One of the most controversial issues in music higher education today is the shift away from music notation amongst students in HE. This means that when students arrive at university or college we cannot assume that they can all read music, and have to to help them to learn. This wasn't the case 10 years ago so why now? The obvious answer is that you can pass and do well at BTec national diploma and A level music courses without having good music notational skills - so if you get the required grade you will get a place in HE. Once in HE students may well struggle with the notational demands. The reasons why notation is often not taught in school/college is because if takes time and patience, and you don't necessarily need it in popular music. There are also a lot of students who come to music through music technology ( not so many learn instruments because of the on-going impact of cuts to music education in the 1980s) and music notation is seen as irrelevant to these students.
So why is it important to learn to read music? The reason is that if you don't, you are at a disadvantage compared to others who can, when you are in the workplace. For example, in film composition you are likely to need to write parts for live players at some stage (very few composers can afford to employ others to do this); in studio production you may be expected to create a string arrangement, or change one 'on the fly'. If all you want to do is play in a band, then fine you don't need to read, but if you want to analyse the detail of works and songs then it is essential that you can read. There is a problem that everyone thinks they can be a musician with next-to-no expertise or knowledge ( I sometimes see such students at interview - they seem shocked that they might need to read music to study it). This is because of the ease that you can create popular music tracks with software, pre-existing loops and samples. The reality is that it takes hard work and real expertise to be a successful musician. There are now some excellent web sources to help students learn notation and music theory such as Teoria and dolmetsch which are good places to start learning about the theory. Just as you should be able to read words to take an English degree, I think you should be able to read music to take a music degree - or at least be prepared learn how to.
So why is it important to learn to read music? The reason is that if you don't, you are at a disadvantage compared to others who can, when you are in the workplace. For example, in film composition you are likely to need to write parts for live players at some stage (very few composers can afford to employ others to do this); in studio production you may be expected to create a string arrangement, or change one 'on the fly'. If all you want to do is play in a band, then fine you don't need to read, but if you want to analyse the detail of works and songs then it is essential that you can read. There is a problem that everyone thinks they can be a musician with next-to-no expertise or knowledge ( I sometimes see such students at interview - they seem shocked that they might need to read music to study it). This is because of the ease that you can create popular music tracks with software, pre-existing loops and samples. The reality is that it takes hard work and real expertise to be a successful musician. There are now some excellent web sources to help students learn notation and music theory such as Teoria and dolmetsch which are good places to start learning about the theory. Just as you should be able to read words to take an English degree, I think you should be able to read music to take a music degree - or at least be prepared learn how to.
If you still don't know how to read music when you start your university degree, it's far too late to start learning.
ReplyDeleteIts never too late !
ReplyDeletethat is very true, it's never too late to learn music, I know adults who are just learning piano
ReplyDelete