Caleb

Warnar
Kari K Veblen
Music 1800
September 17, 2015

Rodriguez, C. X. (2009). Informal Learning in Music: Emerging Roles of Teachers and Students
(Vol. 8). Retrieved from http://act.maydaygroup.org/articles/Rodriguez8_2.pdf



In this article, Rodriguez discusses the benefits of informal learning practices in music
education. Rodriguez compares how the musical understanding and expression of formally
trained students differs from informally trained students. These differences include some
students playing by ear, and others by a music score.

I found the perspective of the student musicians on listening to a piece of music or

reading the music score interesting. Each student had their own system of what worked for
them in order to fully grasp the piece. Its so much easier to get the basic part down ...you
know, we just look at the music ...you can check the key ...or find out where any changes are
...then try to remember them as you play (Rodriguez 2009). Some methods of learning a
musical work are ineffective for some students, which is why informal learning allows for
students to grasp the understanding of a work in different ways. We discussed as a group if
they could obtain the same information by simply listening to the recording. The guitarist,
David, replied: Its just too slow ...you end up listening so many times, and then the song
gets really ...boring ... (Rodriguez, 2009).

I was surprised by the concept of informal learning, because I have mostly been exposed

to formal learning. I am intrigued by the opportunity to educate students in a way without as

much limitations, that way I could meet the educational needs of each individual student. In
informal learning, the teacher relinquishes this control and enters into a more flexible and
dynamic relationship with the learner, yet a plan for instruction must still be negotiated
between teachers and students. The activities of copying recordings, improvising, composing,
and performing on an instrument (or singing) each invoke steps, even if they happen to be
material-, context-, and learner-specific, and even if they are mostly hidden (Rodriguez 2009).

It frustrated me that many schools do not teach music informally at all. I believe that the

students that depend on informal learning should not be deprived of being educated in music
just because they learn differently than others.

As a comment to the author, I found his concept of informal learning to be argued very

effectively. Even as other music educators observe his pedagogical methods, I hope that this
style of teaching becomes more integrated into the school system and even recognized to be an
educational standard of music education.