Music Ed.
AlCarruth@aol.com
Thu, 13 Jun 1996 09:28:02 -0400
Laura- Yeah, that's the problem, we 'need to get paid'. Everybody SAYS
that they understand the importance of music, they just don't want to PAY for
it.
Think of the analogy of sports. When I was a kid most of the boys
played baseball and/or basketball in pick-up games, unless, like me, they
were real klutzes. Some of the better ones made the team in High School, but
everybody realized they were primarily in it for fun, and didn't look for any
kind of 'career' in sport. Football was more organized, because you needed
padding and such to play it, and some kind of team organization. Kids who got
into that in the elementary grades were looking toward the High School team,
with college play as a distant dream. There were a very few of the modern
kinds of 'camps' aimed at turning out professionals, but they were VERY
expensive by the standards of the day, and were clearly seen as the province
of the elite few who could afford them AND who had extraordinary talent.
In my dad's day what we would call 'doo-wop' groups were common , but by
the time I was growing up in the late '50s and early '60s they had been
replaced by cheap radios. Rock& roll gradually professionalized what had been
a folk style. In the '50s you could get an electric guitar fairly cheaply
that was as good as any performer's instrument, and for all his moves Elvis
was not that great a guitarist. By the mid-'60s there was no way any garage
band could make the kind of sound they were hearing on recordings or in
concert. Music had 'progressed' in one generation from a pick-up game to
Football Camp. For most people music performance is seen as a luxury
requiring unusual talent, and music itself as a professional product to be
consumed. (Another analogy with baking comes to mind, but need not be
belabored at this point.)
The problem is that music instruction in schools is geared so much in
one of two directions. Either it is seen as an adjunct to the football
program, like cheerleading, or, if there is a classical program, it is viewed
as professional preparation. The value of music in itself is lost. This is
further evidenced by the fact that the only way we can 'sell' music in the
schools now is to push the music/math connection. The one bright spot is
chorus, but very few boys get into that around here.
My point is that music ability is as common as language ability, and for
the same reason; it is part of what we are as a species. The frustration is
that so many people deprive themselves and others of the chance to perform
because of a misperception. It is to be hoped that the increasing interest in
the harp will help in that regard; it being both very accessible and 'deep'
in terms of tradition and repertoire.
Sorry to ramble so. :-)