Oct., 1970). Teacher Education in Music. Music Educators Journal, 57(2), 33-48. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/3392843

Hood, M. V. (Feb.-Mar., 1952). Music in American Education: Our Heritage Demands Action, Not Defense. Music Educators Journal, 38(4), 17-19. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/3387527