Piano, to learn or not to learn?(4) What to learn without learning the piano?—— music

原创 Chairman Rabbit tuzhuxi 2024-04-06 07:55 广东

Rabbit Chairman 20240406

The answer is that I am a father who attaches great importance to the education of my children, and I also think about whether I can provide my children with an education that is suitable for the future era, not only about myself, but also about the country. It is said that there are 20 million children learning piano in China, and one in every few primary school students is learning piano, which is the largest in the world in terms of coverage and penetration. A lingering question is: In the era of entering a new round of scientific and technological revolution led by artificial intelligence, the whole society is seeking a new quality of productive transformation, and the new generation of young people is facing an unprecedented fierce competition for talents in the future, is it reasonable for Chinese families to invest extracurricular education resources in European middle-class families one or two hundred years ago? Is our education advancing with the times? Are we preparing our children? Will we let our children be eliminated by the times? In this article, we will discuss what kind of education should be provided for children if they do not learn the piano (or other instruments with a longer learning cycle).

1. Why do ordinary families want to learn piano? From 18th to 19th century Europe to contemporary society

2. Why piano education is so popular among contemporary Chinese families

3. Some problems in piano education

4. Which families and children are more suitable for piano learning?

(3) Who is suitable for learning the piano?

5. If you don't learn piano, what will you learn?

Learning piano seems to help parents "solve" many pain points at the same time. According to the latest analysis, what should children learn if they don't learn the piano (and other long-term, high-profile instrumental education)? Here are some suggestions. If you and your family are struggling with what your child should learn outside of class in preschool and elementary school, this article is for you.

First, let's make a few points clear.

First, the historical background and social value of learning piano from upper-class and middle-class families in Europe in the 18th ~ 19th centuries no longer exist, and when formulating a ability development plan for children in the 21st century, it is necessary to consider the future era and prepare the children for the future (refer to the author's article "Three Abilities (and Educational Goals) in the AI Era - Questions and Answers on AI and Education"

Second, piano learning is not suitable for all children in society, but only for certain groups of people;

Thirdly, objectively speaking, piano learning is helpful to children (I'm afraid it's better than children not learning anything), but for most children, the input-output ratio of piano learning is very low, and due to the huge cost of precipitation, there is a strong risk of path dependence (continue to learn head-on, continue to take exams, until the goal is completed);

Fourth, we must consider the opportunity cost of learning piano, that is, what do children (and parents) give up when they invest so much time, money and energy into learning piano, and can children learn something else?

Fifth, the abilities and benefits that children gain by learning the piano can be "broken down" and can be "supplemented" through other activities - and not just "made up", but better - through participating in other activities, they can obtain more effective, higher quality, more future-oriented, and more suitable for the child's own returns.

Here's how.

1) Music education

The reason why many people value piano is that piano education belongs to music education, which is related to art, aesthetics, and cultivation, which is not available in other education (such as sports).

Here I would like to express a few personal observations.

First, piano education is not the same as musical and cultural quality education. The essence of contemporary piano education and training is to train muscle/body memory, which is completely integrated with the instrument. From this point of view, piano training is actually close to that of sports athletes. A person who plays the piano well only has good skills and memory, and is a senior craftsman, but it does not mean that this person has "culture", and it does not mean that he has learned, accumulated, attained, and has views on art, history, and philosophy. There are also many retro nostalgic people who believe that the performers in the past were all cultural intellectuals and great "teachers", and now they are more like craftsmen. On the one hand, this only beautifies the performers of the past, who do not have such a high "cultural level"; on the other hand, the educational environment of the past performers may pay more attention to the improvement of "cultural classes" and comprehensive cultivation, while the current education pays more attention to the training of physical skills. It is true that a person needs to have a level of education in order to transcend the "craftsman" in the piano, truly improve, and even become a master, but these cultural levels can be made up later, such as when he is older - not when he is four or five years old to ten years old (the average person goes from learning the piano to the age of passing the ninth or tenth grade). Therefore, piano education is not the same as music and cultural accomplishment education.

Second, it is not necessary to acquire musical and cultural qualities through the piano. In order to improve the cultural accomplishment education such as literature, art, history and philosophy, it is enough to directly "take cultural classes", and it is not limited to music: film, photography, literature, poetry, drama, sculpture, architecture, installation art, art history, fashion, cooking, all kinds of arts, far more than just the piano.

Third, music quality is no longer "cultural capital" today, but more of a personal hobby. If 100~200 years ago, European intellectuals got together to talk about music, literature, poetry and art, and not knowing music is no different from being illiterate; for example, in China, intellectuals want to talk about calligraphy and painting, poetry, and cultural pursuits and hobbies. In the past, literature, art, history, and philosophy were all "social capital" held by the upper class and elite society, which could be used to distinguish classes/strata. More than 10 or 20 years ago, the only musical skill that had some social utility was singing—singing a song at karaoke with colleagues and friends. But even this form of activity has gradually faded from the stage of history. In today's world, music is basically a "personal hobby", talking about music is only valid for a certain group of people, the hobby of music is by no means more "advanced" than other hobbies, and serious music topics other than pop music gossip are only suitable for being confined to the "private domain" - for example, don't come out and claim that you like to collect Wagner, you are very interested in the interpretation of Bach's keyboard works or Beethoven's piano works, especially the German experimental rock and experimental electronics of the 70s and 80s, and the European neo-folk songs of this century - Except for the small circle, other people will not think that you are of high quality, they just think that you are a nerd or even "not quite normal". In short, musical quality and accomplishment no longer have a halo today, and are no longer a "social capital" with a special status. Today's elites talk more about international and domestic situations and politics, new knowledge of science and technology, economics and finance, and lifestyle (including travel, diet, sports, and health). This knowledge is the "cultural capital" of the contemporary elite. Therefore, music education has lost its social value in the past. As mentioned earlier, piano education is not the same as music education, let alone cultural education, and the piano is even farther away from the "talking points" of today's cultural elites.

To sum up, we should treat music education and piano education with a "normal heart", and establish a more realistic and balanced music education goal:

First, music is regarded as a kind of personal accomplishment, personal hobby, and personal quality that children should develop and cultivate. Music is personal cultivation, don't give music too much "social value";

Second, use music to empower children and help them build a long-term healthy relationship with music. The focus is on exploring children's true love and interest in music, establishing a rich, three-dimensional, comprehensive and sustainable relationship with music, improving children's aesthetics and sensibility, allowing children to gain emotional and emotional strength from music, and when children grow up, they can immerse themselves in the world of music for life, swim freely in the ocean of human music, benefit from music for life, and pass it on to the next generation;

Third, deal with the relationship between music and the development of other abilities: unless the child is particularly suitable for music and wants to develop it into a lifelong career, it is necessary to pay attention to avoid one-sided attention to music, pay too much attention to music, and even let music be "opposed" to other hobbies and ability training (often due to the excessive time taken up by instrument training).

In the previous article, we have already introduced which children (and families) are suitable for high-intensity piano training ("Piano, To Learn or Not to Learn?" (3) Who is suitable for learning the pianoSo, for other children, what kind of music education should be carried out?—— "Music General Education" is needed, and finally musical literacy (music literacy, music-savvy).

a) Flexible and diverse instrumental learning. Learning an instrument is the most intuitive way for a child to be exposed to music, and there are other intellectual benefits of learning an instrument. My suggestion is: you can learn an instrument, but you can learn a variety of them, and you don't need to focus on learning one or learn one for a long time.

- Keyboard music: piano can be learned, but it is not necessarily necessary to learn piano, and it is also possible to learn electronic organ, the core is to understand keyboard music. Moreover, the electronic organ can simulate different musical instruments, and can generate accompaniment on its own, forming more expressive music, which can actually reach the core of music;

- Strings, pipes, and percussion are all recommended to try, mainly based on children's own interests;

- Western music, traditional Chinese music, world folk music, classical, modern, and popular music can all be tried without borders;

- The purpose of learning musical instruments is to understand and understand music: to understand the way different musical instruments are played, their expressions, their characteristics, their relationship with music, and how musical instruments interact with each other;

——Pay attention to the sociality of musical instrument education, and learn musical instruments with "group attributes" and "social attributes": The problem of piano is that it is basically a "single household", and children practice by themselves, and they cannot socialize when they exercise, or even "anti-social" (that is, it is not conducive to socialization). Socialization is a core skill in the future of human society, so children should be encouraged to join orchestras and participate in group performances. In this case, the choice of musical instruments should be based on the needs of society and the needs of the group. Wind ensemble, for example, can be learned, as the time required is shorter. The social nature of instrumental learning should be included in the learning objectives. (Some musical instruments, such as the guitar, are elements of popular music and have a particularly strong social attribute, but these instruments can also be learned by children when they are older);

- "Metaphysical" method of learning musical instruments. In terms of developing musicality and musical ability, the more instruments you know, the better your understanding of music will be. But this does not mean that you have to spend a lot of time mastering different instruments, but you are relatively familiar with one or two or two or three instruments, and on this basis, you can be exposed to more than a few instruments, but you only need to form a certain cognition, and you do not need to be proficient. The purpose of learning is to understand the attributes, characteristics, interrelationships, commonalities, and musicality of different musical instruments, so that the more types of musical instruments you know, the richer the types, and the more helpful it will be to understand. This is similar to learning a language, in the modern world, you don't need to be proficient in so many languages unless you have a special need. In addition to the mother tongue, you should be familiar with one subject (e.g. English) and learn other languages in general (except for those with strong interests). After having a certain cross-language foundation. Learning linguistics is actually better than specializing in a language, and you can grasp the essence of the language better.

For music general education, "learning a musical instrument" is not about mastering which subject, not about how many "levels" you get: learning an instrument, in the final analysis, is to open the door to the world of music, to master a tool for self-regulation of emotions, entertainment, enrichment of the mind and emotions, and also to make more friends.

b) Vocal music (singing).

To open the door to the world of music, it is certainly helpful to know a little bit of instrumentality, but it doesn't have to be through an instrument, because the human voice is a musical instrument in itself, and the human voice can express music in the first place, and it may be the best way to express music. In China's compulsory education stage, most school music classes are mainly about singing. In addition, children can further learn to practice singing, including taking professional vocal lessons, participating in choirs inside and outside the school, and practicing in their spare time. If parents like to sing, they can also sing with their children.

Let's talk more about the benefits of rapping.

First, from the perspective of ease of learning, there are many benefits to vocal music/singing:

- You don't need to rely on musical instruments, you can sing at any time;

- You don't need to rely on a specific scene, you can also sing when you take a bath;

——The learning cycle is short, for many people with strong musicality, if it is just popular singing, for the sake of musical expression, entertainment, socialization, and do not need to learn very professionally, there is no teacher, pay more attention to practice, and you can sing well;

- It is very social, because it is easy to combine with group activities such as choral singing;

- Strong relevance to real life: for example, it is highly integrated with entertainment activities (listening to pop music, singing pop songs, etc.).

Second, vocal music/singing is direct music education:

Vocal music does not need to rely on the "external thing" of musical instruments, but uses the human voice and the human body as the carrier to directly express music, interpret music, and create music, which is the most direct combination of people and music. Therefore, letting children learn and practice vocal music is the most direct music education, helping children to establish and improve their ability to appreciate, feel and express music.

Third, vocal music/singing can help children improve their language and cognitive skills:

When a child sings, he uses his or her vocal cords to make a sound and express music. Practicing singing can help children better grasp rhythm, rhyme, voice expression, tone selection and the use of the whole voice, which is helpful for cultivating speech ability, speaking ability and comprehensive language ability. In addition, singing generally requires lyrics, and through singing, children can absorb and master the information in the lyrics (including vocabulary, sentence structure, content, connotation, etc.), which is not available in practicing musical instruments.

Fourth, vocal music/singing can help children improve their social/social skills. In "Three Capabilities (and Educational Goals) in the AI Era: Questions and Answers on AI and Education", we see that soft skills such as social skills and psychosocial skills are the core skills that talents in the future era will need. Vocal music is the most socially important for developing skills, because in many cases, singing is a team effort: children mostly participate in chorus, and even if there is a solo part, it often needs to be coordinated with other singers and instruments. As a result, children who regularly participate in chorus are more accustomed to teamwork, more likely to see and appreciate the contributions of other team members, and better aware of how to work together with teammates towards a common goal. In contrast, instruments such as the piano tend to be "alone", which not only does not improve social skills, but may inhibit the development of social skills.

In addition, in contemporary society, in the field of music, the last social ability is actually singing, and the scene is karaoke with friends and colleagues, or attending annual meetings, outreach, talent shows, etc. Singing well is able to directly help with socialization.

Fifth, vocal music/singing can help children improve their emotional skills.

Emotional skills include: internally, how to understand, control, and soothe one's own emotions, and externally, how to perceive, understand, and soothe the emotions of others. When children sing, they need to express themselves with their voices and bodies, and when they sing together, they do so with their teams. This kind of activity of touching music, feeling music, expressing music, creating and recreating music can help children better understand emotions, better control emotions, and better express emotions.

Some people say: the piano can do it too. The answer is: When you can freely express and interpret freely through the piano, and even start a certain composition or re-creation, you need a high level of piano skills. Singing is easier to do: it doesn't require special training, that is, it can be done anytime, anywhere, in the most direct and contagious way - not only to express yourself, but also to infect others, interact directly with others, and form emotional resonance and linkage

Sixth, singing/singing can help children improve their self-confidence. All of the above can help children build self-confidence and improve self-confidence.

However, it should also be pointed out that not all children are suitable for singing, because music is innate, and some children may be born with poor musical endowment (i.e., "musicality"), always sing poorly, and will feel inferior because they sing poorly. If the vocal music is not good, then the child should actually "avoid" music, the instrument may not be learned, there is still some basic music general education, but do not focus on music, do not try to "make up for shortcomings" through acquired efforts, and seek to re-establish their self-confidence in music, which is "which pot is not opened and which pot is mentioned", there is no need. "I'm born to be useful" – devote time to what your child is good at.

c) Music appreciation (listening to music) without borders

Music appreciation is really about listening to music. This can be done outside of class. My personal advice:

First, it is necessary to ensure the breadth and set no boundaries, so that children can be exposed to different types of music, from classical/traditional to modern and contemporary, from China to the West to the world, from elegant to popular, and all different styles must be tried, so that children can feel different eras, different cultures, different types, and different forms of musical expression.

Second, it can be "step-by-step", but it doesn't have to be rigid. Music is the same as other art forms: the appreciator at the beginning stage can only understand the figurative and simple things, and at the advanced level, he prefers the more abstract and obscure things, and begins to pursue the complexity, tension, conflict, breaking through the convention, and the uncertainty. This is the complication of aesthetics. The so-called step-by-step, that is, when the child is younger, you can let the child listen to more "simple" music with a melody and structure - we see that Western classical music that is suitable for "prenatal education" or "preschool education" basically belongs to this category. Most of this music is court/classicist in Western music (Mozart is the benchmark), but it also includes all other periods and genres, and is characterized by a clear melody, relatively simple structure, and easy to listen to and sing. From the perspective of cultivating children's interest in music and building understanding, it is advisable to choose simple music at the beginning, but do not stick to it, and occasionally let children be exposed to some complex music suitable for adults or experienced appreciators, so that children can see the complexity of the human music world. Perhaps the child will respond to complex music and take a leap forward in musical cognition.

Third, it is necessary to ensure frequency. Immerse your child in a musical environment as much as possible. Music can only be used as a background rather than the protagonist (i.e., asking everyone to stop and listen to the music carefully), play music frequently at home, play more music when traveling (such as in the car), make music a part of children's lives, make music a child's childhood memory, and let children never get rid of the habits and dependence on music formed at an early age when they become adults;

Fourth, "metaphysical" learning. It is important to provide a musical atmosphere, but listening is not enough, discuss the music with your child, and ask your child after listening to the music: what are the characteristics of this music, what are the emotions and emotions to be expressed, can the child understand this emotion, what is the child's problem, etc. We can also ask some metaphysical questions: Why do human beings need music? Do we all need music? What is the relationship between music and people's living conditions? Compared with literature, poetry, lectures, etc., what are the unique features of music in form and expression? Can music be found in nature?...... Questions like these, questions that can diverge, no fixed answers, just thought-provoking.

Some people may say: "I myself lack musical accomplishment, and I still want to make up for it, I am afraid that it will be difficult to provide these musical edification for my children for a while" - this situation may be applicable to most ordinary families. In the previous part "Piano, To Learn or Not to Learn?(3) Who is suitable for learning piano", we have also mentioned this problem: if a parent/family does not have a particularly strong connection with music, and the parent cannot provide systematic music tutoring and resource support for the child himself, then unless the child has a genius-level talent, it may not be suitable to spend too much time learning piano. In this case, parents only need to provide ordinary music education for their children as much as they can, and do not need to make music the focus of their children.

In the next article, we will discuss what extracurricular learning parents can help their children choose in addition to music education, which should: 1) also provide the benefits of learning the piano, 2) have a higher and more economical input-output ratio, and 3) make the child more adaptable to the future.

(To be continued)

Piano, to learn or not to learn?(1) From 19th-century European families to today's society

(2) Why is the piano so popular in China, and the problem of piano education

Piano, to learn or not to learn?(3) Who is suitable for learning piano?