MUSIC BETWEEN THE AGES OF SIX AND TEN
The question "_When_ should music education begin?" is now coming to be
"_How_ should music education begin?"; because we now recognize that
music should play a large role in the first five years of child life.
Soon after six the child enters school. Here the principles of
educational psychology, now so effectively applied to other primary and
elementary school subjects, have revolutionized the presentation of
music. This has of course been favored by the recognition of music on
the level of the three R's. Music has come to function in the school not
only as something to be learned but primarily as something to be lived.
Primary teachers are, or will be, trained specifically for this subject.
The old conflict between enthusiasts for rote singing, on the one hand,
and for technical sight reading, on the other, is vanishing. The
approach to music is following new avenues involving diversified action,
creative imagination and thinking in music, recognition of individual
differences, freedom for individual expression of musical feeling,
opportunity for sampling various avenues of choice in expression, the
association of music with play, dance, and dramatic action, opportunity
for hearing music at the child's level, avoidance of the fostering of a
narrow precocity, and recognition that there is music everywhere--in
speech, in play, in nature.
Parents who now aim to provide private lessons for formal training in
some aspect of music must lay their plans in the light of all these
facts which have come into view so strikingly in the school. They must
understand and evaluate the significance of this movement in the school,
the new status of music, the new role of private instruction in music,
and the availability of a private teacher who can dovetail with these
new facilities and responsibilities. In the hope of giving some helpful
suggestions in regard to this planning, I wish to present some
psychological considerations which are, at the present time,
reconstructing the theory and practice of private lessons in music at
this age.
_A broadened conception of music._ In Chapter II I pointed out that
children coming out of a favorable music situation in the home, the
preschool, the kindergarten, and other school and playground activities
have attained rather astonishing achievement. Let me repeat, for
emphasis:
"During the first six years there should be no formal musical
instruction; but by the end of that period, the musical child should
have gradually acquired a sense of appreciation for musical sounds,
pleasure in self-expression in musical intonations, confidence in
his ability to compose a tune, some proficiency in singing and good
speech, and some degree of satisfaction in free playing with an
instrument."
This achievement now accomplished in many preschool communities presents
a challenge to the primary teacher and the supervisor of music in the
public schools. And, where pupils come without such preparation or
background, they must begin from scratch and offer a substitute for it
in more concentrated form.
Private lessons should be built upon this background and designed to
carry this type of program forward during the next four years with
progressive enrichment of opportunities on the basis of talent thus
revealed and with these types of activity as a goal in the beginnings of
formal training.
This point of view turns a large part of the job of the private music
teacher over to the primary school where it is favorably developed;
because only in the group activity and in the avocational attitude with
the avocational atmosphere under technically qualified teachers can this
program of musical education find its best fruitage for children in
general. The private teacher is falling from her high pedestal of the
power to cast the child's musical mind in the pattern of her own image
within a limited musical skill at this age. On the other hand, the ideal
of the school situation which I have pictured will play happily into her
hands by furnishing a background for a systematic study of voice or a
particular instrument.
In this procedure, the child's interest may well concentrate around a
single instrument. Furthermore, we are just awakening to the fact that
voice development should begin in this period. New techniques for the
development of a beautiful voice are coming in, and are adapted to this
age. They should play an important role in this orientation period, and
the child's interest may concentrate around this, as well as around an
instrument, especially through the association of artistic forms of
speech with song.
_The analysis of talent._ Music educators are coming now to a
recognition of the principle that musical education, public and private,
should be given in proportion to the possession of natural talent and in
the direction for which the most favorable indication is found on the
ground of specific talents. Such talents reveal themselves through the
daily activities of the schoolroom, where the alert teacher understands
their significance and directs them wisely. There are certain basic
abilities which are favorable to a musical life. Some of these can be
measured accurately with the _Seashore Measures of Musical Talents_ in a
revised edition now available through the RCA Victor agencies. They are
concerned with the senses of pitch, loudness, time, timbre, and rhythm,
together with tonal memory. These may be given individually to children
between the ages of six and ten if administered with good judgment and
the child is not required to write the answers. However, if the teacher
is trained in the musical analysis of talent and the critical
observation of children's behavior, inceptive achievement, and interests
in the musical situation, it is possible to proceed without instruments,
since the teacher will know what to listen for and will be competent to
observe with sufficient accuracy for the purpose in hand. After the
fourth grade, "measures of talents" may be given either as individual or
as group tests. They may furnish a key to the most natural development
of musical type; such as, the tonal, the dynamic, the temporal, or the
balanced types, on the basis of degree of responsiveness to each of
these factors as well as on other specific adaptations for voice or
instrument. The teacher who has such concrete facts in hand will observe
and plan the child's development more critically. Every private teacher
should have a conception of the significance of individual differences
in talent, and might well utilize measurements of this kind in the
studio. The progressive private teacher should also be able to serve
parents in an advisory capacity on such matters.
It is not necessary that the teacher should be an expert in testing; but
it is essential that she should understand the nature of musical talents
and have the sort of insight into child life which has been developed so
splendidly in recent scientific studies of child behavior, especially
with reference to the recognition of natural abilities, the early
fostering of these, the devising of effective motivation, the awarding
of praise and blame, and the setting up of standards of achievement
recognizable by the child. It is, furthermore, reasonable to demand that
the teacher herself should present a good voice in song and speech, have
some proficiency and ingenuity in the manipulation of simple
instruments, and feel deeply the love of music.
_Group instruction._ The old-fashioned piano lesson was at fault in
various respects. First, time was taken to tell the pupils,
individually, the elements of musical notation; second, the main
function seemed to be to make the pupil "get" his lesson; and third, the
child was expected to acquire a love of music through the technical
approach. These things are now changing. The pupil now coming from the
respectable primary school already has acquired the elements of sight
reading, both from ear to eye and eye to ear. Any new element in
notation can certainly be picked up incidentally as needed, without
waste of time. The position of the teacher as a taskmaster is also
disappearing. True, that eliminates many a pupil, but probably without
much loss to the musical life of the community. The child comes to the
private teacher already motivated with a feeling and urge for music.
Musical achievement is no longer counted in terms of the number of
lessons taken.
The function of the teacher is far more to motivate than to teach. The
thing that counts is how long and faithfully the pupil works to acquire
the proficiency which can only come through practice. What can be taught
in one lesson should suffice for several times as much practice as is
ordinarily expected. Better than having the teacher crack the whip for
many periods would be to give the time available for lessons to the
pupil for practice and use more remunerative rewards, even a percentage
of the teacher's fee, to encourage self-help in a larger assignment
through adequate practice.
One of the significant advancements in private instruction for children
of this age lies in the direction of class or group instruction. No
effort is made to force all children into the same cast. Small groups
are formed on the pattern of chamber music, taking children of matched
abilities and interests and using music progressively adapted to their
level. Many forms of class instruction have failed on the ground of the
teacher's inability to use informal procedures in some form of project
method. Duets, trios, quartets, all in the competitive and play mood,
can accomplish great things, even with the youngest children. Few
private teachers have awakened to a realization of the fine
possibilities in that approach. This method is especially adapted to
primary instruction in private music schools in which there are enough
pupils to make competitive promotions from group to group. Most of the
musical information and the motivated drill can be accomplished through
the group. The recognition of this principle may lead to the development
of extracurricular and private organizations under an inspiring teacher
or group of teachers for private instruction.
_Formal lessons delayed._ The principal point I wish to stress is that
musical education should not begin with formal lessons on one
instrument. Except in the case of rarely-gifted children, such
specialized instruction should come naturally after the general musical
interests have been awakened and the natural abilities have been
revealed. Technical private lessons for children in general should
therefore be begun considerably later than has been customary. In this
there is a threefold saving: First, except in rare cases, rigid
technique of instruction can be responded to much more economically
after the age of eight or ten than before. A ten-year-old will acquire
more than twice as much in a single lesson as a six-year-old. This will
apply even to the much "touted" necessity for early finger development.
Second, during this period the child should have the freedom to try
himself out spontaneously with diversified encouragement in the
development of specific interests; and third, it will take the aspect of
drudgery away from the music lesson. To these may be added the fact that
this liberal procedure helps to give the child a feeling that he is
living music rather than learning it. It involves the play attitude in
the acquisition of an art. The attitude of feeling the necessity for
hard work, which is a very real necessity in music, can best be
cultivated formally after the age of eight or ten.
_A sympathetic listener._ Although circumstances may alter cases,
facility in piano playing might well be regarded as a foundation work in
the approach to other instruments. The child's preference for a
particular instrument is generally childish and will change in the
normal course of development. An analysis of case histories would make
an interesting study on this point. The development of skills in a
particular instrument should always be accompanied by opportunities for
sharing the pleasure in this skill with other children and the presence
of a sympathetic listener in the teacher and the parents. What the child
of the primary-school age needs is more a sympathetic and critical
listener than a task-driver. This type of approach will discredit the
now so prevalent artificial ways of symbolizing music by attempting to
force the teacher's affected and stilted imagery upon the child's
musical mind, which may run naturally in much more effective channels.
It is a notable fact that the great musicians who emerged as very
precocious made their early and distinctive progress far more through
freedom for self-expression than through instruction from the masters.
In brief, the private lesson to the child should pattern, at the child's
age level, after the procedure followed in adult instruction in music at
its best; namely, that of sympathetic and inspiring criticism and
guidance rather than the dealing out of predigested pellets of
interpretation and technique. The general attitude to be cultivated in
the child should therefore be freedom for self-expression rather than
mere willingness to absorb set tasks. In this attitude the problem of
scales, exercises, and calisthenic techniques will come in the natural
course of events without being forced.
_Music lovers vs. virtuosi._ One of the first essential steps in
training at this level is to educate the mother to the notion that only
in very rare cases will the child become a virtuoso or a professional
musician, and that she has no right to pose as an exhibitioner. The
normal child is richly endowed with powers for diversified development.
By too early emphasis upon a "gift" it is possible to produce
monstrosities and pathological temperament. True, a gifted child
beginning, for example, by taking lessons at five and being effectively
motivated, may produce extraordinary results before ten, but generally
at the expense of a normal development of the child as a person. An
ill-guided enthusiast can make of the bright normal child a mathematical
freak or a contortionist before the age of ten; but who wants that for
the welfare of the child? It is a form of human sacrifice. The time for
intensive specialization should normally come after the age of ten.
Parents and teachers should shun the development of precocity as they
shun disease. Indeed, in ninety cases out of a hundred, excessive
precocity is a form of disease, a distortion of the normal personality.
The goal in musical education in this period should be to recognize
individual differences, natural capacities, and native interests and
urges in their natural stages for the development of a well-rounded
personality. We have long since abandoned the notion that every girl
should play the piano. What we need to learn now is that we should not
allow the musically-gifted child to die with all the music in him, and
that the musically gifted should not be exploited. The middle ground is
that all children who have musical ability should learn to love music
and live it naturally, each according to his ability.
THOUGHT REVIEW
General Principles
(1) Music should function early in the life of the child.
(2) The primary grades should constitute a period of orientation.
(3) By the end of this period talent should have been discovered and
analyzed.
(4) Voice training should be given a permanent place in all the grades
for both boys and girls.
(5) Music is a skill which should be learned and lived rather than be
taught.
(6) Wise motivation should replace much teaching.
(7) Nomenclature, sight reading, and musical information should be
taught in classes, not by individual instruction.
(8) The principle of rivalry should be encouraged.
(9) For most children formal music lessons may be begun most
effectively about the age of ten.
(10) Forced precocity and exhibitionism should be discouraged.
Questions to Consider
(1) Why is development of the love of music the principal objective at
this age?
(2) What voice training, aside from rote singing and speech, should be
offered in the grades?
(3) Should the piano be favored as the first instrument?
(4) Is it possible to have a primary-grade "orchestra"?
(5) What is the function of achievement tests in music at this age?
(6) What factors have been most effective in putting love of music
into the public schools?
(7) How can progress in music be enhanced by children's opportunities
for performing among themselves?
(8) Should any children be excused from participation in musical
instruction offered in the primary grades?
Discuss These Situations
(1) Here is a gifted young woman, well trained in music and in
psychological and educational methods, zealously devoted to her
art, who desires to establish a career as a private music teacher
for children. Characterize her procedure in contrast to the
procedure of her professional forbears.
(2) Here is a young man or woman, similarly gifted, and well
trained and critical. What pitfalls of prevalent tendencies in
public-school music of today should he or she avoid?