Combined Learning
There are three main ways we learn: 1) Hearing, 2) Seeing, and 3) Doing. These are also referred to as Aural, Visual, and Kinesthetic, respectively. Participating in one of the activities is stimulating to the brain. However, when engaged in all three, simultaneously, it touches nearly every part of our human experience.
The discipline of reading music notation causes greater activity in the process of music-making than other musical activities not using reading. Learning to translate what is seen to what is imagined, to what is performed and heard requires a more complex process in the mind. This kind of stimulation and coordination of various mental disciplines creates a synthesis of awareness that is not common. We believe that students at our music school Odessa Texas will experience the same heightened awareness that comes from these disciplines.
Is it any wonder that a great mind, such as Albert Einstein, enjoyed reading and playing music?
His second wife, Elsa, once wrote, “I fell in love with Albert because he played Mozart so beautifully on the violin. He also plays the piano. Music helps him when he is thinking about his theories. He goes to his study, comes back, strikes a few chords on the piano, jots something down, returns to his study.”
His son Hans Albert Einstein, too, recalls his father using music as a tool to help his work. He says, “Whenever he felt that he had come to the end of the road or into a difficult situation in his work, he would take refuge in music. That would usually resolve all his difficulties.”
There are studies that show that listening to complex music helps improve the performance of the brain. Some music helps to increase the power of concentration. It would also be interesting to note that there are kinds of music that would also have the exact opposite effect on the brain. Several studies revealed that certain music (especially Baroque and Classical) such as Bach and Mozart helped students score better at tests. However relaxing sounds or silence made them score lower. We have noticed that students at our music school Odessa Texas seen to have an above-normal aptitude for school studies.
The art of learning to read music not only helps the music student participate in larger and more complex ensembles, but it also gives him the skill to create blueprints of his own imagination. Composing for ensembles becomes possible when a composer is able to capture his own thoughts and put them down so others can participate in his creative ideas.
With Greater Discipline Come Greater Freedom
Many disciplines have been handed down to us from the great masters of Classical music. These disciplines transcend style yet create a sense of destiny and authority throughout the composition of a work. The Hebrew definition of ‘meditation’ gives a picture of ‘the revolving in one’s mind like a cow chewing the cud’. It is the organic growth of a work, like a seed grows into a full plant. These disciplines create cohesiveness in a work, which in turn produces a sense of unity and wholeness.
There is a reason these great compositions have lasted for centuries. Thousands of other works were written during the same time, but they have been long forgotten. The reason Master-Works have withstood the test of time is that they were built to last.
These ‘principles of design’ go beyond musical styles and are intrinsic in all works that have been handed down to us for hundreds of years. It is why a work will still carry a sense meaning, even though we are unfamiliar with its style and history. When we hear it for the first time in our present historic moment, it still seems beautiful.
The principles have to do with pattern and relationship. Our human souls to respond to patterns. We can innately sense if something is balanced or imbalanced, related or unrelated. We pick up on shades of meaning, even if we don’t know analytically why, based on context and patterns. We emphasize pattern-awareness at our music school Odessa Texas.
Limits of Improvisation
In order for these principles of design to function, modern performing musicians who use improvisation as the primary means of production will be benefitted by learning to read notation. Only in notation can the sequence of tones produced by a skilled composer be successfully accomplished by larger groups of people.
An improviser, by himself, can achieve some degree of success in these areas but it becomes increasingly difficult, the more people who are added. This is why in a standard jazz combo or rock group the number of people successfully interacting is relatively small, compared to a large orchestral or big band jazz ensemble that uses written notation.
The small groups can improvise without ‘stepping on each other’s toes’ fairly easily and the discipline in improvisation, while it remains an important skill, is less useful in the context of a larger group. We expect the students at our music school Odessa Texas to both read music and improvise fluidly.
Notation, in and of itself cannot be heard. It represents merely an idea of the composer’s intentions. This, however, is the most important aspect of its use. Because it is outside of the realm of sound and human performance, it therefore is not subject to the flaws of physical execution. It represents to the imagination a picture of what should be, a concept or idea that is untainted by physical limitations. It is a conceptual blue-print for the physical house that is being built.
Those who do not yet possess the skill of reading music are like those who go to a movie that was inspired by a book and yet have never read the book for themselves. How many people who have read the book first then go to the movie to find it disappointing? They have discovered that their imagination was much more enjoyable than the film. The skill and coordination of multiple parts in harmonious activity could not be achieved without this ‘blueprint’. We expect our students at our music school Odessa Texas to use their imaginations in the process of music creation.
Imagine a bunch of individuals of varying skill levels setting out to build a house without a blue-print. They just start. After a while they would achieve some sort of structure by trial and error, but nothing as successful as those who started with a detailed plan.
Improvisation is a wonderful capability, and in and of itself, is the seed-bed of compositional creativity. The skill to create and function with a ‘blue-print’ and design is also of great value. The combination of the improvisatory with the scoring is the best of both worlds. This is why, at our music school Odessa Texas, we strive to develop both aspects of improvisation and music-reading.
“The hearing ear and the seeing eye, the Lord has made both of them.” (Prov. 20:12)