Music Philosophy Paper Jeremy Finch Music is first and foremost a form of art that attempts to illicit an emotional

response. It can convey happiness, beauty, sadness, and many other emotions and thoughts. It can be something simple or complex. Music can be used for entertainment and for comfort. Depending on the circumstances for the individual, it can be a cathartic experience or used for escapism. Being able to come home after a hard day and either listen to or play music can be a liberating and relaxing experience that helps a person get away from the stress in their life.1 Continuing with this therapeutic line of thought, music has been shown to illicit powerful emotional responses from people who originally seemed emotionally distant. There have been many cases where a person with some type of emotional disorder has not responded verbally or physically to their own family. However, when exposed to music, they connected with it and were able to give an emotional response.2 An example of how music was used in a therapeutic way for a large part of the world was after the terrorist attacks on September 11th. People all over the world sought music as a form of relief and comfort from the tragedy that had just occurred.3 It is clear that if music were to be taken away from the world, people would be robbed of a vital part of everyday life. There is a disturbing line of thought going around that music in schools should be viewed as something extra that is not essential to a student's education. However, if music were to become just an extra that could easily be cut from a school, how would students learn to appreciate music on a deeper level? They would certainly continue listening to it but the chances

Morrison, C. (2006). Music education: Frill or foundation? The Canadian Music Educator, 48(1), 24-26,28-29. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/231185665?accountid=12063 2 Morrison, C 3 Morrison, C

of them listening to and enjoying a piece of classical music would be much lower. It is well known that today's popular music is significantly less complex than most art music yet many people believe that music cannot be objectively measured in terms of quality. These people believe that if they like a certain piece of music, it is good and if they do not like a piece of music, it is bad.4 This mindset is understandable if that person does not have any music education. Of course, there are factual reasons for why a lot of art music is often more satisfying to listen to than most popular music but without knowledge of or experience in playing these types of music, how is a student supposed to gain a deeper appreciation for it?5 Students should be given the opportunity to broaden their musical horizons by taking music education. They deserve to be given the potential of having a greater emotional response to Holst's "Jupiter" than to Bieber's "Baby." Many people advocate that music is important because it helps improve a student's capabilities in other subjects. While it is not wrong to use this as an argument I think that music should be studied simply for the sake of studying it. It provides students with a way to communicate in a nonverbal manner, enriches their lives and gives them a safe environment to show improvement and achievement in.6 This is what I believe to be the ultimate reason to study music, it simply makes your quality of life better (I went into a more detailed explanation of how it does this in the two previous paragraphs). In my mind, an educator is someone who is giving their students the necessary skills and knowledge to succeed in life. How could music not be important to study in every school when it clearly improves your life? Is improving a student's quality of life not helping them succeed?

Kuzmich, N. (2006). What is a music education? what should it be? The Canadian Music Educator, 48(2), 4-5. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/231185038?accountid=12063 5 Kuzmich, N 6 Morrison, C

Another reason to study music is that it helps students gain a better grasp of some basic life values. These values are: "personal growth, differentiation, complexity, enjoyment, selfesteem, and happiness."7 These values are all necessary for an individual to succeed to in today's society. Another important value music education teaches students is the importance of team work. Students in a band or in a choir need to learn to work as a team in order to be successful. Whether it be adjusting your tuning to better match the overall sound or simply giving another musician some encouragement on a difficult passage, music in schools will strongly develop a student's ability to work in a team. In our society, there are a huge amount of jobs that require this skill so why would we not want students to have this opportunity to improve it? One of the most important reasons to study music is that it connects students to the world outside of the classroom.8 One way to do this in a music class is by playing music from many different cultures. For example: unless the curriculum changes again, students may not learn about Russian culture. What better way to introduce students to this than by playing some Rimsky-Korsakov in a band class? Students may also never experience or learn about African culture. They can at least experience some African music in a band class. There are so many different and interesting cultures in the world that to prevent a student from experiencing some of them would be an unfortunate decision. By teaching music in schools, your are opening your student's eyes to the just how big and varied the world is. Some students may have a very narrow vision of what their life could be like but by letting students explore different cultures through music, you might give them more ideas on what they want to do in their life. Considering the huge amount of benefits for teaching music education, I think that all students should at least be given the opportunity to take the class throughout their education. The

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Morrison, C Kuzmich, N

huge variety of music out there means that any student can find music appropriate for its class. If the music class is in a public school, there is tons of secular music to play. If it is in a religious school, there is a huge amount of sacred music to play. Whatever the school is, there is way too much music in this world for that school to not benefit from a music class. From elementary school onwards, music can and should be taught in school. In elementary school, students gain a sense of beat along with some other basic concepts and a necessary appreciation of music in general. In the upper grades the students will start to profit even more from the benefits I have already talked about. In order for students to take advantage of all of these amazing benefits that a music class can bring, an effective music teacher is needed. The music teacher should not be just anyone with any major as their background, they should be a person who has a decent musical background and is very passionate about the subject. A musical background is essential for a music educator because without it, they would have a much harder time grasping all of the intricacies of music. For instance, how can a music teacher instruct their students on how to play an instrument when they themselves have just as little amount of experience as the students. A teacher who has no background in music is going to have to put in hours and hours of work just learning the subject so that they can teach their students at a competent level. The other thing a music teacher needs is passion.9 Truly great music can only be achieved if the performer is playing with passion. This is due to the emotional nature of music. If the player is not immersed in what they are doing, how can they expect the listener to be? Likewise, the music teacher will also need to be passionate in order to get the passion to come out of their students. When an entire band is passionate about making good music, you can tell as soon as you enter the room.

Wasiak, E. (2010). The power of passion. The Canadian Music Educator, 52(2), 5-6. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/857841551?accountid=12063

The environment will be friendly and encourage teamwork. Everyone will be focusing on playing the best music they can. This can only occur if the music teacher encourages this passion by being passionate themselves. The current music curriculum while far too large to cover in a year has a lot of important areas that should at least be touched on. I believe that in order for a student to fully appreciate and understand the music they are playing they will not only need to learn performance skills but also have an appropriate grasp on theory, history and ear training as well. Theory is essential for understanding how the piece works. Some form should be taught to the students so that they can better understand the layout of a piece. Knowledge of theory is also necessary for composition which is another important part of the curriculum as it allows students to explore their creativity. History is necessary for students to not only understand the context of the piece they are playing but also for increasing the students' awareness of different music. It is through music history that students can have their eyes opened to the tremendous amount of different music in the world. Ear training is something from my own secondary education that I noticed was sorely missing. However, in order to get better at tuning, ear training is essential. Interval identification is especially important for choir when the student does not have the benefit of an instrument to slot their notes into the correct place. In conclusion, music is an incredibly important subject and should be a part of every student's education. It has many quality of life benefits, therapeutic benefits, and benefits that help with other aspects of life. Every school should have a music program no matter what grade level or religious orientation it has. The music teachers themselves should have at least some musical background and must be passionate about the subject. If an effective music educator is given a music class, their students will most definitely benefit in a multitude of ways.

Bibliography
Morrison, C. (2006). Music education: Frill or foundation? The Canadian Music Educator, 48(1), 24-26,28-29. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/231185665?accountid=12063 Kuzmich, N. (2006). What is a music education? what should it be? The Canadian Music Educator, 48(2), 4-5. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/231185038?accountid=12063 Wasiak, E. (2010). The power of passion. The Canadian Music Educator, 52(2), 5-6. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/857841551?accountid=12063