FOUNDATIONS OF MUSICAL

LEARNING
 LEARNING DEFINED

LEARNING IS:

• GROWTH
• DEVELOPMENT
• EXPERIENCE
• SOMETHING NEW THAT HAS BEEN ADDED
• A PROCESS THAT RESULTS IN CHANGE IN BEHAVIOR
• A PROCESS WHICH BEGINS WITH A PROBLEM, PROGRESSES TO THE
SOLUTION OF THE PROBEM BY THE APPREHENSION, CLARIFICATION,
AND APPLICATION OF MEANING AND RESULTS IN A CHANGE IN
BEHAVIOR.
Without meaning there can be no learning.

Significant learning usually takes place over a period of time

during which the learner refines the meaning he has
apprehended and develops efficiency and precision in
applying the meaning to problems.

Learning by “sudden flashes of insight” undoubtledy occurs

occassionally,butmore commonly, learning is the result of a
more-or-less extended period of exploration of a given
situation and the gradual emergence of meaning.
Problem-solving nature of learning

The process of learning is not complete until the

meaning derived from a situation has been
applied to a problem.
 MEANING IN MUSIC
• UNLESS THE NATURE OF MUSICAL MEANING IS CLEAR,
EFFORTS TO CONTROL THE MUSICAL LEARNING SITUATION
CAN NEVER BE EFFICIENT.

• Absolute meaning and referential meaning

-ABSOLUTISTS HOLD THAT THE MEANING OF MUSIC LIES IN THE
DISCERMENT OF THE COMPLEX RELATIONSHIPS WITHIN A
MUSICAL WORK.
-THE REFERENTIALISTS ADMIT THE PRESENCE OF THESE
ABSTRACT MEANING, BUT CONTEND THAT MUSIC ALSO
COMMUNICATES EXTRAMUSICAL MEANINGS REALTED TO
ACTIONS, CONCEPTS, CHARACTERS, AND SITUATIONS.
• The music educator must choose which kind of meaning he is
going to emphasize in the music-learning situation.

• Referential meaning: include fanciful stories about all kinds of

music,giving verbal descriptions of moods and images to be
associated with compositions, connecting rythmic movement
with characteristic animal movements.
 THE ROLE OF PERCEPTION IN MUSICAL LEARNING
Perception is defined as an act by which meaning is gained from the sensory processes while a
stimulus is present.

Musical perception is the act of gaining meaning in the presence of musical stimuli. It results in the
formation of musical concepts (that is, organizers of musical experience). To gain meaning from
musical stimuli, a person organizes his experience with those stimuli, makes descriminations about
the ways the musical tones move, and categorizes the differing ways in whimch they move.
(He is soothed to sleep by one piece of music, excited and imploed to move by another.) As time
and musical experiences unfold, he begins to make more subtle descriminations. He may
perceive differences in melodic shape,rhythm, tempo, or form. He is developing musical concepts
even though he has no way to identify them verbally.

He is able to tellone piece from another; he may be able to sing a melody he hears; he may move
to the rhythm as he listens or sings. Subsequently, he organizes his experience with music with
increasing precision and ever more subtle descriminations. This melody goes “up,” this one
“down,” this rhythm moves “evenly,” that one “unevenly.”

The essential points are (1) that musical concepts emerge from experience with musical stimuli,
and (2) that musical concepts must exist before they can be identified by name.
 MUSICAL APPRECIATION

Appreciation is defined as the apprehension and enjoyment of he

aesthetic import of music. Appreciation includes responsiveness to all
the expressive elements of music such as rhythm, harmony, melody,
texture, timbre, tonality, form, and phrase line.
 Musical Understanding
Musical Understanding is defined as the ability to bring accumulated
musical learning to bear on the solution of musical problems. It
involves the conscious use of information, skills, appreciation, and
musical concepts in a cognitive framework.
 Musical Knowledge
Knowledge, or knowing, is a construct (a complex image or idea resulting from a synthesis by mind), while
recall, or recognition, is the overt behavior from which we infer the presence or absence of the construct.

Musical Skills
encompassing skills of listening, performance skills, and music reading. Each aspect of musical skill is
considered in turn.
Skills of listening. The listening activity frequently goes no further than the development of a pleasurable
response to music.
Music reading. The skill of music reading, a species of performance skill, is properly considered as an
outgrowth of musical responsiveness and musical understanding.
 Musical Attitudes
Attitudes are defined as general emotionalized reactions for or against a thing. They may be positive
or negative, with intensity ranging all the way from strongly for to strongly against.
A student with a negative attitude toward music is certain to make little or no progress in learning
music unless his attitude toward music is certain to make little or no progress in learning music
unless his attitude can be changed.
Musical attitudes are learned, and a change in attitude represents a change in behavior.
 Musical Initiative
Musical initiative implies active musicianship which eventuates in musical
independence. A person who has developed desirable musical initiative does
things with and about music.
Principles of
Learning
1.Efficient learning begins with a compeling and inteligible
problem.

The learner must have a purpose in view if his learning efforts are to be
more than blind fumbling, and he gains purpose when confronted with a
problem he desires to solve.

Teachers should constantly capitalize on this fact by stressing the

expressive import and not the bare bones of musical structure and
technique.
2. The learner must perceive the relationship between his
learning experiences and the problem he wants to solve.
The physician practiced faithfully for a while the assignments he was given but was unable to see any
relationship between what he was doing and the problem he wished to solve.

In learning music theory the student must be led to see that the skills and understandings he acquires are
applicable to the refinement of his musical behavior.
3.Motivation is central to efficient musical learning.
Incentives, interest, pressures, purposes, recognition, and rewards are all involved in motivation. Musical
learning has an abundance of sources of motivation. These include basic human responsiveness to music,the
emotional satisfaction that comes from musical participation, the possibilities for demonstrable progressive
success, and the almost universal social approval accorded musical accomplishment.

Motivation may either be extrinsic or intrinsic to music.

Extrinsic motivation is not directly connected with music and includes rewards such as gold stars on the pages
of an instruction book, the desire for recognition and approval from parents or peers, the desire to become a
member of a musical group, and so on.
Intrinsic motivation depends on upon the satisfaction and pleasure that come fron music itself.

‘Music is the joyfullest time of all.”

Success provides motivation of the highest quality and intensity.

Goals are too high and remote result in discouragement; too low goals bring about inertia and boredom.
4. Learning depends upon impressions received by
the senses.
much musical learning is carried on without sufficient attention to musical hearing.

Aural awareness is the key to all musical learning, and the music-larning situation should be constantly
focused on ear training. Sight and kinesthetic feel are important but properly come into play only after aural
concepts are well established.
 Principles of Learning

1. Efficient learning begins with a compeling and inteligible problem.

2. The learner must perceive the relationship between his learning experiences and the problem he wants to
solve.
3.Motivation is central to efficient musical learning.
4. Learning depends upon impressions received by the senses.
5.Provisional tries must be made in musical learning.
6. The perfection of complicated skills requires correct forms of movement extablished by practice.
7. Musical learning has a sequence of synthesis-analysis-synthesis.
8. Learning is an active process.
9. Learning is highly individualized.
10. Learning may transfer if generalization takes place.
11. Learning is affected by the total environment of the learing situation.