Review_How_Popular_Musicians_Learn_A_Way.pdf

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1/6

ritish Forum for Ethnomusicology

How Popular Musicians Learn: A Way Ahead for Music Education by Lucy GreenReview by: Vic GammonBritish Journal of Ethnomusicology, Vol. 11, No. 1, Red Ritual: Ritual Music and Communism(2002), pp. 159-163Published by: British Forum for EthnomusicologyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4149890 .

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2/6

e v i e w s

Books

LUCY

GREEN,

How

popular

musicians

learn:

a

way

ahead

for

music

educa-

tion.

Aldershot:

Ashgate

Publishing,

2001.

xii +

238pp.,

index. ISBN 0-

7546-0338-5

(hb. ?42.50)

Lucy

Green

has written an

interesting

and

original

book.

It is

about the

attitudes,

values and

practices

of

popular

musicians.

It is also

about

learning

and

teaching styles

and about whether

a

fruitful interaction

can

take

place

between

formal

methods of

teaching

and

informal

modes

of

learning.

It is

descriptive,

analytic

and

prescriptive,

wanting

to

suggest

"a

way

ahead for music

education".

Green

is a

classically

trained

musician,

a

teacher,

piano

teacher and academic.

In recent

years

she

has run the

highly

esteemed

and successful MA in Music

Education

at the Institute of Education

in

London.

(Why

she did

not

get

the recent

professorship

at the InstituteI have no

idea,

but the

strange

and

unfathomable

ways

of

universities

should not

continue

to amaze

me).

She

is a

productive

writer.

Her first

book, Music on deaf ears, is in my view a

profound

and

fascinating

work,

although

many

deemed

it too

theoreticalfor

the audi-

ence

of teachers and educators who could

most benefit from

it.

Her second

book,

Gender

and music

education,

is the most

significant

work on the

subject yet produced

in this

country.

She

has

always

shown a

talent

for

qualitative, empirical

research,

and How

popular

musicians

learn could

well

prove

to be her

most accessible

book to

date. She

brings

to her

empirical

work wide

reading, developed understanding

and a

formidable

power

to

draw on

a wide

range

of materials.

Her

work is informed

by

some

ethnomusicology

and she

speaks

to some

central

concerns of

the

discipline.

I have

recently

heard Music

in

Higher

Education

described

as a "Cinderella

sub-

ject", andMusic Education as a "Cinderella

subject

of a Cinderella

subject".

I have seen

colleagues'

eyes glaze

over when

I have

tried to interestthem in

problems

created

by

the Music National

Curriculum.

Yet

surely

the

way

in which

any

society

tries to intro-

duce

and

develop

music

among

its

young

people

ought

to be

of

interest to a wider

musical

community.

The

questions

that

Green

asks are

important

and

profound.

Her basic material for the

study

is a

set

of interviews with fourteen

musicians

ranging

in

age

from

50

to

15,

all

performers

of

"Anglo-American

guitar-based

pop

and

rock music". The interview

material is

lively

and informative and it

is

obvious

that

those interviewedhave

respondedpositively

and

given

rich

responses.

In a

pleasing

touch the book is

dedicated

to them.

I

come

to this

book

having spent

most

of

the

last ten

years

involved

in

trying

to

help

music graduatespreparethemselves to be

successful

classroom

practitioners

in

pri-

mary

and

secondary

schools.

Thus the

ques-

tion title

of

Green's first

chapter

"What s it

to be

musically

educated?" s a

crucial one.

The

reality

is

that our

society

and

its

higher

education institutions have no consensus

on

this

question.

Graduateswho

present

them-

selves

for PGCE

courses

have a wide

range

of

skills,

knowledge

and

understanding

but

few

present

anything

like an

adequate

breadth

to

cope

well

with the

challenges

of

BRITISH

JOURNAL

OF ETHNOMUSICOLOGY

VOL.

11/i

2002

pp.

159-80


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BRITISH JOURNAL OF

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VOL.1 1/i 2002

British

secondary

school music classrooms.

We wait with

interest to see whether the

advent of

"benchmarking"

n

higher

educa-

tion will do much to

change

this situation.

From

the

cynical

words of some HE

music

teachers

(not

in

my

own institution I hasten

to

add),

I

doubt that it will have much effect

other than

the

commissioning

of

paper

(or

rather

electronic)

exercises

to

"prove"

that

the benchmarksare

being

addressed. Green

believes that musical success in music

edu-

cation should not be

measured in terms of

the achievement of

a

professional

musical

life as an outcome but in

wider,

lifelong

benefits

(17).

Green accepts Everitt's rather gloomy

finding

that

in

contemporary

Britain

only

about

one

per

cent of the adult

population

is an amateur

music-maker

(Everitt, 1997).

I

am a little

suspicious

of this

finding, par-

ticularly

when the notion of

"participatory"

seems to

imply

some sort of

public partici-

pation

or exhibition.

Comparisons

with the

past

are

extremely

difficult,

and much of the

music-making

Green cites from the

past

was of a domestic nature.

My

own work on

church bands is cited - these were fascinat-

ing

institutions,

but

a churchband of instru-

mentalists and

singers may

well

have

constituted

one

per

cent or less of the

pop-

ulation of

an

English parish.

Some

writers,

often

basing

their

arguments

on

instrument

sales,

have estimated that there has

been

more musical

activity

in

recent decades

than ever in

the

past, although

buying

an

instrument is not

playing

it

and does not

necessarily

imply "participation".

Formal

amateurmusical institutions such as choral

societies and brass bands

tend to

report

a

long-term

decline,

which would tend

to

support

Everitt's and

Green's views.

The

point

where I would

totally

agree

with Green is that the

great

increase in

formal music education

has not resulted in

a

concomitant increase in

publicly

visible

amateur

music-making.

There

is

an element

of fashion

here,

and the characteristic

musi-

cal activities of

nineteenth-century

urban

society

may

not be the most

appropriate

or

a

post-modern society.

I

live in

Hudders-

field,

reputedly

one of the most

musical

towns in

England:

the

music-making

is

there,

yet

one has

to seek it out. I

interpret

Ruth

Finnegan's

work

in a more

positive

way

than Green is

able to.

Where

I

find

myself

even more enthusi-

astically

in

agreement

with Green is the

sense that

something

is

wrong

with

formal

music education -

something

is

missing.

She

explores

what

this

might

be

through

an

analytical

contrast between

formal music

education and "informal

music

learning

practices".

She believes that formal

music

education can be

improved

by

the

incorpo-

ration of some elements from "informal

learning practices".

Again, my

own

past experience

as a

teacher trainer would

support

this

view.

There were

always exceptions,

but some of

best trainee

teachers

I

have worked

with,

those

who demonstrated a

larger

number

of the

practical

skills

needed to

succeed

in

the

classroom,

came out of

undergraduate

courses on

jazz

and

popular

music. Some-

times

they

lacked

knowledge

of

the Western

art music tradition,but in terms of practical

work with

kids

they

often had the

edge.

Early

in the

secondary

PGCE course I

ran an

improvisation

session in

order to

explore

the

ways

in

which

improvisation

could be

taught

to 11-14

year

olds

(these

skills

featuring

in the

requirements

of the

National

Curriculum).

My

idea

behind the

session was not to

frightenpeople, though

t

terrified

some.

I

thought

it such a

pity

that

people

who had

spent

thousands of hours

developing their instrumental skills could

not

make a coherent musical

articulation

without written music in

front of them.

Such

a

thing

would be

unthinkable to

trained

actors,

and

artists would

only

need

a

stimulus and a

sketchpad

to start to create

something.

It should not be

surprising

hat

some of the most

creativeBritishrock musi-

cians

were educated at art

colleges.

It is not that

Green is

arguing

that all is

perfect

in the

learning

of

popular

musicians.

Some of this is

quite

haphazard,

and no




4/6

BRITISH

JOURNAL OF

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2002 161

doubt much

time

and effort is wasted

in

blind

alleys.

Some

learners

fall

by

the

way-

side,

among

them

those who could

have

been

encouraged

to

continue with a

timely

intervention

by

someone

who could under-

stand the

problem

they

were

experiencing.

On the other

hand,

the

attritionrate

in

terms

of

formal

instrumental lessons is

high;

many

pupils

do

not

respond

to them

posi-

tively

and

give

up (including, interestingly,

some of the

interviewees

who

went on to

become

successful

popular

musicians).

Similarly,

in

spite

of the

changes

that have

been made in

the

school music curriculum

which have

tried to make the

subject

"music

for all", GCSE Music only attractsa small

percentage

of

the numbers who take

GCSE

Art and

Design

courses.

I

think

Green

might

be a little

over-generous

in

her estimate

of

the

wide-ranging

nature of the

GCSE

(introduced

in

1988).

It

certainly

did free

composing

and

performing

from

stylistic

constraints

where

teachers

et this

happen),

but

in

the

listening

section of the

papers

the

position

of

western

classical music

is still

dominant,

with

popular

and world

music

styles seemingly a token presence. The

reluctance of

successful GCSE students

interested

in

popular

music to take

up

A

Level is

to be

expected

as this

emphasis

on the

western classical tradition ncreases

at

A

Level

(166).

Green,

however,

notices a

significant

change

in

the

way

school music was

expe-

rienced

by

her older and

younger

inform-

ants.

Those

who

experienced

what she

describes

as "traditional

music education"

gainedlittle from it andgenerallyfelt alien-

ated

during

class lessons. The

popular

music

skills these

pupils acquired

were not

recognized

and

encouraged by

teachers.

In

contrast,

the

younger

interviewees'

responses

to

"the new music education"

were far

more

appreciative

as

post-National

Curriculum eachers

developed

more inclu-

sive

attitudes and

practices

to the

range

of

music

supported

and

encouraged by

the

school.

While

casting

no doubt on these

findings

at

all,

the small size of Green's

group

of

interviewees

might

mean

that the

full

range

of

students'

experiences

is not

reflected. In a recent

survey

that I

myself

carried

out,

of 50

first-year

music

undergrad-

uates

(popular

and

"unpopular"

tudents

-

the words fail

us ).

I found a

complete

range

of

assessment

of the value of their

school

experiences

to their musical

development.

There still

seem to be

plenty

of

schools

where

pupils

are not

getting

a

positive

experience

of

Music

in

spite

of the

National

Curriculum,

OFSTED and

the

Qualifica-

tions and Curriculum

Authority.

One of

the

really fascinating

findings

of

the book is that when those

who

have

mainly acquiredtheir skills throughinfor-

mal

learning

become teachers

themselves,

the

positive aspects

of their own

informal

learning

are not reflected

in

their

teaching.

In

short,

they

tend to teach

popular

music

skills

in a

very

traditional

instrumental

teacher

way.

As

Green

notes,

"It

s

one

thing

to

experience

a

way

of

leaming

and another

thing

to

recognise

its

feasibility

as

a teach-

ing

method ... it is reasonable

to

hypothe-

sise that

formal

popular

music

instrumental

tuition methods have muchin common with

formal

classical instrumental

tuition and

relatively

little in

common

with informal

music

learning

practices"

(178).

Green is clear what

the benefits of

informal

learning

are,

and

these include

the

enjoyment

the

popular

musicians

derive

from their

practice

and

learning.

A

key

find-

ing

in

Green's book is

that,

because

they

enjoyed

and valued what

they play,

the

motivation of

popular

music

learners

is

high. They like the music they play so they

persevere

with it.

Interestingly, hey

demon-

strate a

tendency

to consider

that

they

had

not

learnt

anything

unless it

had been

taught

to them

formally

-

a

sad

reflection on

contemporary

attitudes and

values.

A

central

learning

practice

of

the

popu-

lar musicians studied is

attentive

learning

and close

copying

of

recordings.

This

goes

along

with a

disposition

to

make the written

always secondary

to

the aural

(a

great

deal

of

commercially published popular

music is




5/6

162

BRITISH JOURNAL

OF ETHNOMUSICOLOGY VOL. 11/i

2002

inaccurate

anyway

-

so

it is

good

that the

musicians can use their aural

skills

well)

(96).

A

great

deal

of

popular

music learn-

ing

is

"by

feel,

ear,

trial and error"

92).

In

addition,peer learning goes

on

though

the

copying

and

exchanging

of ideas and tech-

niques

(97).

Learning

practices

are akin to

the

ways young

children

pick up language

(100),

which

begins

with a

jumble

of rela-

tively

unconscious

processes

out

of which

greater

levels of conscious

systematization

develop

(103).

Earlier

n

the book Green comes

up

with

the rather

startling hypothesis, yet

to be

fully

tested,

that

"Young

musicians

who

acquire their skills and knowledge more

through

informal

learning practices

than

through

formal music education

may

be

more

likely

to

continue

playing

music,

alone

or with

others,

for

enjoyment

in

later

life"

(56).

If

this is

true,

and

my

own

research and observations

suggest

that

it

might

well

be,

it is a considerable

indict-

ment of formal music education.

If

the main

achievement of

any

form

of education is to

show

people

that

ultimatelythey

are failures

and to so demotivate

them that

they

do not

wish to continue with that

activity,

that

hardly

rates

as a

significant

educational

achievement.

Formal music education

"neglects"

hese

informal

learning practices,

Green

argues,

and is

impoverished

as a result.

Formal

music education cannot

attempt

an exact

emulation

of informal music

learning prac-

tices but

it

can

incorporate

ome of the valu-

able practicesinto its repertoryof methods

(184).

Of

these,

crucial would be

listening,

watching

and

copying, including "solitary,

close attention to

recordings

of music

they

like and

identify

with"

(185, 189).

Defying

the aural nature of

music,

it

is

common with some teachers

in classical

instrumental uition for students o

work at a

piece

that

they

have

never heard

performed.

(I

would

go

further

han

Green

and

say

that

I

have known teachers

who felt that to listen

to a

piece

that was

being

studied was a

type

of

cheating

-

the test of the student should

be whether

they

could

get

the music "off the

page".)

Green would have instrumental

teachers

incorporate

listening

as

part

of

their

preparation

nd

practice

routines

188)

and have

pupils

learn

by listening

and

closely copying recordings

-

ironically

a

replication

of "a

highly

traditionaland

for-

mal

pedagogic

method in that it involves

obedience to the

authority

of a master"

(189).

I

totally agree

with this: I have

long

felt that

aural

copying

is a

great

stimulant

to the

development

of

musicianship

and

so much more

rewarding

than

arid

aural

exercises.

The otherimportantarea that instrumen-

tal

pedagogy

could

incorporate

would be

stimulating "interacting

with their friends

and

peers".

In

classroom

teaching

I

have

long

felt that too often far too much

time is

taken

up

with

explanation

and

instruction

and

not

enough

with

actually

playing.

Dex-

terity

and

facility

come

throughpractice

and

use,

and thus lessons

I

have observed

where

most of the time is

spent performing

and

interacting musically

(as

in

a West

African

percussion

ensemble)

have,

I

would

say,

resulted

in the best

learning experiences

for

pupils.

Western instrumental eachers

have

long

been wedded to the idea of the solo

instrumental esson

and have

only

tendedto

move

away

from it with reluctance under

the

pressure

of economic

necessity.

As a

number of educationalists have

argued

and

as is the

practice

n

other

countries,

t is

per-

haps

time to see the

positive advantages

of

groupinstrumental eaching.

I

am loath to

suggest

an

area that

the

book does not tackle and

which

it was

not

Green's intention to

tackle,

so

this

para-

graph

is more

of a

thought sparkedby

her

book than a criticism.

Certain

social forces

in

recent

years (including

both Conservative

and New Labour

politicians)

have made

social class a sort of taboo

subject.

Issues of

social class

impinge strongly

on this area

and

yet

tend not to

get

discussed. The

matter is

quite simple.

The admission to




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BRITISH

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2002 163

university

courses of music is often

condi-

tional on

the

achievement of

a

high grade

in

an

ABRSM

instrumentalexamination.

This

in turn

almost

always

depends

on

long-term

parental

moral and

financial

support

n

buy-

ing

instrumentsand

paying

for

instrumental

lessons

(whether

private

or

school-based)

and

supporting

and

encouraging practice.

This

therefore

depends

on

having

sufficient

financial

resources and

the

disposition

to

see

this as a

good

thing

to

spend

money

on.

This

inevitably

leads to

a

filtering-out

process

that

excludes

people

from

family

backgrounds

that

are unable

or

not cultur-

ally

disposed

to

give

the

necessary support

to musical children. Let us hope that the

development

of

popular

music

courses,

more

flexible

entry

requirements

and dif-

ferent

methods of

assessing potential

and

ability

will

do

something

to address the

accessibility

of

university

music

study.

Some of the

interviewees were

rejected

when

they

tried

to enter

university.

I

would

have loved

to know

more about

the

social

and

cultural

backgrounds

of the musicians

Green

interviewed.

There is much

that is

rich,

challenging

and

thought-provoking

in

this

book. It

is

challenging

to

many

established

ideas

and

practices.

It is also

optimistic

and humane.

It will

be

interesting

to see the

reactions

to

the book and

its

proposals.

I

seriously

expect

it to be

rubbishedor

ignored

in

some

quarters

as it is

simply

too

challenging

to

existing

paradigms.

But

Green,

in her

care-

ful

empirical

work,

has

grounded

her

study

well and her ideas and findings need to be

considered

seriously.

Reference

Everitt,

Anthony

1997)

Joining

n: an investi-

gation

into

participatory

music. London:

Calouste

Gulbenkian

Foundation.

VIC GAMMON

School

of

Music,

University of

Leeds

v.a.f

gammon

@

eeds.ac. uk

Y.

KOJAMAN,

The

maqam

music

tradi-

tion

of

Iraq.

London:

Y. Kojaman

(books@kojaman.ac.uk)

2001.

258pp.,

illustrations,

musical

exx.,

tables, compact discs. ISBN 0-

9539752-1-5.

When

Rodolphe

D'Erlanger

wrote

his

monumental

study

of the melodic

modes,

rhythms

and

forms of

modem

Arab

music,

he classified

his data

according

to

two

main "branches"

r traditions: he

"hispano-

arabe",

represented by

Morocco,

Algeria

and

Tunisia,

and the

"orientale",

repre-

sented

by Egypt,

Syria

and,

implicitly,

the

rest of the Arab world (D'Erlanger 1949:

334ff;

1959:141ff).

D'Erlanger's

work was

originally pre-

sented

to the first international

congress

of

Arab

music,

held in

Cairo in

1932. At this

landmark

event,

an

unprecedented

gather-

ing

of

ensembles

from

Morocco,

Tunisia,

Algeria, Syria,

Lebanon,

Egypt

and

Iraq

performed

to

leading

musicians

and

schol-

ars from

Europe, Turkey

and

various

Arab

countries. As

ChristianPoche has

observed,

"musicians

coming

from far

afield ...

who

were

thought

to

practise

the same

art,

far from

revealing

themselves as

homoge-

neous,

literally

astounded

observers with

their

degree

of

diversity"

Poche

1987:100).

The

Iraqi

urban

radition,

l-maqdm

al-iraqi,

was

represented by

the

celebrated

singer

from

Baghdad,

Muhammad

al-Qubbanchi,

accompanied by

the

traditional

ensemble

known as

al-chalgi

al-baghdadi.

Their

performances revealed a unique melodic

repertory,

distinct

in its

formal

procedures,

performance

practice

and

terminology

from

the

neighbouring

"oriental"

traditions of

Egypt

and

Syria.

Since

1932,

numerous

historical and

theoretical

studies

on the

Iraqimaqdm

have

appeared

n

Arabic,

and

several notated

ver-

sions of the

repertory

have

been

published.

Yet,

with the

exception

of the

important

contributions of Scheherazade

Qassim

Hassan,

the

European-language

literature


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