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There is a charming tale of Chekov’s about a man who tried to teach a kitten to catch mice. When it wouldn’t run after them, he beat it, with the result that even as an adult cat, it cowered with terror in the presence of a mouse. ‘This is the man’ Chekov adds, ‘who taught me Latin.’ - Bertrand Russell ’Freedom versus Authority in Education’ 1928

 Nothing new here but have we the bravery to see through what seems the ‘right way’ at the moment; the thing of fashion that we will look back at and think, not only did not work but it was also wrong.

Beating the information into children was the way to teach from ancient Rome to recent times this was thought to be ok and some people would like to see that again. My concern is that authoritarian ways of teaching has now become deeply psychological and very difficult to spot if you are not aware of what is being done. I am sure however that people will look back and count some of today’s strategies as wrong. I would count among these the belief that people are stupid and that someone holds the answers; often the discovering of something happens inside you not from outside and this is so true with music that most of the information is already in there you just need to put a label on it.  

I frequently go on about Mr Gove and Mr Wilshaw but they perpetrate this kind of thinking and all they are doing is breaking the school system because there will be so few teachers left the system will have to change. What we are seeing is the killing of the goose that lays the golden eggs; there will be a very short term increase in eggs and then they will stop.

The way to teach is to find what excites the mind and then start from there, much of the learning will happen from the pupil themselves as they uncover what they already ‘know’ and their interest will make them learn more. 

Vic

 

 

 

Won't get fooled again.

Fear is actually convenient to the smooth functioning of an orderly society. A docile population which is terrified of the authorities in their various forms will more likely depend on objects and institutions to give them guidance, solidity, security and a sense of meaning. If you are fearful, then you are unlikely to riot and very likely to work hard and spend hard. – Tom Hodgkinson

 

Ok this may be a view of someone who is an anarchist but there are some very interesting points here and something that has been acted upon by societies throughout the ages and throughout the world.

When there was a problem in China they have always thrown the poets in jail first as they were the ones that spread dissent, now it is the bloggers. The easiest way of dealing with dissent is to find something or someone to fear who can become the ‘enemy outside’ or as the South Africans say the leopard outside.

The problem here is that without the voices of dissent nothing will change, or should I say nothing will change in a progressive way and the history of grand societies and cultures is they collapse from the inside.

Now the question to ask is ‘does the guitar still hold it rebellious streak?’ Now if the answer to that is yes then maybe this is something that we should look at in our playing and our teaching as this may something for our times like it did in the sixties.

So pick up your guitar and play, just like yesterday and get down on your knees and pray that we won’t get fooled again.

 

Vic

 

 

Revenge is a dish best served cold

My first piano teacher told my parents I was "not teachable because I would only learn by ear/by listening." Today I received a call at school from this unnamed individual (unaware who I was) where we were offered a piano master class but only if they were grade three and above.  It seems that after nearly 15 years this teacher is completely unable to adapt their teaching style to suit students who learn in other ways. The fundamental issue I have with this is that actually a good teacher can teach ANYBODY and can harness their skills.  It felt good telling them that on the telephone.  It felt better telling them that I was the Head of Music at the school and they had told me that some years ago.  "Revenge is a dish best served cold." Tom Knight
 
Tom is a good friend of mine and I was lucky enough to teach him a number of years back. Over the years I watched his development as a singer, guitarist, keyboard player, drummer and bass player and probably a few other instruments as well, but for me this little story tells a deeper message about the Old School of thinking about music and many other things that have written off much of the talent that was inherent in children by people that quite frankly might be good players but are shit teachers and there are still many of these about but fortunately they are not as mainstream as they were.
There is an extraordinary arrogance and ignorance in the belief that skills like music and art come from an intellectual elite so for those who in the past were from a lower class and therefore did not have the breeding to play music, or did not have any formal training because they were unable to afford lessons you were disregarded. This may seem an extreme statement but I can remember a time when the guitar was not considered a ‘serious’ instrument and I had this said to me a few times; my revenge was sweet as I gradually stole pupils from them as they migrated to the guitar.
It has been shown here that the classical pianist who contacted Tom was so totally wrong in his estimation of the young Thomas not only is he now the head of music at a school but because he is such an awesome musician and this was due to his commitment and belief in himself and not due to the pretentions of someone else.
Vic
 


Work with Tom at www.bluescampuk.co.uk
 

Do Not Think Listen.

Several years ago I was lucky to visit Ecuador and on arriving in Quito we visited the old quarter of the city. 
In a little street there was an old man elegantly turned out in a suit and wearing a Panama hat sitting playing a guitar. It was obvious that he was self-taught and was using the open strings and simple melodies on the top two strings of the instrument, very simple but very beautiful.
It was for me a profound moment where I really was touched by this man and his playing which seemed so genuine and heartfelt and it brought me back to what is was to be a musician.
For all of my knowledge of the instrument sometimes that magic does elude me and just experiencing someone playing from a real love of the guitar can take you back to what it was that hooked you in the first place.
Maybe we just need to not think for a while and listen with no judgement and by turning off the part of the brain that wants to analyse we can learn something new.
Vic


www.bluescampuk.co.uk three days in a rock band...

We have to say goodbye to Monsieur Descartes

We have to say goodbye to Monsieur Descartes and see the world as an interdependent whole. We have to go beyond the idea of self-interest embrace the idea of mutual interest, reciprocity and interdependence.

Satish Kumar

 

Music whether in performance or teaching needs other people, we may spend many hours honing our skills on our own but it needs others for it to happen. Music needs an audience and it needs surroundings; it is about context and it is about transmitting to others creating oneness with all things within earshot.

As Satish puts it, the whole of western thinking for the last three hundred years have been tainted by the Frenchmen’s ideas. Science rests on this idea of separateness, look at how medicine isolates the problem and does not look at the holistic questions. Also the concept of the dominance of humans on the planet is leading us to a very dark place whose true identity will not be revealed until it is too late.

Whether it is playing to others, teaching people to play or creating music for others to play it is a form of society and group bonding that happens with music. Sometimes it takes a while for young musicians to come to this realisation that the music they create is for others but when they do that is when they truly become musicians.

Music and Art reflects exactly what we need in the rest of our lives in that we are in the same boat as one another and the same boat as the rest of nature, and if we do not realise this it is not just about the extinction of the Rhino and the Elephant it will be us. So maybe it is for the musician and artist to create something human and global maybe for people to link together to create music on the net with no composer just a collective.

Your turn………

 

Vic

 

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