LEARNING TO READ MUSIC IS REALLY HARD ISN'T IT?
In the past and also currently less elightened music tutors used a very unnatural way of teaching students to read music. An almost 'topsy turvy' method of the natural way we as babies,children and adults learn. This way often results in only the more academic students moving forwards with their music study and in general most students becoming disillusioned, struggling with the concept or at worst being put off music or simply bored by the process. How often do we remember at school in a class of 30 probably only the 2 most 'seriously' clever members of the class played the violin or piano?
After being trained in a more 'Eastern' approach to music tution, it is certainly clear to me that the way in which reading is taught by traditional Western methods, is why learning to read music has such a bad press, and gives us some idea as to why 'teach yourself to read music' books and most Western music tutor books aimed at beginners fail to work. (and why anyone who was ever interested in learning music has one such book used to prop up a wonky cabinet, where it was unceremoniously dumped when the owner gave up the will to live after page 7)
The traditional method we all know and 'love?' is somewhere between lesson 3 and 5, grimacing and wincing through a tutor pointing at a note on the music score whilst we intently struggle to identify and find it, and usually having no clue once we find the note, what we are to do with that note!! after this hideous process our tutor, (in an effort to speed things along/help the student) may show the student where the note is and demonstrate how it supposed to sound. Eventually, after all this hardship we finally hit the note with a look of minor relief. Well, I dont know about you, but I thought music was supposed to be a hobby, a pastime, and fun!! not more akin to a trip to the dentist on the pain scale!
The above process can essentially be broken down as' READ' the music, 'IMITATE' the tutor 'and eventually and only at the end of that tormented process, actually' HEAR' the note.
Can you imagine a situation where a 10 month old baby is sitting in his high chair after finishing up his lunch. His mother smiles and claps her hands at what a good boy he is. Instantly he smiles and claps back.
This can be broken down as a simple two part process of HEAR then IMITATE
Can you imagine what would happen if to show how pleased the mother was with baby after eating all his lunch, she had given the baby a piece of paper with the words Smile and Clap written on???
Firstly, he would be very confused, have no idea what was expected of him and two, he most certainly would not smile or clap, but more than probably look away bored and disinterested and both parties would have gained very little in that interaction, let alone a lesson in how much fun it is when we clap and smile and copy Mummy!
Notice the success of the mother in teaching her child how to smile and clap! She took away the READ part altogether and swapped around the IMITATING and HEARING. Very simple, ridicously simple, in fact. No reading in sight! We would only probably expect the baby to READ the words a somewhat staggeringly 7 years later. (The word SMILE maybe grasped a year or so later, given that cheeky 'e' on the end..)
This is a much more natural way of teaching. Mothers are natural teachers they dont have text books or show their baby 'a beginners guide to being a baby'.. It just wouldnt work (baby would have most definately given up long before page 7, with maybe a tiny bit of pureed apple making its way contemptously between a few of the pages...)
It is a little controversial (I know I may come under an awful lot of flack here from traditionalists and the music establishments) but after being given my training by a nation who without a shadow of a doubt produce some of the worlds most prodigious and extraordinarily talented piano virtuosos I can only appreciate the fact I was lucky enough to be taught by such an inspiration nation who really understand the learning process and have frankly made my job a whole lot easier!
Anyone can be a baby.. anyone can read music
