WHY TEACH MUSIC?
(part 2)
Music is scientific.
It is exact, specific, and it demands exact acoustics. A conductor's full score is a chart, a graph which indicates frequencies, intensities, volume changes, melody, and harmony all at once and with the most exact control of time.
Music is mathematical.
It is rhythmically based on the subdivisions of time into fractions that must be calculated, interpreted, and applied instantaneously.
Music is foreign language.
Most of the terms are in Italian, German, or French, and notation is a highly developed kind of shorthand based on symbols that represent ideas. The semantics of music is the most complete and universal language known.
Music is history.
It reflects the environment and times of its creation, including the cultural and social values.
Music is physical education.
It requires exceptional coordination of fingers, hands, arms, lips, cheeks, and facial muscles. It also takes extraordinary control of the diaphragm, which in turns uses the back, stomach, and chest muscles - which respond instantly to the sound the ear hears and the mind interprets.
Music is philosophy.
It demands research and develops insight and perspective.
Music is art.
It allows a human being to take dry, boring, and often difficult techniques and use them to create emotion. That is one thing science cannot duplicate: feeling, emotion and yes, if you will allow me . . . humanism. Music helps us learn to read and develop creativity. Music teaches us to interpret meaning, to form lyrical, melodic thoughts. Music helps us to commit to memory making learning more fun.
Music is the human experience.
Music pieces are as complex and varied as life itself. Music inspires thought, reflection and emotion-- much like human relations do. Rhythm and tone simulate moods-- such as joy, sorrow or anger. Music relates to us the stories of human experience.
For all of these reasons and countless more, we are Teachers of Music.
Don't we believe in the greatness that music instills in our students?
Don't we believe in the discipline, the dedication, the development of self-esteem
Don't we enjoy witnessing our students becoming, literallly, vessels of beauty?
Is that not why we teach music?!