The Veblen article discussed really interesting ideas and conversations about music education that are valuable to our understanding of contemporary education.
The beginning of the article talks a lot about the different styles of education; formal, informal, and nonformal. This is interesting to me because it has been a constant personal discussion in my head about where I would like to teach: classroom, private lessons, community music setting etc. It also discussed the comparison between educational tactics between each of the styles as well as between generations. I found it interesting that upon inspection, a lot of common principles that are taught to kids can also be applied to adults, however there a lot more principles that are new that must be applied to adults called “andragogy”. It’s also interesting to survey where most of my personal music instruction lays; from formal and non-formal learning contexts through schools, ensembles, and private lessons.
I never really understood the organization of musical education in this context, however it is easier to understand what is the most effective for different demographics. When reading about informal music education, it was really interesting to read about Rice learning about technique whereas the mental capacity to understand the melody and ornamentation only got so far, and Rice had to consider the kinesthetic side of the technique. This is a method that, previously I would think only worked for children as they might not understand verbal cues on technique and positioning, however it can totally be applied in informal practice which is one of the core transmissions in informal teaching. When I had experienced teaching people voice and basic piano, I felt that a lot of my teaching ability lay within the core principles of formal and nonformal learning; notation and aural skills. However, there have been many occasions where I realize that to get a point across or help my students understand how to properly execute a specific technique or passage, I could just show them myself and have them copy it. In the future, I would look towards the application of a lot of informal techniques because I feel like it’s extremely important to consider that, as the Veblen states, we can get new ways to do things by assessing one’s personal needs and learning abilities to better our teaching.
Overall, this article really helped me put into perspective the different ways one can learn to educate others and what becomes effective and ineffective depending on situation, demographics, and other factors.
References
Veblen, K. K. (2018). Adult music learning in formal, nonformal and informal contexts. In G. McPherson & G. Welsh (Eds.). Special Needs, Community Music, and Adult Learning: An Oxford Handbook of Music Education, Vol 4. Pp. 243-256. London: Oxford University Press. ISBN-10: 019067444X/ ISBN-13: 978-0190674441.