Creating a Music School Network: A Finnish Perspective

Introduction: Music education all over the country

The purpose of this essay is to shed light on how the music school network was created in Finland. Besides compulsory music education, Finland has established a network of publicly supported music schools offering voluntary music education for children and adolescents all around the country. (For more information refer to Heimonen 2004a, 2005.)

Generally, pupils attend these schools after their school hours at the comprehensive school or upper-secondary school. In addition, almost every music school has a music kindergarten offering early childhood music education for children from around the age of 3 months to 7 years. A department for adults is part of a number of schools. An open department may also be established offering tuition for everyone without the obligation to pass an entrance examination although, in general, music schools select their pupils by means of tests and auditions.

In addition to the publicly supported (law-based) music schools, voluntary music education is offered at so-called workers’ institutes and people’s high schools as well as at private studios and music schools. The music university, the Sibelius Academy, has a junior department for especially talented schoolchildren. Several arts institutions, such as the Finnish National Opera or Helsinki Philharmonic, arrange projects with children and the young. Universities, including the Sibelius Academy, offer courses for everyone interested in music at their “open universities.” 1

The term music education is used here in a broad sense to refer to all aspects of music education and comprises of such terms as tuition, instruction, training and schooling. This essay focuses on the network of publicly supported, law-based music schools 2, and the term “voluntary music education” refers to education offered at these schools. “Extracurricular music education” might also be used, even if these schools have to ensure that their curricula conform to the national core curriculum. In addition, the term “out-of-school music tuition” might also refer to studies at music schools since they are not, in principal, a formal part of compulsory schooling.

Creating a Network for Voluntary Music Education

In Finland one of the most important principles, linked to the principle of life-long learning, is the principle of equal educational opportunities. 3 This principle is constitutionally secured. It refers to the subjective right of each child to receive an education regardless of her or his geographical background. Moreover, this principle refers to real factual opportunities; so, in basic education almost everything related to school is offered free-of-charge for children. 4

General music education is part of this compulsory schooling, as is the education offered at so-called “music classes,” at which more music lessons are available than usual. The principle of equality should ensure that every child will be educated in music. However, there has been a threat of diminishing the amount of lessons available in music and other arts subjects in schools, and in general teacher-education as well. 5

In addition to the formal educational system of compulsory schooling, a music school network offering voluntary music education has been created. Education at these schools is not free but it is supported by public financing. So, in practice, a great number of Finns can afford one-on-one music tuition (in a Master-apprentice relationship) for their children. 6

The principle of equality was one of the main arguments used when the first Act securing state support for music schools was enacted in the late 1960s. The problem with this legislation was the fact that, due to limited resources, only a few of the existing music schools, which in general had been established by individuals enthusiastic about music, could be granted state support. In the 1970s, the number of music schools increased rapidly, and several new schools were granted state financial support. However, the problem is still relevant: not all the music schools interested in applying to become part of the network can be accepted due to limited public resources. 7

Until recently, music school legislation has been changed several times. Presently, the Basic Arts Education Act (633/98) governs the education offered at these schools. The tendency is towards more freedom and flexibility in the content of study programmes; not only should a firm basis for future studies aimed at a profession in music be created, but also a life-long interest, a love of music should be aimed at and a good relationship to music developed. Within this spirit, the national core curricula have recently been renewed (Finnish National Board of Education 2002; 2005) and the framework for pupil evaluation and examinations has been as well (Association of Finnish Music Schools, www.musicedu.fi).

Some Final Remarks

The network of music schools has promoted the flourishing musical life of Finland in several ways. Firstly, all children (and not only those living in the capital and other cities) are offered an opportunity to receive music education regardless of their geographical background. Secondly, teacher training and qualification requirements for music-school teachers have been used as a means of controlling the standard of education, as have been the activities and projects arranged by the Finnish Association of Music Schools. This might have been a key to the “flowering of Finnish creativity” making it possible that “since the 1960s, with a population not greater than London’s, Finland has produced more leading musicians than any other country in Europe.” 8

The challenges for the future comprise of several aspects that are mainly linked to the demands of offering a broader content and more child-centred view in education. Reports have shown that, rather than a lack of professionals, there will be a need for audiences and music lovers – amateurs -in the near future. Moreover, the surrounding society is changing: it is not only classical music but also a great number of other musical genres that encompass pupils’ lives. 9 Commercialism – the music business – is part of this development. Present discussion seems to be related both to equality-related questions and to moral and ethical dimensions in music education, such as the question of how we could nurture humanistic values rather than serve the efficiency of business-life within present societies.

Finnish music schools are presently balancing between different aims and values in their education. In short, more freedom and flexibility in the content of education combined with financial security is an aim that might promote our musical life also in the future. An education that promotes the development of a good and flourishing relationship between individuals and music, and evokes a life-long interest and love of music could be regarded as a principal aim and essential part of a proper basis for all involved in music.

Endnotes

1. See, e.g. Palonen 1993; http://www2.siba.fi./Kulttuuripalvelut/musiikki.html; http://www.kulttuuri.net/english/ [return]

2. In Finnish, “lakisääteinen musiikkioppilaitos.” See more, Heimonen 2002, 26. [return]

3. See, e.g. http://www.edu.utu.fi/ktl/cele/julkaisut.htm (Centre for Research on Lifelong Learning and Education). [return]

4. On the right to education, see Heimonen 2003. [return]

5. The arts students are trying to support the arts subject’s position in schools and in teacher-training by arranging a public demonstration in front of the Parliament in March 2006; see, e.g., Teemu Luukka 2006. Taideopiskelijat lähtevät barrikadeille koulujen taideaineiden puolesta [Arts students leave for the barricades in support of schools’ arts subjects]. Helsingin Sanomat 23 March 2006. [return]

6. For a broader view, see Heimonen 2004b (on Swedish music and arts schools), and the first chapter of Heimonen 2002 (Comparative perspectives on music schools in Germany, England and Sweden). [return]

7. This is one of the reasons why no special legislation for music and arts schools [musik- / kulturskola] has been enacted in Sweden (see more, Heimonen 2004b). [return]

8. Andrew Clarks in Heimonen 2002, 255. [return]

9. Research and literature concerning music studies and teachers in music schools; see, e.g., Broman-Kananen 2005; Lehtonen 2004; Huhtanen 2004; Hirvonen 2003, Tuovila 2003; Kosonen 2001; Kurkela & Tawaststjerna 1999; Kurkela 1993. [return]

References:

Association of Finnish Music Schools [Suomen Musiikkioppilaitosten Liitto], http://www.musicedu.fi.

Basic Arts Education Act [Laki taiteen perusopetuksesta 633/98], Suomen Laki II. Helsinki: Talentum Lakimiesliiton Kustannus.

Broman-Kananen, Ulla-Britta 2005. På klassrummets tröskel. Om att vara lärare i musikläroinrättningarnas brytningstid. [On the Threshold of the Classroom – On Being a Teacher during the Transition Period of Music Schools.] Studia Musica 24. Sibelius Academy. Helsinki: Hakapaino.

Finnish Journal of Music Education. Special number on ethics and music education, vol 8, no 2.

Finnish National Board of Education 2002 and 2005: Core Curricula for Basic Arts Education, Music (Helsinki: Edita Prima). See: http: www.oph.fi

Heimonen, Marja 2005. Soivatko lait? Näkökulmia musiikkikasvatuksen filosofiaan. [Do laws sound? Perspectives in the philosophy of music education] Sibelius-Akatemia, EST- julkaisusarja. Helsinki: Hakapaino.

Heimonen, Marja 2004. The Development of Finnish Music Schools: A Legal Perspective. Nordisk musikkpedagogisk forskning Årbok 7 (2004), 117-131. (Heimonen 2004a)

Heimonen, Marja 2004. Music and arts schools – Extra-curricular music education in Sweden: A comparative study. Action, Criticism, and Theory for Music Education ejournal Vol 3, No 2, July 2004. (Heimonen 2004b)

Heimonen, Marja 2003. Music Education and Law: Regulation as an Instrument. Philosophy of Music Education Review 11 (2), 170-184.

Heimonen, Marja 2002. Music Education & Law. Regulation as an Instrument. Studia Musica 17. Helsinki: PB-Printing.

Helasvuo, Veikko 1977. The Education of Young Musicians on the Pre-Collegiate Level in Finland. ISME Yearbook. Volume IV (1977). Papers of the ISME Seminar, Hannover 1976, ed. by Egon Kraus. Mainz: B Schott’s Söhne, 103-106.

Hirvonen, Airi 2003. Pikkupianistista musiikin ammattilaiseksi. Solistisen koulutuksen opiskelijat identiteettinsä rakentajina. [How young piano students become professional musicians. Students of soloist music education as constructors of their identities.] Oulu: Oulu University Press.

Huhtanen, Kaija 2004. Pianistista soitonopettajaksi. Tarinat naisten kokemusten merkityksellistäjinä. [A Pianist Becoming a Piano Teacher. Narratives Giving Meaning to the Experiences of Women.] Studia Musica 22. Sibelius-Akatemia. Helsinki: Hakapaino.

Kosonen, Erja 2001. Mitä mieltä on pianonsoitossa? 13-15-vuotiaiden pianonsoittajien kokemuksia musiikkiharrastuksestaan. [What is the point in piano playing? Experiences of 13-15-year old piano players.] Jyväskylä studies in the arts. Jyväskylä: Jyväskylä University Printing House.

Kurkela, Kari 1993. Mielen maisemat ja musiikki. [Landscapes of the Mind and Music.] Musiikin tutkimuslaitoksen julkaisusarja no 11. Helsinki: Hakapaino.

Kurkela, Kari & Tawaststjerna, Erik T. 1999. Analyysi kuuden musiikkiopiston toiminnasta ja ajatuksia musiikin perusopetuksen järjestämisestä. [Analysis of the activity of six music schools and ideas on arranging basic education in music.] In Terhi Heino and Maija-Liisa Ojala, eds., Musiikkioppilaitosten perusopetuksen arviointi 1998. petushallitus. Helsinki: Yliopistopaino, 89-150.

Lehtonen, Kimmo 2004. Maan korvessa kulkevi… Johdatus postmoderniin musiikkipedagogiikkaan. [Walking in the backwoods of earth … Introduction to postmodern music pedagogy.] Turku: Turun yliopisto.

Luukka, Teemu 2006. Musiikkiopistot kalliita Helsingissä. [Music schools expensive in Helsinki] Helsingin Sanomat, 21 March 2006.

Luukka, Teemu 2006. Taideopiskelijat lähtevät barrikadeille koulujen taideaineiden puolesta [Arts students leave for the barricades in support of schools’ arts subjects]. Helsingin Sanomat 23 March 2006.

Palonen, Osmo 1993. Aspects of Musical Life and Music Education in Finland. The Sibelius Academy. Series of educational publications 8. Helsinki: University Printing House.

Tuovila, Annu 2003. “Mä soitan ihan omasta ilosta”: pitkittäinen tutkimus 7-13-vuotiaiden lasten musiikin harjoittamisesta ja musiikkiopisto-opiskelusta. [“I Play Entirely for My Own Joy!”: A longitudinal study on music making and music school studies of 7 to 13- year-old children.] Studia Musica 18. Sibelius-Akatemia. Helsinki: PB-Printing.

Website material / links:

Http://www.edu.utu.fi/ktl/cele/ Centre for Research on Lifelong Learning and Education (CELE).

Http://www.kulttuuri.net/english/ Kulttuuri.net. A Gateway to Finnish Culture on the Net.

Http://www2.siba.fi/Kulttuuripalvelut/musiikki.html Musiikkia internetissä

See also, e.g., the Finnish music journal Rondo (on the current debate on music school studies), the Finnish Music Quarterly (special number on Finnish music education, autumn 2006) and Finaali – Journal of Musical Performance and Research.

ADHD correlated with addictive Internet usage and spam behavior?

OK, so here we have a peek into the minds of individuals who have the time to find new blogs and spam all over the site.

Could Internet Addiction be Genetic on Philly.com

It’s not surprising. Is there a correlation between ADHD and digital addiction? Well, both are genetic, so it’s likely merely a matter of connecting the dots on the genetic map.

When I was at ISME n Thessaloniki, and subsequently on vacation on the Greek Islands, I went on a digital fast for 4 weeks. My (re) awakening. We do not thoughtfully consider how different our lives were 15, 20, 25 years ago.

I still remember mailing my submission and revisions on a publication to the editor of a research journal and receiving hard copies of the reviewer suggestions. At a guitar lesson I taught today, I showed  student IBM computer key punch cards–in 1981, before computer “terminals,” there were keypunch operators. And refrigerator sized, batch feeders that would read the cards–we would wait 20 minutes for a print out of our computer program “code.” He laughed uncontrollably at my story.

Now, I don’t want to sound like a Jurassic period dinosaur, however, there is much to be said for playing a sweet, smooth, acoustic guitar like my 1966 Gibson B25n. I will not deny my love for my electrics, or my MIDI guitar rig, and my 5 amplifiers, but the medium is the message as well as the “massage.” I wrote (and quoted “The Messenger,” McLuhan) about music as a medium in two Canadian Music Educator journal articles in the mid-1990s. Almost a decade earlier, my MA thesis was a comparison of three accompaniment media on singing achievement and developmental music aptitude (1987). One member of my thesis committee (not Gordon) actually argued that music was “not a medium,” not a “mode of communication.” Tell that, or argue that, to the masses.

No further comment. The last three decades have defined and extended my points, with and without my writings. Someday I’ll rewrite the introduction to the thesis to give MayDay members a smile and a few guffaws.

Archaic, traditionalist thinking in music education is one huge reason why we are, where we are, when it comes to connecting with the majority of adolescents in secondary schools–Catholic, antiquated thinking about the content of the music curriculum and proliferation of highly structured, formal, teacher-directed pedagogies. That thought also influences the ways we conduct and write research, but that’s another story for another column (e.g., perhaps the “MayDay Methods E-Column” in 2025) and opening another “can of old RAM chips.”

It’s all connected to how, when, why. where, how much we actually “teach” music in technologically enriched music settings of the 21st century. It’s far more than a postmodernist straw man argument of “informal” learning versus formal learning.

Why don’t we connect with the majority of kids in schools through music programs when they spend over 2.5 hours a day listening to music on digital devices? (Kaiser Foundaiton, 2011). Think beyond “form,” whether (in)formal, (misin)formed, (re)formed, or (de)formed. Formalist (and informalist) explanations are rooted in modernist-postmodernist binaries.

Perhaps I should be flattered that a person from “Spamalot” would spend time responding to my posts, even if in a negative manner.

My thanks to Terry Gates for posting on the Blog. You win a free beer at the 2013 MayDay Colloquium.

 

From SoundEdit 16 on the desktop to Four Track on an iPhone in 17 years

This is something we should all be following for many reasons. For one, site order there will be an effect on the kind of research we’ll be able to do in school based situations using PDAs.

http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2012/09/01/apple-targets-the-samsung-galaxy-s-iii-and-galaxy-note/

Considering that only 15 years ago we were still recording music into desktop computers– and some of us used SoundEdit 16 to record 16 bit digital audio on crude laptops with B&W screens (as early as 1995)–the legal skirmishes that will be ongoing for the next few years will determine the future of music making on PDAs.

 

Digital media (music) and the creative economy

Closely related to the themes introduced in Thessaloniki at the ISME MayDay Symposium, on Music Education and The Creative Economy, I invite you to read this Canadian authored report. Note that music is discussed in two distinct sections, recording and performance, as well as in interdisciplinary contexts, which is significant on a number of levels. Of particular interest is the lack of discussion of the role of K-12 education, as it is not very well researched at all on that level.

http://www.cpaf-opsac.org/en/themes/documents/DigitalTransitionsReport-FINAL-EN.pdf

A future post will include a copy of the papers that Scott Goble, Daniel Johnson, and I presented in that cavernous concert hall in early July 2012.

So, what is the role of music education in digital music making and recording contexts?

I look forward to discussion on this innovative and timely topic.

 

YouTube is now the music listening medium for teens

This is a phenomenon that Danny Bakan and I revealed in our 2011 publication with the UNESCO E-Observatory Journal

http://9to5mac.com/2012/08/14/teens-flock-to-youtube-for-music-consumption-over-itunes-and-other-mediums/

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390444042704577587570410556212.html#articleTabs%3Dvideo

I’ve been using YouTube to teach guitar, medicine and to learn some guitar licks and tunes, for over two years. Also, some of the best music videos of great performances are archived on YouTube. Just do a YT search for Jimmy Raney and Attilla Zoller to sample some of the unique music that can be seen on YT.

Also, if you’re on FaceBook, Afro-Cuban conga and trumpeter Jerry Gonzales, leader of the Fort Apache Band, regularly posts and digs up amazing video clips of some of the best Afro-Cuban music available on the www.

 

headphones and music listening

How many readers remember the clumsy headphones that weighed two pounds that we used 25-30 years ago? It was the most tiring part of being on the radio, because wearing heavy headphones for four hours is a workout on one’s neck.

Who would have thought that something like a ‘headphone’ would have the kind of caché that would draw attention from ‘stars’ and advertisers to form a multi-million dollar industry?

This past Christmas, I bought a new set for my son at a local music store. I went for a high end, studio quality headphone made by Sennheiser. When he opened it on Xmas morning, he liked the look and weight, which attracted me to purchasing them, but he didn’t like the ‘bass’ because he expected the boomy, thud of digital drums that are always so prominent in the mix of alternative hip-hop music.

I urged him to hold on to them and listen to a broader variety of his music library. A few days later, he came by the house to tell me that ‘they were cool.’

The following article exposes the seamy side of advertising, branding and headphones that has nothing to do with sound quality or music.

http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/entertainment/tech_gaming/165425015.html

 

Community Music in the UK: Historical Perspectives

The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways; the point, however, is to change it (Marx, 1978).

Community arts is, if nothing else, about change, and about using the Arts to achieve change (Webster, 1997).

Community artists are distinguishable not by the techniques they use … but by their attitude towards the place of their activities in the life of society (Baldry, 1974).

Community arts is not a specific form of art, but a specific attitude to art (Braden, 1978).

The purpose of this short historical perspective is to provide a firm foothold in what is generally understood in the UK and Ireland as Community Music. This will be important for any subsequent articles I post on this e-journal as it is through this ‘tradition’ that I am most familiar. I hope this piece begins to solidify key characteristics of Community Music and provides points of discussion and critique that will enable the column to get moving.

Community Music emerged as a sub-strand of the community arts movement during the political and cultural changes of the late 1960s and the early 1970s. The growth of Community Music reflected this period of change, emerging as a socio-political force from the professional community development practices initiated in post-war Britain. The Second World War had destroyed long-established working-class communities, consequently generating a new mobile employment trend as people moved from destroyed cities to new towns. These movements created new communities, and the comfort of ‘knowing your neighbour’ was not now a given. In order to try to overcome problems caused by this mobility, a new profession of the community worker arose towards the end of the 1940s. Those working within this broad sphere of community education recognized the lack of cultural activities and so added a cultural element to its practical purposes. Benefactors of these new elements began to demand arts activities, and so these demands grew throughout the 1950s and into the early 1960s. These developments foreshadowed the community arts movement of the late 1960s, and therefore also Community Music.

Considered a ‘movement’, community arts was based on the recognition of the similarities of aims and methods in the work of its founders. According to Owen Kelly, community arts began as one strand of activism among many during the late 1960s (Kelly, 1984). As a watershed for cultural radicalism, the late 1960s are synonymous with those attempting to reform social conditions and those attempting to change ‘the human condition’, or to escape from it. The latter came to be called the ‘counter-culture’ and had its values in anti-materialism, non-conformity, and a stress on personal growth. Counter-cultural dissent capitulated into the revolts of 1968 and drove towards politicizing the personal. The New Left led this ideology, with its emphasis on agency, culture, class-consciousness and the centrality of the social experience. It had reworked Marxism into an open, critical and humanist project. Culture had become the site not for contentment but for conflict, and community artists found solace within the politics of the New Left. 1 Within this trajectory Community Music projects put social issues at the heart of the musical-doing providing springboards from which the communities involved could politicize themselves and their area of need.

Those working in Community Music understood that people in every type of community had been making music for as long as communities had been documented. Reminiscent of the challenge to dominant historical perspectives, articulated by the likes of Michel Foucault, community musicians sought to redress the balance between polarities such as ‘high’ art and ‘popular’ art. Community arts earlier manifestations were therefore associated with the working class and working-class values, placing the work in opposition to the so-called élitist art worlds of classical theatre, art galleries and opera. In short, the general notion of Community Music initiated a time of re-evaluation. In the early 1970s, community musicians identified the work made by the working class, women or the non-European as being on the fringe, suffering from an oppression of the dominant hegemony of contemporary capitalist society. In this way, community musicians differed from musicians in the community by acting as conscious facilitators for people in communities to express themselves artistically.

The cultural and political ambitions of Community Music oscillated around the notion of empowerment through participation in the creative process. In ways that echoed Paulo Freire’s approach to libratory education, outlined in Pedagogy of the Oppressed, many community musicians fought for radicalization and transformation (Freire, 2002). As a consensus, those working as community musicians shared a dislike of cultural hierarchies, and believed in co-authorship of work and in the creative potential of all sections of the community. For some practitioners their belief went further, suggesting that community arts in general could provide a powerful medium for social and political change.

In order for community musicians to achieve any sense of political democracy and change, it was widely considered that the instigation of ‘cultural democracy’ was of utmost importance. Cultural democracy in its extreme condemned the cultural heritage of Europe as bourgeois. As far as community arts had any common philosophy, it did argue that a cultural democracy in which creative arts opportunities, enjoyment and celebration would be available to all was paramount to its cause. Cultural democracy was a doctrine of empowerment and a tool for action.

Community Music fashioned itself within the environs of the counter-culture consciousness and the development of ‘new’ classroom practices from music educators such as John Paynter, Peter Aston, George Self, John Cage and Murray Schafer. These ideas were modelled within the composer/musician in residence schemes popular during the mid 1970s and 1980s. 2 Under the umbrella of community arts, Community Music cut itself free from notions of ‘music in the community’ and ‘communal music-making’, where these terms related to a community being musical. Community Music is therefore understood within the framework of those facilitators who actively encouraged people’s musical-doing. As a form of activism located within the politics of socialism, Community Music initially resisted formalized music education and was a protest against perceived misunderstandings of music’s nature and purpose. Politically constructed to maintain social and cultural hegemonies through ideas pertaining to high and low art, these ‘misunderstandings’ were seen as being rooted in a conception of music that has its genesis in the late eighteenth century.

Progressions in music education and musical understanding, compounded with the political ideology of the community arts movement, provided the foundations for the growth of Community Music. Publications such as Christopher Small’s Music, Society, Education and John Blacking’s How Musical is Man? Provided a noted theoretical base in which advocates of Community Music have argued for alternative orientations in music education (Blacking, 1973; Small, 1996).

In the mid 1970s ‘punk rock’ provided the political imperative community musicians had been afraid to lose in it’s association with music education. As one of the chief instigators in the creation of the music cooperative 3, punk and Community Music were brought together in a short-lived ideological allegiance. With the social and economic problems of the 1970s, Britain had inadvertently provided a catalyst and timing for the development of a punk subculture 4. Against a background of young people’s frustration concerning Britain’s social and economic problems, and a reaction against the era’s rock super-stars, punk aligned itself with the Anti-Nazi league, and Rock against Racism. Like community arts and consequently Community Music, punk rock emphasized class politics, creating a potent fusion between music and political statements. Political unease coupled with an alternative vision of music-making encouraged musicians to work beyond the consideration of music as an autonomous object. Punk and consequently community musicians rebelled against the focus on consumerism perpetrated by the self-styled ‘music industry’.

During the epoch of the music cooperative, a number of key developments ensured that Community Music continued to expand. Described as a ‘key year’ for the development of Community Music, 1984 witnessed several influential happenings (Joss, 1993). Firstly, the first orchestral education manager was appointed to the London Sinfonietta and the first full-scale community residency by a British orchestra. Secondly, 1984 witnessed the creation of the seventh International Society of Music Education’s (ISME) commission, the Commission for Community Music Activity. Thirdly, there was the creation of the Music Education Working Party (MEWP) organized and managed by the Arts Council of Great Britain. 5

The development of these links generated a new breed of music professional and opened a significant space in which to actively enable and support music participation beyond the classroom walls. This ‘new kind of professional’, pinpointed the combination of musical, facilitatory, administrative and communication skills. The momentum of these developments resulted in Britain’s first nationally focused Community Music event held in Manchester in 1989. One of the most important aspects of this meeting was the suggestion that a national association representing Community Music activity would be to the advantage of those who were currently involved in its practice. This organization, eventually named ‘Sound Sense’, proceeded to hold its inaugural meeting in December that same year. 6

One of the key issues for Community Music has been it’s identity, this was true then as it is now. Sound Sense has always been active in trying to reflect what Community Music does rather than what it is. In 1995 Sound Sense released this statement:

* Community Music involves musicians from any musical discipline working with groups of people to enable them to develop active and creative participation in music.

* Community Music is concerned with putting equal opportunities into practice.

* Community Music can happen in all types of community, whether based on place, institution, interest, age or gender group, and reflects the context in which it takes place (Macdonald, Spring 1995).

Described as ‘not so much a formal definition, but a three-part “test”‘, the composite declaration has been a stable backbone to Sound Sense’s work from 1995 to the present (Deane, 1999).

As an organised force Community Music in the UK has contributed to the wider implications of music and music education throughout the country. This can be seen in recently manifestations such as the Music Manifesto, Youth Music, and the Musical Futures project. Articles on such projects can be read in Sound Sense 7, Link 8 and MailOut 9. Case Studies and Issues in Community Music commissioned by Sound Sense attempts to provide ‘thicker’ description of Community Music projects and offers some good insights (Kushner, Walker, & Tarr, 2001). My PhD study provided a detailed historical overview as a prelim to theoretical excursions of Community Music through deconstruction (Higgins, 2006). Evidence of the impact of Community Music can also be demonstrated through the growing interest of Community Music training and education both in the UK and abroad. For a broader overview of Community Music from a world-wide perspective see Kari Veblen and Bengt Olsson’s Community Music: Towards an International Overview, Velben’s chapter in David Elliott’s Praxial Music Education, Bryan Burton’s entry in Encyclopaedia of Community and publications from ISME’s Commission of Community Music Activity (Burton, 2003; Drummond, 1991; Leglar, 1996; Veblen, 2005; Veblen & Olsson, 2002, www.cdime-network.com).

Endnotes

1. For an overview of political ideology and cultural policy in the UK during the 1980s see, Henry, Ian, P. (1993). The Politics of Leisure Policy. London: The Macmillan Press Ltd.[return]

2. See Chapter 3 in Pitts, Stephanie. (2000). A Century of Change in Music Education: Historical Perspectives on Contemporary Practice in British Secondary School Music. Hampshire: Ashgate Publishing Ltd. [return]

3. Music cooperatives encouraged a communal spirit that often resulted in collectives recorded compilation albums, showcasing local acts and offering opportunities for exposure beyond the rehearsal garage. [return]

4. See Savage, Jon. (1991). England’s Dreaming: Sex Pistols and Punk Rock. London: Faber and Faber. Bennett, Andy. (2001). Cultures of Popular Music. Buckingham: Open University Press. [return]

5. As a key policy decision, the Music Education Workers Party’s (MEWP) mission was to forge a connection between the worlds of education, community development and music[return]

6. See www.soundsense.org [return]

7. The magazine of Sound Sense published quarterly. [return]

8. A new magazine that is attempting to connect the music education community as a whole. See www.linkmagazine.co.uk [return]

9. A magazine that considers the development of the participatory arts across the British Isles. See www.e-mailout.org [return]

References:

Baldry, Harold. (1974). The Report of the Community Arts Working Party: Arts Council of Great Britain.

Bennett, Andy. (2001). Cultures of Popular Music. Buckingham: Open University Press.

Blacking, John (1973). How Musical is Man? In. London: Faber and Faber.

Burton, Bryan, J. . (2003). Music. In Karen Christensen & David Levinson (Eds.), Encyclopaedia of Community: From the Village to the Virtual World (Vol. 3). California: Sage Publications.

Deane, Kathryn. (1999). Making Change Work, Four-Year Plan, 2000/2001 to 2004/2005: Sound Sense.

Drummond, John. (1991). The Community Musician: Training a New Professional. Oslo: The Norwegian Affiliation of International Society for Music Education.

Freire, Paulo. (2002). Pedagogy of the Oppressed. New York: Continuum.

Henry, Ian, P. (1993). The Politics of Leisure Policy. London: The Macmillan Press Ltd.

Higgins, Lee. (2006). Boundary-Walkers: Contexts and Concepts of Community Music. University of Limerick, Limerick.

Joss, Tim. (1993). A Short History of Community Music. In Tim Joss & Dave Price (Eds.), The First National Directory of Community Music: Sound Sense.

Kelly, Owen. (1984). Community, Art and the State: Comedia.

Kushner, S, Walker, B, & Tarr, J. (2001). Case Studies and Issues in Community Music. Bristol: University of the West of England.

Leglar, Mary, A. (1996). The Role of Community Music in a Changing World. Paper presented at the Proceedings of the 1994 Seminar of the Commission on Community Music Activity, Georgia.

Macdonald, Irene. (Spring 1995). The Leiston Statement. Sounding Board, p. 29.

Marx, Karl. (1978). Theses on Feuerbach. In C. J. Arthur (Ed.), The German Ideology. New York: International Publishers.

Pitts, Stephanie. (2000). A Century of Change in Music Education: Historical Perspectives on Contemporary Practice in British Secondary School Music. Hampshire: Ashgate Publishing Ltd.

Savage, Jon. (1991). England’s Dreaming: Sex Pistols and Punk Rock. London: Faber and Faber.

Small, Christopher. (1996). Music Society Education. London: Wesleyan University Press.

Veblen, Kari. (2005). Community Music and Praxialism: Narratives and Reflections. In David J Elliott (Ed.), Praxial Music education: Reflections and Dialogues (pp. 308-328). New York: Oxford University Press.

Veblen, Kari, & Olsson, Bengt (2002). Community Music: Toward an International Overview. In Richard Colwell & Carol Richardson (Eds.), The New Handbook of Research on Music Teaching and Learning. New York: Oxford University Press.

Rural Community

One of the greatest advantages/positives/joys about teaching in small rural communities is the sense of community. Of course, one could argue that community can be found anywhere, not just in rural places. And, that is true. However . . . if we follow one of the founders of sociology, Ferdinand Tönnies’ definition of community, rural places do tend to have a greater sense of community than do urban places. According to Tönnies, community (Gemeinschaft) is a familial-type of social arrangement consisting of necessary relationships within a specific place. Put more simply, when we interact with the same group of people daily and over extended periods of time, we simply have to learn to get along. Especially when the group is small, we can’t just limit our associations to those with whom we might naturally agree. Understandably, close-knit communities maintain common traditions and values. For example, in Eureka, Utah where I taught music for 12 years, the Christmas Operatta was one such tradition. Each Christmas the sixth graders would put on a musical play in which each elementary grade K-5 performed a song and dance. The parents association made costumes, I taught the songs, and the classroom teachers taught the dances. For quite a few years the first grade teacher, Linda Stout, and I wrote the Operatta together–she wrote the script and lyrics and I put the songs to music. When I was teaching in the 1990?s this tradition of a Christmas Operetta was already about 100 years old. And, it was the most well-attended community event in Eureka.

The advantage of community or Gemeinschaft is that it is very effective at satisfying human needs for love and belonging. The opposite of Gemeinschaft if Gesellschaft usually translated as “society” or “civic society”and is “characterized by a high degree of individualism, impersonality, contractualism, and proceeding from volition or sheer interest rather than from the complex of affective states, habits, and traditions that underliesGemeinschaft” (Robert Nisbet, The Sociological Tradition, Basic Books, 1966). This contrast helps explain how it’s possible to feel alienated in a large city. In actuality, of course, Gemeinschaft is not strictly rural and Gesellschafturban. However, many (if not most) rural places do still tend towards community and, in my experience, and when I speak with other rural music teachers, community is usually given as one of the greatest advantages of teaching music in small rural schools.

 

Ethos Rural Music Education Program

I came across this article about a rural music education program in Oregon. I have mixed feelings, of course. The author, James Bash, writes: ”If you ever grew up out in the middle of nowhere, you might have an understanding of how hard it is to acquire a music education. Some small towns might still have a church organist or someone who plays a little piano or guitar, but others have no one at all. That’s where the Ethos’ Rural Music Program and its coordinator Megan Moran come in. Ethos, a Portland-based non-profit music organization, has offered several ways to bring affordable music education to rural areas across Oregon, and Moran is the program’s coordinator. She grew up in Vancouver, Washington, played in the Portland Youth Philharmonic, and graduated from Lewis & Clark College. She balances her rural coordinator job with freelance work as a music librarian at the Oregon Symphony, freelance violin gigs with ensembles like the Bach Cantata Choir Chamber Orchestra and the Oregon East Symphony, and teaching at summer music camps.”

I am sure that these are all well-meaning people. However, as someone who grew up in a very rural area, I find some of the assumptions to be rather offensive. First, like so many other rural folk, I did call where I came from the “middle of nowhere.” But, think about the connotation–that some places are nowhere with nothing to see and nothing to do. In fact, friends from the city would often ask us, “What do you do out there? Don’t you get bored?” The thing is, we were never bored growing up. There is always something to do and much to see. Some people have started turning “middle of nowhere around” around and saying “halfway to everywhere”, but I’m not sure that’s much better–the implications are similar. Anyway, that’s my first critique.

Second, the idea that rural children don’t have access to music or have less access than suburban or urban children is an anti-rural cultural assumption; it’s biased. It is true that suburban children may have more access to a sequential music curriculum in schools and formal private music instruction. They may also be more likely to listen to classical music. However, school music and classical music do not constitute MUSIC. There is much music outside of school and many genres of great music other than classical music. You can even have access to music without a radio. Also, formal instruction is not the only way to learn to play a musical instrument. I grew up in an extremely rural area (see previous posts) in a musically rich environment. We played guitars, accordions, and piano. We had cassette tapes and records to listen to even though we lived well below the poverty level. And we weren’t “exceptions to the rule” because there is no rule–only biases about social class and place.

There are some things in the article that I like. I am glad that people are interested in rural places and I was encouraged by the interest in teaching rural children how to play the guitar. Hopefully it’s not a classical, notation based guitar curriculum. Also, it’s cool that the project involved partnerships with local music groups.

Overall, I hate to be “glass is half empty” when well-meaning people are interested in assisting rural children, but I would be less-than-honest if I only spoke out in the affirmative.  What can we do for rural children and their music education? Let’s embrace and help rural children deepen understandings of local musical cultures and even local preferences for popular music. How about experiences in Country or Tejano music, for example? Maybe a school could develop country music bands like this one in Australia (I can’t find any in the US !)

 

So Long Joe Bageant

I was saddened to learn last week that Joe Bageant, author of Deer Hunting with JesusRainbow Pie, and a whole bunch of critical essays, had passed away. His straight-forward critiques of unsustainable modernity (from a rural perspective) are priceless. His essays can be accessed in pdf form at:http://www.joebageant.com/joe/2011/04/joe-bageant-poet-redneck-revolutionary-rip.html. Of course, I say that his was a rural, working class perspective, but he was also critical of aspects or rural and working class culture. It can be a little bit confusing, I’ll admit. In fact, I was trying to explain to someone the other day about my own very short journey from rural conservative to a more radical point of view. I didn’t move gradually from far right to far left, however, through all the shades of the in-between. There is a space where far right actually meets far left going the other direction, where those who live off the land meet those who have returned (or wish they could return) to the land–all joined under a subscription to the Mother Earth News. In that space, it’s just a jump further to the right into communitarianism and new-agrarianism. Anyway, in my view, that’s kind of the space where I found Mr. Bageant’s work. Thanks, Joe, for some great reading. Rest in peace.

Joe1_thumb