by ingrid.hjelm-hansen -

Research Summary

Throughout this semester, I have gathered a wide range of research related to music education. I have read numerous articles and talked to users with real experiences within the field. The focus has been on the visual part connected to colors and symbols in musical notation, but also on music education as a discipline in general. I wanted to find out what works well, and what needs improvement. In my last blog post of the semester, I will try to summarize my findings so far. 

I started my first blog post with this goal definition: 

“The goal is to simply make music education more user friendly to newcomers.”

I wanted to make it easier for children and beginners to learn how to play an instrument. The idea was to work with the use of colors and symbols, to make music more fun and uncomplicated. I quickly realized that the discipline is complex, and I needed to broaden my scope to understand how to solve the right problem. After reading a guest essay from Sammy Miller, I understood that music education in general has some areas to improve. 

Things I have learned

Sammy Miller made me comprehend the importance of music education. According to the Grammy-nominated drummer, studies show that students who play an instrument may have less anxiety and do better in English, science and math. Quoted directly from his essay: “The fact that many children don’t stick with music is bad news not only for the state of self-expression and joy but also for education.” (New York Times, 2023). It is important to clearly communicate these benefits to children that consider quitting music lessons. They should know what they are letting go of. 

It is crucial to let music learners experiment and have fun. If it becomes too serious, it quickly turns demotivational. On the other hand, if the students enjoy playing, they will be more interested in practicing and unintentionally improve their skills. A lot of children think they need to work very hard and do boring exercises to be successful. The truth is that you could become a good musician just by having fun and playing around. Experimenting and improvising can lead to a higher sense of achievement, which is an important factor. Music teachers should encourage students to play around and not be afraid to be terrible. And acknowledge hard work. 

Through my research, I also realized how important the social aspect is. Especially for children, sense of belonging is critical. If you are the only one in your family or friend group that plays an instrument, it could be hard to maintain motivation. Other activities such as football and handball offer a higher level of team spirit. I knew this in beforehand, but got surprised when understanding how big of an impact it really makes. I have been writing about pros and cons with digital music education, and the social situation is an important aspect to consider. 

Conflicts – what makes people quit?

This became one of my big research questions. It seems like a lot of people quit music education because of a lack of time. This means that they find other activities more valuable. But why are they prioritizing football over piano lessons? Throughout my research, I found eight answers to this question. To a great degree, they summarize my learnings written in the paragraph above. 

  1. Lack of social aspect
  2. Wrong difficulty level
  3. Too little focus on the benefits
  4. Time-consuming transportation
  5. Practicing becomes boring
  6. Too much focus on performance
  7. Low attention span
  8. It gets serious too quickly 
    – it is important to have fun and play around

Reference

Miller, S (2023). We’re Teaching Music to Kids All Wrong. The New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/23/opinion/teach-music-better.html

by ingrid.hjelm-hansen -

Reflections: Strict Music Teachers and Online Educational Platforms

In this fourth blog post, I will use the opportunity to reflect around my chosen topic and contemplate recent discoveries. I recently came across a student opinion article in The New York Times, and it made me think about the importance of good music education and how to measure it. 

The article is based on a guest essay from Sammy Miller, a Grammy-nominated drummer and founder of a music education company. He states that “We’re Teaching Music to Kids All Wrong”, which results in children losing their excitement and enthusiasm for music. He mentions several different advantages children could get if they stick to music, such as being better in math and physics and getting a higher level of conscientiousness. Nevertheless, lack of interest results in plenty early ended music careers. He is wondering why parents and educators are not better at encouraging children to continue, because they never seem to be expressly thankful to have quit music at an early age. In his guest essay, I want to point out this paragraph: 

In my 15 years as a musical educator, talking to countless teachers, I’ve learned one thing: There is no magical fix. Making music education more successful doesn’t need to involve expensive digital accessories or fancy educational platforms (and I say that as someone who developed an online educational platform). There’s no technological or financial program that will convert children into lifelong music lovers.

Even though he has participated in the development of the online music educational platform Playbook, he states that it would not have the capability to convert children into lifelong music lovers. He continues writing that it is necessary to rethink how we teach music from the ground up, and emphasizes the fact that children should be allowed to play around. According to Miller, we should encourage children to be terrible. Many children associate music with a difficult undertaking they cannot hope to master, which in the end leads them to giving up. It should not be like that. They should be thought the usefulness of failure. 

Kanioko

Now back to the student opinion article written by Jeremy Engle. The reason why he writes about Millers guest essay, is because he wants to research out if his statements are based on true stories. He asks students: Do we really need better music education? He wants to find out if students agree with the statement that we are teaching music the wrong way. He lists 6 questions related to the topic, and students 13 and older in the United States and Britain, and 16 and older elsewhere, are invited to comment. 

After reading the comments, I truly understood the frustrations and difficulties children goes through while learning new instruments. The article now has 153 comments and as far as I can see, all the commenters agree with Millers statements. They write about how it is to be forced to learning new instruments, and how challenging it is to face strict, perfectionist music teachers. Many of the students commenting ended up quitting music themselves because of low feeling of mastery, which they subsequently find sad. 

I think the numerous advantages of music may disappear if the performer ceases to find joy in the experience. The children need to find their own motivation, and the job of the teacher is to develop it further. Strict rules and perfectionist goals do not contribute. 

I also want to highlight Millers statement about online educational platforms. Personally, I learned to play the trumpet and piano in a traditional way. Even though it was hard to concentrate at times and I truly relate to some of the students’ comments, I also enjoyed the analog format. Throughout my youth, I used music to escape from everyday life and the digital society in general. After staring into my computer and mobile device for hours, the fifteen minutes I spent in front of the piano was used to completely disconnect from digital platforms. It might be a bias while researching this topic, but I find it hard to believe that a digital educational platform really could displace the feeling of escape from analog sheet music. 

Some valuable thoughts and reflections entered my head after reading this article and the attached comments. I do not know what I will end up doing in this project, but now I know that it is important for me to research the possibility to make something fun and playful, preferably in an analog format. 

Reference

Engle, J. (2023, September 29). Do We Need Better Music Education?. The New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/29/learning/do-we-need-better-music-education.html