John Brewer

CP 1, McBride
I know it seems hard to imagine, but I was a young boy growing up and in grade school.
Youre probably wondering how I achieved such staggering success as the full-fledged man I am
today. It all goes back to my schooling and how I was educated. However the class subject I was
most influenced by, was music. My first music teacher Mr. Seina really knocked it out of the
park for me. Sure he was a funny and talented guy, but what really drew me to him was his
teaching style and his methods. Of course I was too young to understand back then what was
going on. Never the less, when I look back on it now he enabled at lot of the ideas of the great
music education philosopher David Elliot. His goal was to teach his students through fun lots of
stimulation, and topics related to his students lives. He did this so well that distraction from his
topics was impossible. Everyone was engaged in every class. We were all feeling music together
and having fun, we were learning that music is a satisfying human experience. He really wanted
to pass on his knowledge through to the next generation. By using information that we already
knew from life experience, he set us up to learn in the easiest and most memorable way possible.
This is intriguing to me as a future teacher because most kids in elementary school dont know
very much and have only a small fraction of time in the world compared to middle school or high
school students. That must have taken some serious skill to relate to young childrens lives as an
adult. Connecting with the students while they are young sets them up to enjoy their music
classes later I will strive in the future to connect with my students as he did young or old and
attempt to set them up to enjoy music and take in the experience of it for years to come.

I can see now that David Elliot and Mr. Seina are correct. When educating the youth, we
must relate real world information that they are familiar with and hand down our knowledge to
them through their musical experiences. It is important that we teach our students using
information that they are familiar with. By connecting our material and their world, we can make
concepts and lessons easier for them to understand. Teaching expertise is fundamentally
procedural and situational. (251 Music Matters, Elliot.) David Elliot is stating here that we need
to not only relate the information we teach our students to them, but make it situational. What my
interpretation of this is that number one, make lesson that are based off every day issues and
experiences students have faced and will face so that their brains make the connection of the
information. Number two, make the information useful in situations that students will face not
only in music, but also in other areas of their lives. Its biological or "natural" basis (Bennet
Reimer, Pentti Maattanen) Students will learn better if the information is related to them in a
natural way that they can understand. What children often struggle with is not necessarily the
content, but the manner that it is being taught in.
Describe or illustrate the kind of behavior that a student is expected to acquire so that
one could recognize such behavior is he saw it (245 Ralph Tyler, Music Matters). This is the
idea of basic curriculum. Ralph Tyler is a philosopher that believes in the style of 1,2,3,4
teaching. The basic idea behind his theory is that there is one specific style of teaching, one
lesson plan that every teacher should follow in music class. This is a utopian idea. Everyone
learns differently and there for teachers must embody this.
There is no such thing as logical structure of a subject. A subject, like a barn, has many
structures at once. Different experts are aware of different fundamental principles and have
different mental processes for conjuring up principles and concepts and bringing them to bear on

problems. They even use different principles to solve the same problem. (247 Clive Beck,
Music Matters). Beck is stating here that Tyler is wrong in his philosophy. To reach everyone we
must not tailor to the majority. Everyones needs must be meeting through proper education. I
remember that when I would have trouble with math the school could help me with separate
environments and tutors to teach me the concepts in different ways. Why is it not the same with
music? For everyone student to get private lessons would take the majority of the year. This is
more of a college level atmosphere. We need to vary the way we teach things. Students should
learn something new every day in different ways as to tend to everyones needs. Keep in mind
though that when teaching in all kinds of ways, they must still relate to the students. They have
to be things that everyone in the class can understand and enjoy. Because when kids are
constantly learning different ways it forces them to think. They are relating and making
connections, they are solving new problems, listening, and working in new ways. New
information is always hard for people to grasp. Some students may pick it up faster than others
but no one comes into class knowing the exact answer. It is dangerous to teach in the same way
with the same concepts because the class will lose interest and go on auto pilot. New problems
and methods must be created to keep students engaged and learning.
A danger with concepts is that we tend to work from them and to them, looking for
music which exemplifies their characteristics. (247 Keith Swanwick, Music Matters). It is
imperative that we dont choose lessons and music simply because we want to teach students a
certain bit of knowledge. And even in the odd case that it is necessary to use something to teach a
concept, we need to make it fun, relevant, and different from everything else we have taught
them. By doing this we keep the students involved and having fun. We must stay away from the
same concepts and same things every day, especially when relating information to students lives.

We cant be constantly using the same analogies and experiences or the class will become
confused and unsure what information goes with each situation. If there are multiple ideas and
lessons wrapped around one familiarity, no one can distinguish what is being taught and what to
be learned. We cant have students absorbing information and regurgitating answers. Sure at the
time they will know what is going on but in the future they will not remember and wont be
learning anything worthwhile.
We also cant teach kids through other subject such as art and science. Sure these
subjects may be related to each other and music can be used as a mnemonic device in other
subject areas but a dance pattern or picture cant teach someone how to sing or perform a song.
The conception (of Aesthetic sensitivity) only needs to be spelled out as explicitly as this to be
revealed as absurd In short, to understand and enjoy music requires a specific kinds of situated
cognition that will not develop from the study of elements. (David Elliot, Music Matters 249). It
is impossible to show someone a ballet and ask them to sing the music for it. Everyones song set
will be different. I am not saying that other subjects cant aid in the teaching of music but I am
stating that they cannot be completely responsible for it. Music is a human experience and people
need to have that moment where their on edge and changed by the sounds they are hearing. They
need to have that chord that inspires emotion in the brain and causes a chemical reaction in the
nervous system triggering goose bumps on their arms or tears from their eyes. This however,
may not happen for everyone so other factors can be used to help students understand why it
should happen. This once again brings us back to relating the material to their lives. How many
times has the director asked you to think of the saddest thing or happiest thing in your life and
sing the song as if you were singing about it to change the sound? This is an imagery approach
using art to connect students lives to music all at once and it works very well. But never the less,

you cant tell a choir to sing a movement without music and only use the imagery. They will
sound terrible. This philosophy recommends, further, that to achieve the values of music, music
teachers ought to emphasize the interpretive nature of music as a performing and improvising art
and that composing, arranging and conducting (all of which demand keen listening) should be
taught frequently (and in direct relation) to a reasonable diversity of Musics (genres, or musical
practices) during the course of our students musical education. (David Elliot, Music Matters)
This quote embodies the blending of interpretation, and strict music reading and analysis.
Basically, in order to really create music and inspire emotion in the audience and students, we
have to use all of the different subjects and ideologies. Students need to relate the songs they
hear and perform and learn from to their world, their experiences all while following what is
written on the page. Sure in soloing and such in instruments it is all creativity, but there is still a
specific scale and specific pitches to use in order to have wave lengths match up in frequency
and stimulate a pleasure response from the cochlea. Of course this will be different for everyone
because every human being on the planet experiences music differently. Because music deals
with one of the 5 senses, it is a widely different story for everyone. For example some people
like hot food and some dont. Some people like rap and some dont or rock and some dont. It all
comes down to personal preference based on ones natural sense and outside world influences.
Just as outside influences and ideas of the individual person can shape learning, it will shape
musical taste as well. That is why it is important to connect everything for everyone all at the
same time. It is almost impossible, but if done right the teacher will create a long lasting lesson
that everyone will enjoy and learn from.
Our students are the future of our planet and if they dont learn music and the effect it has
on people, then it will soon be forgotten. It is imperative that the students see a relevant use to

the information we give them or they will ask the common question, How will is use this when
I leave school for the real world? If this question is asked out load in class it can take the whole
discussion off topic, deviate from the lesson plan, and ruin the entire teaching process. Not to
mention it has the class judging you and your subject. Even if only one student is thinking this
question, that one student can still check out and then we are not filling our jobs as teachers.
Students need to have information related to their world and their experiences for them to truly
learn. It is different for every student but if we as teachers really do reach out to our students on a
personal level to enhance their musical experience, we create an important life-long last lesson
that music creates reactions in humans and inspires emotion. Wouldnt you agree that the music
you listen to does just that and in turn that is why you listen to and love it so much?

Bibliography
Maattanen, Pentti. "Project MUSE - Aesthetic Experience and Music Education." Project
MUSE - Aesthetic Experience and Music Education. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Apr. 2014.
Elliot, David. "Music Matters." David J Elliott. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Apr. 2014.
<http://www.davidelliottmusic.com/music-matters/>.
Elliott, David James. Music matters: a new philosophy of music education. New York:
Oxford University Press, 1995. Print.