Contexts are Crucial

Guiding students to internalize context is one of the least understood ideas in music education.  As a consequence, it's probably the most overlooked aspect of music curriculum design.  It's also a pain to write coherently about!  This is because it's an aspect of music which cannot be fully grasped any other way but musically.  However, if true musical independence is a goal the subject must be addressed.  Lastly, much of this post is also embedded within another post on my blog.  Whilst the examples are the same, the points I'm trying to make in each post differ.  

Onward...

Context are Crucial to Visual Comprehension

Contexts are Crucial to Comedy Comprehension

What: Weight-Watchers Weekly Meeting

When: Friday, Sept. 25th @ 7:30pm

Where: Haagen-Daz Ice Cream Shoppe, Dubai Mall

Contexts are Crucial to Language Comprehension

Consider the following two brief mini-stories:

''Delirious from the beating sun and one too many Margaritas---Kerry began to lose control of her boat and headed towards the riverbank. Then, without stopping, Kerry ran right into the bank.''

''With one last check of his gun, Kerry steeled his nerves, and pulled the black mask over his face. Then, without stopping, Kerry ran right into the bank.''

J.K. Rowling it ain't, but notice the italicized bold bits. Precisely the same words in precisely the same order can mean very different things based on prevailing context. Tone patterns and rhythm patterns that comprise music work in much the same way in the mind.

Context are Crucial to Musical Comprehension

“Without the necessary readiness…of context, teaching content precludes the possibility of desirable musicianship, forcing students to assume the role of dutiful robots.”---Edwin E. Gordon, writing in The Aural/Visual Experience of Music Literacy

Dutiful robots.  Presumably not what we want for our students.  And context is described as a necessary readiness--a prerequisite--to teaching the content of music if we want desirable musicianship.  Sound huge?  It is.

Plays Well; Lacks Expression
Without contextual comprehension, one of the myriad weaknesses our students will have is an inability to sense why this note or that phrase must be emphasized.  And so we often paste-on our phrasing to give the music a semblance of interpretive expression.

However, if we guide students to a strong inner ownership over the prevailing modes & meters, expressive performances begin to spring naturally from them as a result of a more gestalt structural understanding.  And this is only one of many, many virtues a strong sense of context engenders.

Mental Modal Models and Mental Meter Models.
Context is in the mind.  The alliterative phrases above are my simplest definitions of what contextual comprehension is.  To develop to our fullest tonally we must carry in our heads--as early as possible--a sonic structure for how each mode typically behaves.   Likewise, to develop to our fullest rhythmically we must carry in our bodies--as early as possible--a proprioceptive/kinesthetic sense of how each meter typically feels.

To extend these ideas (and the tongue-twisting): a Minor Mental Modal Model is a must, for example, before we ask kids to do much performing of music in Minor keys.  [BTW: this is emphatically NOT learned by practicing Minor scales!!]

Put one final way, before we can engage in musically intelligent listening, performing, reading, writing, or improvising with a tune like Brubeck's 'Take 5', we must already have ears with a sense of how Aeolian Mode usually functions and bodies with a sense of how Meter in 5 usually feels.  Absent these, Brubeck & Desmond's artistry (especially during their improvisations) eludes us, even if we love that famous melody.    

CONTENT--Essentials vs. Inessentials

read these two:

1.  the way the works and subtle

2.  musical mind is complex

Combined they form a proper sentence: the way the musical mind works is complex and subtle.  More importantly, when making sense out of language, not all words are created equal.  Some words are more important to the meaning, the gist, than others.  Certainly set #2 above contains the more essential content in this regard.  We teach nouns and verbs first in language because they are essential to meaning.  Often while doing so, kids learn prepositions, modifiers and conjunctions on their own.

In music, tones are not created equal either.   Some tones are more essential to the meaning, the gist of the music.  Arpeggios derived from the prevailing harmonic function are like the nouns & verbs of music.  If we teach this essential tonal content and it's relationships to the ongoing mode, expressiveness begins to emerge by itself.

Once again, compare it with language.  When the essentials---contextualized arpeggios derived from the prevailing harmonic function (the musical nouns & verbs)---are well taught, the inessentials like passing tones (the conjunctions of music) tend to get learned on their own.  Sense and structure emerge as one.

Why again are some tones more essential than others?  Two related reasons come to the fore that can be highlighted, once again with language analogies:  

Reason #1:  The Mind Stores Essentials

(quickly read each of the following words then immediately scroll down such that they disappear off the top of your screen):

BED   REST   AWAKE   TIRED   DREAM
WAKE   SNOOZE   DROWSY   BLANKET  DOZE
SLUMBER   SNORE   NAP   PEACE   YAWN

Which of the following words didn't appear above?  (Don't peek.)

BED      DOZE      SLEEP      GASOLINE

Certainly you immediately and powerfully knew that GASOLINE wasn't there.  But did you, with equal certainty know that SLEEP was also missing from the list?  Probably not. This is because the mind stores essentials, and SLEEP (even though it is not even on the list) is essential content because of the prevailing context that became established in your mind while you read those first 15 words.

Reason #2:  The Mind Ignores Inessentials

Read the following sentence out loud two times.  It's important that you don't just do it silently in your head once.

FINISHED FILES ARE THE RESULT OF YEARS OF SCIENTIFIC
STUDY COMBINED WITH THE EXPERIENCE OF YEARS.

OK, good.  Now go back and count the the number of letter F’s in that sentence.  

Did you count 3 or 4?  There are actually 6 F's.  Go back and count again!


Still finding fewer than 6?  They're there.  But context & content interactions are causing you to overlook some of them.  Here's why:  the sound world (context again!) we normally associate with the letter F is the sound at the start of words like FINISHED.  So after reading the sentence aloud, the mind ignores the F's in the word OF, because it hears them as V's (the word is pronounced by most of us as 'ov').  The ear ignores them due to context, making the eye blind to them as content.

Funky!!  But what's this got to do with music?

Tonal Essentials & Inessentials

Sing this aloud:  "Row-row-row your boat, gent-ly down the stream."

Now isolate and sing, in staccato, only the bold bits.  Completely skip the italicized bits, thus: "Row-row-row, boat gent down stream."   It's not too tough to sing only those pitches, right?  Those are the important tones which, if boiled even further, reduce to the absolute essentials:  "Row, boat, stream."  Sing that.  It outlines the prevailing harmonic function; the tonic triad in major.

Now try the opposite task.  Try to isolate and sing, in staccato, only the italicized bits, completely skipping the bold bits.  Thus, sing only "your, -ly, the."  Oddly challenging isn't it?  I can't do it at all without mentally hearing the more important tones first.  These are the unimportant, inessential tones (passing tones, etc.).  And just like the hard-to-find letter F's above, because those tones are inconsequential the ear ignores them, making them hard to find (unless you cheat by briefly 'check-in' with the essential tones first).

SUMMING UP--The Essence of Essentials

So in music as in language, the mind stores essentials and ignores inessentials based on the prevailing context.  Contextualized stored essentials are where intrinsic tonal and rhythmic musical meaning resides.  Reread that last sentence.  If you understand it, then you'll understand why, in my opinion one of the most potent, 'keep-kids-motivated" equations is:

 Internalized Context + Essential Content = Intrinsic Musical Meaning

Intrinsic musical meaning is the stuff of real music appreciation based on real musical comprehension.  It yields personalized musical expression.  It makes tunes our favorites.  It sets the stage for improvisation and composition.  And it is mostly about ongoing relationships; the essential content we are hearing or performing interacting with the internalized contexts we are silently maintaining.

Where the Language & Music Metaphors End

Words have definitions.  In language, words refer to objects & actions (chair, cat, hop, scramble, etc.).  In music, patterns relate to one another.  There are no referents or definitions.  So for there to be intrinsic meaning in music, the sounds must relate to the contexts in our heads.

To experience for ourselves the push, pull & beauty of melodic contour, tonal content we hear must relate to the prevailing Mode we've internalized.   To experience for ourselves the ebb, flow & subtlety of rhythm, the rhythmic content we hear must relate to the prevailing Meter we've internalized.  Absent internalized context, there can be no musical meaning.

And internalized context may be the simplest definition of what it means to be talented.  The truly talented develop senses of mode & meter on their own.  More importantly for education, the rest of us can do it too, we just need guidance.

A Review of Sorts

• Teach essentials well & inessentials get learned too.
• Teach contexts well & content begins to develop autonomously.
• Context is in the mind— a sense of Mode & Meter.
• Content is in the sounds —essential Tone & Rhythm patterns.
• Context + Content = Musical Comprehension.
• Musical Comprehension yields Musical Motivation.
• Musical Motivation yields increased Musical Skill.

More stuff for you deep thinkers out there:  The Foundations of Musicianship

Personal Note: Edwin E. Gordon’s Music Learning Theory provides the basis for virtually everything in this blog. I urge all parents & teachers to discover the efficacy of MLT.  Start here:  www.giml.org.