Hi List: I posted this to Susan Butler Tobie but decided I wanted to share
it with the rest of the list. Is anyone else acquainted with the research
referenced? Does it seem reliable, or is it just too recent to consider
comfortable?
Lee Davis, SCSU
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Hi Susan! Welcome to the list. It is the most robust and stimulating list
I know of.
I'm not sure parental demands are the best way to guarantee the survival of
US interest in classical music, but perhaps there is a rationnale
justifying such demands. The recent spate of research studies relating
brain development (especially that pertaining to verbal abilities) to early
childhood music instrumental training provides a reason why such demands
might be justified. Before this research, justifying such demands even to
themselves was not easy for parents. In fact it seemed authoritarian,
arbitrary, and gratuitous. How could we impose what is, after all, a
matter of taste and personal preference upon those who have little power to
defend themselves? School work, yes. Enrichment, yes. But who are we to
insist that our esthetic preferences be adopted by our children?
It now seems that brain development is promoted by musical instrument
training (keyboard and violin family have been studied), and some research
claims that listening to a particular genre (specifically Mozart) increases
intellectual performance. This last claim raises many questions in my
mind, but the research on brain structure using MRI scans seems very solid.
(Re: Jas. Shreeve, Oct. 1966, Discover Magazine).
Also, I think that parental support in very early childhood through K-12
schooling can help establish music study in the child. Let me confess that
my son (now 18) could never remember not taking piano lessons (I think he
started when he was 2). This fall in college is the first time in his life
he has not taken piano lessons. He never asked not to take lessons. My
impression is he never wanted not to take them.
Enjoy this list.
Lee Davis, SCSU
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At 11:16 PM 11/26/98 -0400, Susan Butler Tobie wrote:
>Hi, All! I'm a newcomer to this listserv. I built a Zuckerman Concert
>(?) kit about 25 years ago, but it got hurt in a moving accident years
>and years ago, and I went back to school-teaching. Now that I have some
>leisure, I will get back to work on my instrument. With a little
>patience, the repairs should leave it better than new.
> I've been enjoying your comments on the state of classical music, but
>Hinrich Muller's reply matched my observations. I've been teaching
>piano for 22 years and loving it, but the kids quit as soon as their
>music learning begins to feel like real work. And the parents are so
>afraid of harming their darlings' little psyches that few kids ever
>finish what their parents valued enough to start for them. I've had six
>students who practiced well enough that they eventually could play for
>church and personal enjoyment. It puzzles me, because once my parents
>decided I would learn music, I might as well have said nothing about how
>I felt! They believed that parents knew best, that kids weren't born
>wise and smart, and that I would learn to value music as they did. They
>were right -- but what happened to too many other sets of parents? What
>do you say? Best, Susan near Raleigh, NC
>
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