Arts – Robert Lennon Musician & Educator

Practice Makes Perfect – Really?

**Actually, I prefer ‘practice makes permanent‘!**

Here is a short article exploring some of the often contentious issues regarding music practice. In it, I discuss how informed practice works to consolidate learning and thus the importance of appropriate preparation on the part of the students before commencing.

I also examine how the teacher’s guidance during the lesson can make practice more meaningful and productive for the student, and how careful a choice of words can make affect attitudes towards it. This is all of vital importance, because, as we know, the majority of the learning takes place away from the lessons – and away from the teacher!

Click here to read: Excuse me, how do I get to Carnegie Hall?

Music Education’s Love Affair with Literacy (it’s complicated)

There has been much debate recently regarding an article that appeared in The Guardian on March 27^thbemoaning the ever-diminishing provision and status of music education in the UK: a valid subject, well worth any number of column inches, given the decline in school music provision not “since 2010, when the baccalaureate was introduced” as the author Charlotte C. Gill states, but since the early 1980s at the hands of Margaret Thatcher^[1]and Sir Keith Joseph^[2]; a trend that shows no sign of being reversed – at least in terms of government policy. Ms Gill makes some valid points concerning the importance of music education albeit in a confusing and sometimes self-contradictory manner. The two key issues she sees are that music education in the UK has become the preserve of a predominantly white, middle-class, academic mindset (in other words, ‘elitist’) and that teaching with an emphasis on music notation is a dominant symptom of the overly academic approach to musical pedagogy. This, she claims, renders the subject inaccessible and irrelevant to the needs of many if not the majority of school age students. As she puts it, ”music has always been taught in a far too academic way, meaning that theoretical knowledge is the main route to advancement”. In response, there has been an outcry of indignation in the form of a letter published in The Guardian, with several musical luminaries among its signatories, and a plethora of articles and blog posts shared on social media. Several of these demonstrate a clear grasp of the issues surrounding music provision, but others, unfortunately, also contain contradictions and mixed messages even to the extent that, in effect, they lend support to some of Ms Gill’s claims. It is not possible, therefore, to come down firmly on one side of the debate or the other since there appear to be extremely valid points as well as errors and assumptions on both sides. Continue reading “Music Education’s Love Affair with Literacy (it’s complicated)”

Pythagoras and the Music of the Future

Harmonic Wave 2 Pythagoras and the Music of the Future is a series of articles in which I discuss, in accessible terms, I hope, the central influence that the harmonic series has had on the development of western music since the Middle Ages. I look closely at the connection between the harmonic series and the conventions of the musical structures of timbre, melody and harmony and musical time i.e. rhythm meter and tempo.

Ironically, or so it might seem, I also argue that whereas the development of functional harmony, and therefore tonality, was strongly influenced by our (probably subliminal) awareness of the interplay of frequency ratios of the harmonic series, the ‘modern’ music that, quite fittingly, has nothing to do with functional harmony, tonality or indeed the notion of regular pulse and tempo is, or should be, equally bound up with the very same underlying proportions.

The planned fourth article will make the case for a musical ‘language’ that utilises the gamut of proportions inherent in the naturally occurring overtone series first postulated by Pythagoras. I will further argue that the realisation, and indeed the performance, of such a music, is made possible only via the availability of manageable and affordable digital computers together with allied software for sound generation and organisation.

Although the earliest article was published over two years ago, the series as a whole maintains a steady flow of views, which seems to have gathered momentum recently. Why not take a look yourself;

Practice Makes Perfect – or Does It?

Actually, I prefer ‘practice makes permanent‘! Here is a short article about the thorny issue of music practice – how the teacher’s guidance during the lesson can make it more meaningful and desirable to the student, and how careful a choice of words can make a big difference to attitudes to practice. All very important because of course, the majority of the learning takes place away from the lessons and the teacher! Excuse me…

Pythagoras and the Music of the Future Part II

It’s Harmonic Wave 2 a relief finally to be able to post the next article in my series about the relationship between musical structures and the harmonic series. It’s a relief because my crowded schedule, which included writing a new (now finished) piece for solo piano, meant that I could only work on it sporadically. However, it’s done now!

Whereas the first article dealt with timbre, this one focuses on melody on harmony (well, mostly harmony actually) and, after tracing the development of harmony in relation to the proportions inherent in the harmonic series, illustrates the premise that music based on functional harmony (tonal music) and atonal music are very similar in at least one very important regard.

The two are often thought of as very different and even in opposition to one another, but in fact one grew out of the other and both are founded on proportions to be found at points – distant points perhaps – but nonetheless, points on the continuum which is the harmonic series.

It’s all becoming reminiscent of Heraclitus and the ‘unity of opposites’ once more I think! Read more here.

Pythagoras and the Music of the Future

Harmonic Wave 2 I am just about ready to introduce the first in a projected series of articles discussing, in accessible terms I hope, the influence that the harmonic series has had on musical development since the Middle Ages. I will be discussing not only the connection between the harmonic series and timbre (the obvious one), but also the connections between this and the conventions governing musical structures such as rhythm, melody and harmony.

Ultimately, I will arrive at the conclusion that there needs to be a clear, natural (as opposed to contrived), relationship between the the diverse sets of proportions inherent in the harmonic series, and musical expression – now and in the future. Ironically, or so it might seem, I will also argue that whereas the development of functional harmony and therefore tonality was strongly influenced by our perception (maybe subliminal – I don’t know) of the ‘inner workings’ of musical sound, the music that has already left, and will leave, tonality where it belongs – in the past – is equally bound up with these inner workings – particularly as represented by the harmonic series.

Many will know a great deal about the relationship between the harmonic series and timbre already, so may not find anything particularly new in the first article which sets the scene, so to speak. To find out if you’re one of them, click here.

Music practice – making it happen and getting the best from it

Here is a short article about the thorny issue of music practice – how the teacher’s guidance during the lesson can make it more meaningful and desirable to the student, and how careful a choice of words can make a big difference to attitudes to practice. All very important because of course, the majority of the learning takes place away from the lessons and the teacher! Excuse me…

Do beginner musicians need to read music so soon?

It is so often taken for granted (students, parents and teachers) that early music lessons will involve learning to read music. After all it’s essential isn’t it? Well, I’m not so sure it is.

In this article, I discuss some of the pitfalls of insisting that beginners – particularly children – read music before they can play with a degree of fluency. Let’s Make Music…

Welcome

This is my way of sharing ideas about contemporary music (which for this purpose, means ‘classical’ music of the 20th & 21st centuries) and about preparing the next generation of musicians.

When talking about the next generation I mean ‘musicians’ very much with a ‘small m’, because one of the things I feel very strongly about is that for too long, music education has been based on the conservatory model, with teachers often dismissing students as lacking in promise, talent, potential or whatever, in a system that often insists on ‘ear tests’ before admitting students to lessons at all! This means that the innumerable benefits of musical activity are denied those who do not fit the conservatory model. More later.

Likewise, I want to share ideas about where contemporary musical thinking is going. I know where mine is going, and it’s in the opposite direction to those who want to go back to tonal structures and write in styles called ‘neo’ this, that or the other! Issues such as this, and others, will be explored in time.

I look forward to some interesting discussion as a result of my posts over a period … possibly an extended period, because, in view of all the things I have to do, I think this blog might take some time to develop!

Robert Lennon