Imagine the following scenario: a 17-year old with straight A's is ready to graduate from high school.
You hand her a difficult piece of prose to read, which she does well.
Next, you ask to write something original in the next 5 minutes--a short essay on something of her choice. She stares blankly, then says "I've never written anything before."
"OK," you say. "Well, I'll tell you a sentence or two, and you can write that down."
You are met with a stare again as she says, "I can't do that."
We'd be shocked if someone could graduate high school without ever having written anything before, or even being able to write down what someone says.
But, in music, we're guilty of this ALL THE TIME.
What's up with Writing Music?
People with many years of lessons under their belts can read music fluently, but often have never written a note on paper, and can't even begin to write down the music they hear.
In fact, I wonder whether a person ever actually does learn to read ANY language fluently if they don't have experience writing words and connecting the written word to the spoken one. We begin teaching this skill to students in preschool who are mastering English.
We might ask if a student, like the high school student in the story above, even has a real understanding of the music she plays. Or, is she like the allegory of a monkey who can type Portugese--a monkey can be trained to look at the symbols and push the corresponding buttons on the typewriter but has no understanding of the meaning of what she types.
Sadly, there are too many music students who are like this.
How do we Train Musicians, not Typists?
We can overcome the weak trend in music education. It starts with having students write music.
Just this week, one of my younger students, who is starting her third year of piano, started writing a short piece. When she started to write middle C, I pointed out that what she was playing was in fact a C but one octave higher, and should be written as such.
She exclaimed, "Oh! That's why that C is at the third space!" And this was a student who has been reading and playing notes for 2 years and doing well for her age. The exercise of doing it the opposite way-- when you can see the keyboard and the note you want, and you can hear it, and then you have to figure out how to write it on the staff-- this registers differently in the brain. It registers is a way that is likely to stick and reinforce what we're teaching.
Better Writers = Better Performers
Not every studio teacher will be comfortable or experienced in helping students write their own original music. Even allowing the space and time for students to do this for a few minutes' of lesson time can have great benefits and help them accelerate ALL of their learning and musicianship.
I know when I began to compose, I found it not only fun and fulfilling, but the exercise made me a much better performer because I saw everything-- dynamics, phrase marks, articulations, repetitions-- in a new light.
I knew, then, exactly why a composer would put those symbols in because I had put those same symbols in my music to gain a desired result.
Shall we Transcribe?
Even if the activity isn't truly composition, great results can be had from transcribing an easy piece or folk song. This can actually be a very effective way to help students learn key signatures: transcribing simple songs in keys with three or four sharps or flats to help students internalize what the key signature really means and why it is so important.
Similar results can be had in the domain of rhythm. Most students, even at a beginning level can quickly develop a good sense of rhythm by clapping and tapping along with their favorite songs. Converting that clapping to written symbols is difficult for many students (and teachers).
Of course, doing drills and working on the reading aspect will help, but don't overlook simply taking a student's favorite song and having them try to write out the rhythm themselves.
I know this can be time-consuming and it is tempting to think, "I don't have time for that!" But it has been my experience that an hour or two devoted to doing this for even a few bars of a couple of songs comes back with many returns in the form of much quicker learning through rhythms in every piece a student attempts after having done it.
Learn By Doing it YOUR Way
Composing and transcribing is fun! All students, but especially kids of this generation, want to do things their own way. They enjoy being creative, whether that's in the form of improvisation or creating their own music or arranging their own way of playing a popular song.
Students will enjoy lessons more and internalize more if they're creating their own way to play something they like.
One of my favorite things about Let's Play Music is that it gets students writing and allows them to finish the curriculum with a short piece they invented themselves.
All of us who help these students continue their studies, and especially those of us who have students who have never written music themselves, must take every opportunity to get students putting the music they make, see, hear, and play down on the page themselves.
The rewards are always worth the time spent to both students and teachers.
In Spring 2018, we are happy to have Dr. Maloy as a guest judge for our own Let's Play Music composers. We have over 1500 3rd-year students in the USA and Canada, and each of them has written an original piece of music before graduating from our program. And, we are happy to tell Dr. Maloy, they still have ten years before they get to graduation.
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