Music & Education Talks: Music Literacy

Hi, all, I'm Stephanie. And together with Virtual Sheet Music, my videos try to put aspects of music education, life, and the world in a context that can inspire all of us to get talking and sharing together.
Today I want to look at the ever-present debate on reading and writing music, i.e., written musical communication, and whether this is still relevant in an age where recording music is no longer with a pen, but with that dime-a-dozen recording app on smartphones that everyone, musician or not, now has. Certainly many of my students and indeed colleagues increasingly view written theoretical aspects of music as an option rather than a necessity. I've also read numerous articles from the world of music education where music literacy has literally been shelved, substituted by new, generally technological musical experiences. Given the effect that technology has had on music throughout known history, maybe this is as it should be. Couple this with the recognition that there are many successful musicians out there...talking, of course, more about the pop-rock world: Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, Elton John, the Beatles, just to name but a few, who couldn't or who cannot represent their musical ideas in written form...many people understandably feel that musical literacy is an irrelevance, possibly even damaging to innate musical creativity.

So let's get to the bottom of this and see whether any truths can be revealed. Looking firstly at some of our past 20th century musical pop-rock greats, it's an inevitable fact that they were surrounded by all sorts of musicians. Working frequently in a studio means, by default, a certain amount of collaboration happened, you know, between arrangers, writers, musical technicians, and so on. George Martin and the Beatles is an obvious case in point. Now this idea of collaboration is equally important today, if not more so. Rihanna's 2010 album, for example, apparently involved at least 40 musicians in the writing process alone. "So what," you say. Well, should any deficiencies in musicianship, formal or otherwise, exist within individual creators in a collaborative project, well, these would simply be overrided by the sheer number of people involved and the collective resources brought to the table. So it is here that the argument, "Whatever's good for Paul McCartney," falls flat on its face. How much more irrelevant is it to compare oneself with someone who has had a whole retinue of musicians, technicians, arrangers, songwriters, etc. who could therefore compensate for any musical discrepancies?

Turning now to the idea of innate creativity and music being stifled by knowledge, well, this is simply ignorance talking. It is also contradictory. Creativity is constructed on a person's lifetime of experience and experience is the same as education, whether or not it's been formal. The more you know, the more options you have for experimenting with and applying said innate creativity. The less you know, well, the less you are able to use the myriad of materials and stimuli at your disposal because chances are you won't even know they exist. Knowledge does not stifle, it enhances. Both in music and in life itself. As a parallel, compare someone who's traveled extensively to someone who's never left his hometown. I think you get my meaning. For all that, just because you know something doesn't give you the automatic right to descriptions such as original, creative, genius, or unique. You know there's a tipping point, as with the visual arts, the sciences, sports, any subject, really. You know, a curious mixture of immediate environment, physical, psychological make-up, education, formal or otherwise, and good fortune. And all these elements kind of combine as if by magic to transform certain individuals. Creativity, the ability to make new things or think new ideas, and that comes from Merriam-Webster, is essentially recycling what is known and turning it round on its head. If you know very little then, well, good luck to you. Now I've only just started warming up, but as this video is already over the five minute mark, I'm gonna stop here and give you the option of either turning me off, and that's okay, or hearing me rant some more in the next VSM-supplied video, which you'll find in the transcription. Whatever you decide to do though, please join in the debate and give us your point of view. Bye.

Automatic video-to-text transcription by DaDaScribe.com

Thank you for your comment, question or request!

Comment/Question deleted successfully.

Post a comment, question or special request:

Comments or questions must be between 3 and 10,000 characters long.

You may: Login  or  

Otherwise, fill out the form below to post your comment:

Add your name below:


Add your email below: (to receive replies, will not be displayed or shared)


For verification purposes, please enter the word MUSIC in the field below

---