Week 2: September 12

Letter to Administrator:

Dear Mr. Johnson,

I am writing to you in response to talk of budget cuts that might affect the music department in our district. I want to help you understand some of the many reasons that a music education is imperative for students.

First, music, as well as the other arts, helps to foster and develop a child’s creativity and imagination. Creativity is an important life skill for students to have as we search for solutions to many of the world’s problems, such as finding alternative sources of energy or ways to pollute less. Music gives students a way to express themselves. Learning about music also gives students insight into how other people across time and space lived and thought. Music enhances learning in the other disciplines because some students simply learn best through music. There is even a link between high SAT scores and music participation. For some students, music is what defines their life and gives it purpose, just like sports or clubs for others, and because it is so expensive to study privately, the thought of taking it away from them is heart wrenching. Also, taking music out of school would take away perhaps the one thing that draws them into the building.

Lastly, I want to leave you with a vivid thought. Imagine the world without music. Think about how much that would affect so many aspects of our lives. What would we listen to when we exercise? What would play in our cars as we drove to work? How much less of an impact would a movie be without the scary or happy music in the background? Just like math or reading, kids need help in developing these skills. Waiting until adulthood is not an option because at age nine, one’s aptitude to learn music becomes fixed. And without training children in music, this is the bleak future we face. Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,

Sarah Weslock

Notes:

-Acculturation: getting used to music

-Audiation is to music what thought is to language
-Music is the result of the need to communicate
-Speech/performance is the way we communicate 
-thought/audiation is what we communicate
-music has syntax (string things together, do they make sense?) not grammar
- certain notes can be put together well
-4 music vocabs: listening, performing, reading, writing
-imitation: repeating back
-audiation: involves understanding
-music is not universal

Aptitude:
-potential to achieve musically, based on audiation
-bell curve
-multidimensional: tonal (2 sets of pitches), rhythmic (beat pattern)
-formal instruction (expecting response) vs. informal instruction 

Standards:
P-K
1. Singing/Playing
2. Creating
3. Responding 
4. Understanding