INFORMATION LITERACY : MUSIC LITERACY : MUSIC: READING: SKILLS : MUSIC: WRITING AND NOTATION: Teaching "Whole Music" Literacy

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David P. Dillard

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Jan 16, 2012, 2:36:31 PM1/16/12
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INFORMATION LITERACY :

MUSIC LITERACY :

MUSIC: READING: SKILLS :

MUSIC: WRITING AND NOTATION:

Teaching "Whole Music" Literacy

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Virtual Music Classroom

Teaching "Whole Music" Literacy - Part 1

http://www.musickit.com/resources/forumart.html

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Teaching "Whole Music" Literacy - Part 2

http://www.musickit.com/resources/forumart2.html


What do Whole-Language teachers and Music teachers have to learn from one
another?


(adapted from a Research Forum article published,
1994, Lanley, BC School District)

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Excerpt

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When considering "literacy," we often assume that we are considering
knowledge of communication through the written word. However, the reading
and writing of music are also communication skills that fall within the
notion of "literacy." Music is a kind of language (some even term it the
"Universal Language") with its own logic and syntax. A pedagogy has
evolved to teach the skills of reading and writing music with its own
methodology and developmental scope and sequence.

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While music reading and writing skills are quite different from language
reading and writing skills, the early development of musical literacy can
also be a powerful tool in developing language literacy. Studies have
shown that the study of music increases academic achievement on a number
of different fronts, including language writing skills. This seems to
support the idea that the development of music and language literacy in
our students may mutually reinforce each other. Perhaps the differences
between the skills of reading and writing music and language are not as
great as they appear at first glance.

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Literacy is about the fluent use of a language. "I speak the lingo. I read
the lingo. I write the lingo. I understand the language." To be able to
say this is to be an educated man in our society. We speak to communicate
information and ideas. But no language is capable of communicating all
ideas. The structure of language itself insures that. Whatever form the
language takes implies the validity and importance of the concepts
expressed in that form. In English the subject and object structure, for
instance, imposes its form on our thoughts . It is important, in order to
develop diverse creative thought and ideas, to have knowledge of a number
of languages or means of expression.

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Music is, demonstrably, a language. It is in fact an extremely
sophisticated language. It has its own "grammar" and a logic dictated by
the harmonic patterns of various frequencies (pitches) sounded
simultaneously and in series. We react to these patterns with marked
physical and emotional responses. It communicates and in fact encodes and
replicates harmonic events in time. Sounds, as we have known from at least
the time of Pythagoras, have structure and mathematical relationships to
each other. Almost all of us have experienced an intensely emotional
response at one time or another to the harmonic structure of music. I
think it is important to represent music through reading and writing in
order to have a better understanding of that structure and, ultimately, in
order to have a better understanding of ourselves.

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Until now a truly musically literate society in the "functional literacy"
sense, has been considered by many to be impossible, even irrelevant.
Noted music educator, Bennett Reimer in his book, A Philosophy of Music
Education (1989 p.176) states, "When literacy is equated with...reading
and writing in the literal sense - the irrelevance of such literacy will
ensure that...it will be considered esoteric." We know the difficulties
and the energy that go into educating our children in our native spoken
language. It seems inconceivable we could expend such energy on an
esoteric language of pure sound like music. However, I believe that the
understanding music provides is not irrelevent. I believe learning the
musical "lingo" is worth the effort. But it is difficult to do. How can we
proceed?

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Whole-language methods and techniques for teaching language literacy are
showing that music plays an integral role in developing language. I feel
that the philosophy of whole-language provides a whole new path that can
help to bring about the possibility of truly universal music literacy. The
focus of this article will be to look at the methods of whole-language
teaching and to see if those methods have lessons for facilitating the
development of music literacy in our schools. In the process of making
connections between methods of teaching written language and written
music, I hope to reveal something of the nature of writing and literacy
generally and to show the power of the mutual development of language and
musical literacy.

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The complete article may be read at the URL above.

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Sincerely,
David Dillard
Temple University
(215) 204 - 4584
jw...@temple.edu
http://workface.com/e/daviddillard

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