Who says?

David Bornstein writes in a recent NY Times "Opinionator" column, "Music education hasn’t changed fundamentally since the 1970s. Students are still taught to read notation so they can recite compositions that they would never listen to on their MP3 players or play with friends. The four “streams” in music education — orchestra, chorus, marching band and jazz band — have remained constant for four decades, while a third generation is growing up listening to rock and pop music. And my experience as an eight-year-old (giving up piano lessons after a few months) is all too common. Many children quit before making progress with an instrument, then regret it as adults. Others play violin or trumpet for the school orchestra or band, then drop the instrument after graduating from high school."

While Mr. Bornstein does go on to state, "This is a loss for all. Playing music enriches life. That’s why so many adults wish that they could play an instrument, particularly guitar or piano, which are ideally suited for playing with others. The question is: Why do schools teach music in a way that turns off so many young people rather than igniting their imagination?"

The entire column can be found here.

I'll admit...it looks cool.

What Mr. Bornstein is advocating for is a program called Little Kids Rock, in which young, primarily lower income, students are furnished with guitars and taught to play popular music "not by notation, but by listening, imitation and meaningful experimentation."  Dave Wish, the founder of Little Kids Rock, says that “Making music is as much a physical act as it is a cognitive act.  We don’t begin with theory when we want to teach a child to play tee-ball. We just bring the kid up to the tee, give them a bat, and let them swing.”  Hmmm, sounds an awful lot like Suzuki method for the guitar to me (and Bornstein admits that):  show the young person a few fundamentals by rote and they go to town.

I have to argue with the author when he states, "We do a disservice to children when we force them in school to learn jazz or classical music because we think it’s good for them. Too often, rather than creating an entry point for a life of music appreciation, this approach tends to weed out those who don’t make an immediate connection with the music, or don’t have parents who force them to stick it out."  I strongly feel, and have at least anecdotal evidence to back my claim, that great music always wins out.  Students don't understand Beethoven because they've not been taught anything to "hang their hat on."  (I've given them that and have seen "problem children" leave the room singing the master's themes.)  Opera has the great barrier of language, but get over that and who can't get drawn into tales of horror, mystery, thievery and death--wildly costumed--and set to the greatest music ever known to man?

I think its wonderful and anything that gets young people passionate about anything positive is a good thing, so I am not going to knock Little Kids Rock, the Suzuki method, or any other pedagogy that turn our youth on to music.  My problem is with those who insist that "classical music" (whatever the hell that term means) is somehow irrelevant in our contemporary world.

Royal Albert Hall, selling over 5500 per concert!

Speaking of which, this just in from the BBC Proms, the annual festival of concerts held primarily at Royal Albert Hall in London.  The main evening concerts, held this year without big name ensembles such as the Berlin and Vienna Philharmonic Orchestras, sold at an amazing 94% of capacity with 52 of 74 concerts totally sold out.  Another two million viewers tuned in on BBC2 television.  As Norman Lebrecht states, "The downside?  There isn't one."

And next year?  (Remember that the Olympics will be in London?)  Daniel Barenboim brings the West-Eastern Divan (consisting of young Egyptian, Iranian, Israeli, Jordanian, Lebanese, Palestinian, Syrian and Spanish musicians) will offer a complete Beethoven cycle at the Proms, with the Ninth Symphony to be presenting on the evening the games begin.

Somebody needs to tell these young people that Beethoven isn't relevant anymore.  I don't think they've heard.

Oh, and Mr. Borenstein, in case you haven't heard, there's this thing called the concert band.  Some call it a wind ensemble.  That which we call either one plays marches sitting down and plays bery few improv solos.  Check it out sometime....