The Foundations of Musicianship

Myth:  This art form is about talent; you've either got it or you don't.

Truth: This art form is about skills; you either develop them sequentially or you won't.

Three important facts:

1. All humans have the biological basis for creating, comprehending, and communicating music.  
2. Convoluted curricula & paltry musical environments mean that few ever achieve anywhere near their potential.
3. The biological underpinnings of musicality can guide us to better methods of instruction. 

Foundations of Musicianship
Musical meaning, like linguistic meaning, is constructed by the learner.  Consider:  we didn't learn language by memorizing sentences or by typing.  Rather, we listened for a few years then began building language word-by-word; constructing our own nascent phrases and sentences. We simultaneously refined our pronunciation and expanded our vocabulary of words by comprehending and responding conversationally to the sentences around us.

Likewise, we cannot learn to be musical by memorizing songs or by using notation as button-pushing instructions. We must listen, observe, absorb and acculturate for a few year or so; then begin to construct our own nascent musical sentences pattern-by-pattern. We would then simultaneously refine our intonation and expand our vocabulary of patterns by comprehending and responding (via improvisation) to the music around us.

Please be aware that the foregoing is not mere analogy.  The tonal aspects of music, in particular, use much of the same neural circuitry as language utilizes.  Basically, it looks like music and language share syntactical processing in the mind because music and language share syntactical processors in the brain.

(As an interesting sidelight, recent research in Germany, turns the whole 'music is a form of language' idea on it's head.  It seems language may actually be a form of music!  This makes a great deal of sense to me, as syntax (the orderly arrangement of sounds) MUST have preceded the specificity of words and grammar. Don't believe me?  Listen to your cat when she's hungry.  Syntax?  Yes.  Words?  Nope.  But I digress...)

Anyhoo...

In music, rhythm & tone are interdependent.  They get 'braided' together to form melody.  In brains, rhythm & tone are independent.  They are not braided at all.  Believe it or not, the mind has no melody processor, only separate tone & rhythm processors working in parallel.  Don't believe me? Listen to Eminem rap.  Marvelously rhythmic!!  Now, listen to him sing.  Remind you of that hungry cat I mentioned earlier!?!  Again, I digress...

Here's the deal: language & music parallel one another in their deepest senses (a reflection of their shared processors in the brain):

• Language & Music—the result of the need to communicate
• Vocalising—the way we communicate
• Ideas/Audeas—what we try to communicate

• Single letters & single notes —have no meaning.
• Defined Words & Contextualised Patterns—are the basic unit of meaning.
• Phrases—words or patterns combined to allow for richer meanings.

Language & music--important differences
Melody—tonal phrases 'braided' onto a rhythm phrases, creating even richer meanings.  (Melody has no linguistic parallel.)

Rhythm is kinesthetic-- it is a type of learning based on our symmetrically shaped bodies in motion.  It cannot be learned through counting & arithmetic notation puzzles.  It can only be learned through movement.  First overt large-muscle movements and later covert, small-muscle movements. Precisely what rappers do with their bodies.  (More here)

Tone is auditory-- it is a type of learning based on the overtone series (the physics of vibration), and how our minds contextualize these sounds. Again, tone & language share processors in the brain. (More on Tone here)

Language Development & Music Development Require Similar Skills:

Because language and music share processors, they also share learning processes. What follows are my own somewhat simplified definitions of Edwin E. Gordon's 10 sequential skills for developing musicianship. Shared characteristics with language are highlighted via italics. All skills interact with previously established senses of tonality and meter.

1. Aural/Oral: Listening & Echoing patterns while keeping aware of mode or meter Context.
2. Verbal Association: Naming, Defining, & Categorizing learned A/O patterns via solfege.
3. Partial Synthesis: Inferring the context of a series of A/O patterns we hear.
4. Symbolic Association: introducing reading/writing. Notation as icons for learned VA patterns.
5. Composite Synthesis: Reading phrases while inferring (mode or meter) context (PS + SA)
6. Generalization-Aural: expanding pattern vocabularies autonomously using contextual clues to assist in comparing new patterns with familiar A/O patterns.
7. Generalization-Verbal: inferring labels, names, & categories via context clues and comparing new & unfamiliar with known & familiar VA patterns.
8. Generalization-Symbolic: inferring notation (ie deducing 'spelling') by using contextual clues to assist in  comparing new patterns with familiar SA patterns.
9. Creativity: context-restricted invention.  One invents a series of patterns where anything goes provided the prevailing mode or meter is maintained.
10. Improvisation: context & content-restricted invention.  One invents a series of patterns where anything goes provided the prevailing context and the prevailing functions are maintained.   

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Music aptitude studies reveal more about who we are in relationship to music.  Read this for more information: Talent Deconstructed