Peter, I'm not at all surprised that your Grade V (piano?) student didn't know anything about Elgar or Bach. Your comments raise some serious issues:
Firstly, the school approach to music nowadays is CRASH, BANG. Sadly, these are the frequent sounds which emanate from most comprehensive high school music departments, in my experience. The private system would be more "in tune" (pardon the pun) with the requirements for serious study, I suggest to you, but if parents aren't themselves educated then they wouldn't necessarily question the course content.
Secondly, many parents put their children into private schools to give them a social advantage (which I'm not opposed to, BTW) and learning a musical instrument is often considered an additional refinement, that is all.
Thirdly, the vocational orientation of courses now on offer at most universities (well, this is how it is in Australia at least) foster the notion that a good grounding in culture-related subjects is surplus to requirements!! It's the utilitarianism thing gone mad.
Also, my own experience with a systemic syllabus in learning an instrument, such as Australian Music Examinations Board, paradoxically did not foster a love of classical music. I started learning at 35 and already had a huge, in-depth knowledge of music and I often said to my teacher/s that there was nothing about the syllabus which actually encouraged a love of music. There were typically unfortunate responses to my observations but, years later, I stand behind this. The viva voce sections, for example, encouraged glib responses to complex issues; no student was required to show evidence of further musical engagement beyond weekly lessons; the broad strokes painted over many stylistic musical periods could be rote learned by youngsters without real engagement; many teachers had scant knowledge themselves; the isolation of popular culture from the syllabus was counter intuitive and no point of reference was established to compare different kinds of music in order to show the profundity of western art music.
Lastly, there is the whole process of preparing students for examinations which will probably send only a very, very few into the conservatory. The rest who don't make it there (and this is desirable, since there is already inherent difficulty in pursuing a professional career) aren't left with an intrinsic love of music, just a piece of paper and, hopefully, some skills they will go on to use in their daily lives.
These comments are sure to engender controversy as they did when I was an outspoken student!!
Last edited by Bonn1827; Yesterday at 11:37 PM. Reason: Peter Piper picked a peck of picked peppers! (So they say)
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Firstly, the school approach to music nowadays is CRASH, BANG. Sadly, these are the frequent sounds which emanate from most comprehensive high school music departments, in my experience. The private system would be more "in tune" (pardon the pun) with the requirements for serious study, I suggest to you, but if parents aren't themselves educated then they wouldn't necessarily question the course content.
Secondly, many parents put their children into private schools to give them a social advantage (which I'm not opposed to, BTW) and learning a musical instrument is often considered an additional refinement, that is all.
Thirdly, the vocational orientation of courses now on offer at most universities (well, this is how it is in Australia at least) foster the notion that a good grounding in culture-related subjects is surplus to requirements!! It's the utilitarianism thing gone mad.
Also, my own experience with a systemic syllabus in learning an instrument, such as Australian Music Examinations Board, paradoxically did not foster a love of classical music. I started learning at 35 and already had a huge, in-depth knowledge of music and I often said to my teacher/s that there was nothing about the syllabus which actually encouraged a love of music. There were typically unfortunate responses to my observations but, years later, I stand behind this. The viva voce sections, for example, encouraged glib responses to complex issues; no student was required to show evidence of further musical engagement beyond weekly lessons; the broad strokes painted over many stylistic musical periods could be rote learned by youngsters without real engagement; many teachers had scant knowledge themselves; the isolation of popular culture from the syllabus was counter intuitive and no point of reference was established to compare different kinds of music in order to show the profundity of western art music.
Lastly, there is the whole process of preparing students for examinations which will probably send only a very, very few into the conservatory. The rest who don't make it there (and this is desirable, since there is already inherent difficulty in pursuing a professional career) aren't left with an intrinsic love of music, just a piece of paper and, hopefully, some skills they will go on to use in their daily lives.
These comments are sure to engender controversy as they did when I was an outspoken student!!
Last edited by Bonn1827; Yesterday at 11:37 PM. Reason: Peter Piper picked a peck of picked peppers! (So they say)
Bonn1827 is offline Reply With Quote
. So much of the pop-culture is completely mentally unbalanced. I am not saying that anyone is completely sane, I am saying that they need better roots, or to be more grounded and realistic.
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