World+Music+in+the+Classroom

Music is a major part of the lives of most people. It does not matter where you go around the world you see people singing or dancing or playing instruments. They are all making music. It is something that you could immediately join in at one level or another. You might be able to clap along to join in the dance to sing the melody to sing the words to add a verse to respond to the leader to move in time with the music to sway with the other players to smile in enjoyment ** All of these are MUSICAL RESPONSES. **   However we are often frightened in doing this because **We do not know exactly how it goes.** Our musical culture has been one with experts performing and an audience who admires and applauds. This is an exclusive model. It has led to people equating being musical with having certain technical musical skills. This is not true. This is just one area of musical experience. As you go round the world you find that our model is not the general one. In most cultures music is for everyone: **inclusive**. You are invited to sit down and listen, to join the dance, to participate with hands or voice or feet. The quality of your response is not criticised. Your enthusiasm is what is asked for and accepted willingly. This may be seen as one of the main attractions of teaching music from other cultures. We want all children to get a chance to share music making and many of the different musical forms from around the world are suitable for exploration with children. There is no value judgement on their performance. World music use many different instruments, forms structures, timbres, textures, conventions. An introduction to different ways of handling sound broadens the ear and the imagination. Many of these are much less elaborate than ours. If you look at the use of a drone [a sustained note [or notes] which does not change for long periods throughout a melody and provides harmony and texture], it provides a way of accompanying children’s work which is immediately compatible with the way children will naturally accompany each other. An recognition of harmony is unlikely before the age of eleven [Thackray, R.] and so an appreciation of western harmony is most unlikely before then. Structures may be simple such as a call and response. There may be a pattern, which repeats at frequent and regular intervals; this may be melodic or rhythmic. Rhythm patterns may themselves be simple with a clearly defined beat, which children would be able to mimic.
 * Why teach music from different times and places? **