America vs. The World

By Mike Vaccaro
(from Mike’s Musings #48, our newsletter)

It will be a great day when we see the alphabet and a Keyboard above the blackboard/whiteboard in our elementary schools.

This article is about how we start to learn music.

Let me say first that if someone is born with music inside themself, or decides they can’t live without it, they will learn how to play no matter what. They will teach themselves or study with teachers. Also, of course, the opportunities—thanks to the Internet and better teaching methods—have increased ten-fold over the learning methods available when I started in 1955.

So let’s start with the general way we tend to be introduced to music in the United States The Junior High School band comes to an Elementary School and plays for all the nine-year-old fourth graders. Then students are asked to come up and talk to the band director.

We select an instrument that may or may not reflect our personalities. All instruments have a character of their own and it is best if we can match the character of the young student to that of the instrument they pick.

Many a talented young musician quits because the instrument they select is not correct for their personality. At some point, some students switch to another instrument that better suits them. Unfortunately, others just give up. If parents could attend these events, and if the band directors gave a quick talk about how extroverts should pick trumpet or violin or some other high profile instruments, compared to an introvert that might be happier with a tuba or other low brass instrument, that would be helpful.

Then the next step is to join the elementary school band or orchestra. This gives me the opportunity to thank all the ANGELS that teach elementary and junior high band. This is a career choice that, while incredibly important, is also one of the most difficult jobs someone can choose to do. Imagine a bass trombone major in college teaching oboe, flute, or violin etc.—or any instrument once they begin teaching! I always say these teachers of beginners should study privately each of the instruments they are going to teach for a year until they get a solid understanding of what that particular instrument requires. That’s a nice thought; but, after getting up at 6:00 AM and going to several schools a day, and raising a family, or even getting some rest, makes additional study almost impossible to do.

The next step for a student is to rent or buy an instrument. It is important to rent the instrument from a music store that has someone on staff who specializes in the instrument the student is looking for. Thankfully, rental instruments are much better that they were 50 years ago, so the chances of getting a good rental instrument is much better these days. If the family can afford a professional instrument, they should invest in one because a professional instrument will retain its retail value. And just think if someone handed you an instrument you could play your whole life the day you started. If a professional musician can’t play a student instrument, what chance does the student have?

Sadly, somehow, we often overlook such problems and just keep at it, not even realizing it takes years just to hold an instrument correctly. It is good that most children are still hypnotized at this point in their life which helps with those difficulties.

The next step is to get a good private instructor. Some parents won’t think this important but only because they don’t understand the difficulties and commitment of learning music. I can tell you from my experience even with private instruction it is not easy. Parents also need to know that that they must have an interest in the student’s study of music. I encourage the parents of my students to record these lessons on video, if for no there reason than to demonstrate interest in what the student is learning. Unfortunately, despite all the students who I have taught over the years, only one student’s parent took my advice. That student progressed 300% (or more) faster than the other students.

The rest of the world teaches differently. Some of this I know and some of it was told to me. It seems to me the rest of the world sees the importance in starting on piano or by teaching solfège.

The piano allows us to watch the keys as we learn. It helps us understand why the basic language of western music is the chromatic scale. It is much easier to see the half steps on the keyboard and even tape the names of the notes to the keys. Most American students seem to have a difficulty in understanding why, if you go from one note to another, say, for example, from C to C#, is a half-step and not a whole-step. It is moving from one note to the note above it, much like E to F. It is easy to see and understand but for a beginning instrumentalist who can’t see their keyboard, it is much more difficult.

Since the chromatic scale is the alphabet of music it seems to me that if we learn that first, everything we learn becomes easier in the long run. In English class we learn the alphabet first for that very reason. Everything we write is based on those letters which make up words, then phrases, then sentences, paragraphs, chapters, and books etc. And all the letters are in the front of the room where students can see them all day

It is difficult to help a child to learn and play the chromatic scale as a first lesson, especially when they perhaps can’t even figure out a comfortable way to hold their instrument. Given the relatively low cost of electric pianos these days it seems worth their investment just to teach any instrumentalist the alphabet with which they will, on a daily basis, be interacting. The chromatic scale is the alphabet of music. Never forget that.

Inexpensive keyboards not only to see the notes, but also the solfège sounds, which describe the notes in another way. To play Mary Had A Little Lamb on the piano and with solfège (or words) really solidifies with the eyes, ears, brain, and body on how the alphabet of music really works.

Then there are the beginners who learn by trial and error. No whole steps nor half steps. Just the sound of one note going to another and perhaps a chord someone shows them. This is still a faster way to learn than a note or two a week from a book that has never told the student there is a basis for all they play. The danger in this scenario is the trial and error student may never advance to a point of high artistry without some of the standard learning methods that I am questioning now.

It is the sorrow of my life that I did not learn the chromatic scale by looking at a keyboard, or a few simple songs with the chord in the left hand and the melody in the right hand. Or to take the next step and sing with the piano. Or, for heavens sake, just sing for the love of it, a capella style.

Now at the age of 77 I can sing the chromatic scale and the intervals, too, without the aid of the piano. I sang my first recorded performance this year. It was a great experience. And I am going to start at this age to take regular vocal lessons, and practicing with my little electric piano. It’s a new formula that I feel I should have started with. But we don’t teach that way, even now.

So I guess the point of this piece is there are many ways to learn music and we may want to think of a way to combine the way we learn in American elementary schools in such a way that we integrate the idea of piano and of singing into our early learning processes. To the school music supervisors on this list: I am primarily talking to you because you will have to integrate this thinking in to your curriculum. And to the elementary music teachers: you need to lean on your district music supervisor to change the way your students and their teachers think about learning music.

Some Quotes

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