Why Music / Orchestra
Below is a stream of consciousness writing but I believe is valuable.
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Orchestra is about mental fitness.
It trains, hones, and sharpens our mental blade and faculties.
Much of the benefits of music or being in an ensemble is up to the director.
Yes, a teacher can just teach by rote, put on a show and call it a day. Sure, that student’s auditory skills will improve.
But in my classroom I try to:
• find patterns for students so they can recognize them in other classes
• use formulas to figure out keys and time signatures
• be a leader from any seat in the section
• encourage positive citizenship
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WHY ORCHESTRA? Why should and do we have orchestra (or anything for that matter?) in schools?
We’ve all heard and given many reasons – to have a musical experience, to cultivate the arts, to allow to kids to ‘express’ themselves (yeah, right), because it’s good for them (it is, but WHY?), etc…
But these are all superficial reasons that only mask much deeper reasons and laws of nature and human nature.
Some say it’s because it fosters self-discipline and habits & ethics of work. That’s not bad. Perhaps it goes even deeper – down to self-sufficiency and trust. Learning an instrument is a true and tactile demonstration of natural law – you can’t run before you can walk and you can’t play the concerto without even learning how to open the case as a child. There is order and sequence. It is about learning about these natural sequences that are immutable and universal.
How about trust? What aspect of trust? The only way to gain trust is to be trustworthy and the only way to be trustworthy is to practice being trustworthy – first to yourself, then to others. How to you learn to be trustworthy to yourself; internally? By making by first making small commitments and keeping them – like saying your going to practice and doing it. Orchestra (and all music, and most other actvities) is a means to practice the muscle of trustworthiness. It is about keeping promises to yourself. You can’t keep promises to others if you can’t first keep them with yourself – YOUR self.
(Obviously, my reading of choice lately has been more Stephen R. Covey.)
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or Viktor Frankl’s Logos – meaning. It gives student’s lives meaning.
