There are a lot of factors that are happening simultaneously when playing music, both internally as well as externally.
When playing or singing in ensembles, the musician must be aware, not only of his or her own contribution to the group, but also of their section, the group as a whole, and even the audience or room in which they are performing. This develops empathy¸ through the awareness of what others are contributing.
Learning how to work with other people, appreciating their unique contribution, is the foundation of the life-skill of empathy. Our current culture is lacking this character trait, and seems to be going in the opposite direction of it. Perhaps, the isolation that is happening as a result of media that allows a person to withdraw into their own private room, while virtually contacting the world via the internet is part of the degeneracy of empathy in our current generation.
Nevertheless, coordination as a society or ‘micro-society’ as found in musical ensemble playing is of great benefit to the development of intuitive awareness of the student to others around him.
In our music school, we believe that music is more than sound, it is relationships. This includes relationship with self as well. We give students the opportunity to enjoy the process of learning string violin lessons in Midland, Texas to help develop in these ways.
When learning music, particularly Classical music, the student and the teacher are focused on three main areas of learning: visual, aural, and kinesthetic. In other words, seeing, hearing, and doing, respectively.
When a musician learns how to read notation, they are simply seeing dots on a piece of paper. These dots are meaningless to someone who doesn’t know how to interpret them. However, to one who has developed this discipling, the notation takes on meaning that taps into the musical imagination of past experiences.
It’s really no different than reading a book. For illustration, a fictional book creates a panorama of imagination in the reader’s soul, while a movie that is based on the book is many times lackluster to the reader’s own unique experience and personal imagination.
The same analogy can be made of reading music, to those who are trained to do so. When they see music notation, they draw upon all the musical experiences they have had in their past and use it to create their own imagination of what the notes on the page mean. In other words, they create their own experience of the ideas from their own internal imagination. In this context, it is easy to see how one musician can interpret a piece of music differently from another. One person can play a Chopin etude entirely different from another’s rendition. Chopin himself, in his own performances, would play the same piece one way on way day, and differently for a new audience the next day. Yet, the notation remained the same.
In our music lessons for viola in Midland, Texas we help our students learn how to read proficiently.
This interaction of reading the notation, combined with the imagination, is a powerful example of the coordination of eyes and mind that most people don’t usually associate with the study of music, yet it is one part of the stimulation of the brain in music education.
Another part of musical training is the development of the ear, or aural development. Just as the eyes in reading music develops the brain in certain ways, the development of the musician’s ear is important.
In our violin and music lessons in Midland, Texas we teach reading, but also place emphasis on the development of the ear, teaching the student to listen critically.
There has been controversy in musical circles about which is more important to the musician: the ear of the eye. Those who have learned to ‘play by ear’ (or improvise) criticize those who are predominantly taught to read as being somewhat less of a musician, while those who have been trained to read proficiently mock those who don’t as ‘uneducated.’ I once led a group of church musicians who would routinely argue with one another on this subject. When I found this scripture, I knew I had struck gold in the ability to help the group move forward:
The hearing ear and the seeing eye,
The Lord has made both of them. (Prov. 20:12)
From that day, I made it my goal to help those who predominantly leaned to reading music to become fluent in improvisation, and those who only knew how to improvise to feel comfortable reading notation. I endeavored to teach and train the group by transcribing music that they wanted to do, by placing charts in from of them of songs they heard on Youtube. I would transcribe the song, then arrange it for the particular instruments we had available and then, in rehearsal, we would both listen to the original song, while reading the chart I had made, then we would do the song, by practicing it in rehearsal.
Visual, Aural, and Kinesthetic learning is unique to each person. Some people have strength to visually read music with high proficiency. Others lean to their ear to understand the music, while others learn through immersing themselves in the process of doing the material, and feel lost if they are not able to be involved physically.
Giving students the opportunity in our cello lessons in Midland, Texas to do all three helps gather all different personality types and aptitude strengths in the process of learning.
Each person, regardless of their unique strengths is not devoid of the other elements in which they don’t feel particular success. All of us have some element of each kind of learning, and the process of being involved, as a musician, in all three learning styles is highly developmental for the brain.
When a musician is simultaneously involved in reading the music, listening to himself and the rest of the group, and is physically involved in performing the material, all three aspects of learning combine to create a symbiotic experience among all aspects of brain functioning.
In our violin lessons in Midland, Texas we involve all three aspects of learning.
The understanding of what happens when participating in music is still being studied scientifically, but I have read a number of articles that cite the importance of the activity in brain plasticity (or, the ability of the brain to remain youthful and make new connections of meaning) as well as the eye/hand coordination and dexterity helping the brain remain active, especially in older adults.
Perhaps the use of both left and right sides of the body affects the left and right sides of the brain, especially in the coordination of both sides simultaneously.
When our students are involved in cello lessons in Midland, Texas they develop their minds in powerful ways.
The ancient Greeks had two parts to their education system: sports and music. Sports was for the body and music was for the mind. Is it any wonder that Pythagoras was highly successful in mathematics while at the same time developing what we now know as the overtone series and the first musical tuning system?