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At
first glance this may seem to be one of those things that is
pretty obvious and pretty simple. However, like many aspects
of the subject of learning, there is more to it than meets the
eye.
A person's understanding of a complex subject like music
could be said to be made up of their understanding of each
of many thousands of separate concepts. In other words concepts
form the building blocks of a subject.
A word is a label that we attach to a concept. By labelling
concepts we can communicate more efficiently with one another.
So when you use a particular word in your communication with
your student you are not using a concept you are just using
a label.
Two things are then essential if successful communication
is to take place:
1. The student must already have a concept to apply
the label to and
2. It must be the same concept that you apply the label to.
The label is the word. The concept is described by the definition
of the word.
So My Golden Rule Number 8 says:
Do all you can to avoid using words your student does not
understand
There are both negative and positive applications of this
rule.
The negative application is that you avoid using words unless
you are certain your student understands them.
The positive application is that you make a point of increasing
your students 'musical vocabulary' so that they constantly
expand the range of words for which they have full and correct
definitions.
Now defining a new musical term for your student, especially
when they are still fairly new to the subject, carries with
it a certain liability. That is, that it is often difficult
to provide a thorough definition of a term without including
words in the definition that are themselves in need of definition.
For example your student asks the meaning of the phrase 'transpose'.
You tell him it means:
"To change a piece of music from one key to
another"
They say
"errr what's a key?" You say:
"Its like how many sharps
or flats there are in a piece of music" .. begs the response:
"Sharps and flats, what are they?"
You're in pretty deep and there's a great danger of the rest
of the lesson being spent in a discussion leading the student
into ever deeper layers of complexity, incomprehension and
confusion.
So you have to be very careful how you present definitions
of a new musical term. Early on, until your student has built
a solid base of definitions of key musical terms, make a point
of defining words using everyday concepts thus:
Student:
"What's it mean to transpose something?"
You, after a bit of careful consideration:
"Well sometimes you play a song with a singer
who has a particularly low voice, say, and he complains that
the song is too high for him to sing, the way you're playing
it. Its possible to change all the chords and notes you're
playing so that everything sounds lower by the same amount.
This means the song is still recognizable, but easier for
the guy to sing. It takes a certain level of musical understanding
to be able to change a song like that. We call the process
of changing a song in that way 'transposing'. You can transpose
up or down."
You go on to demonstrate by playing a simple song in a hard
to sing key then changing it into one that's more comfortable.
The student now has a definition he can live with. He knows
what transposing is even if he doesn't yet know how to do
it. That's sufficient for the time being. At a later stage
you will have helped them understand the concepts of notes,
scales, sharps, flats, keys, major, minor, chords, harmony,
melody, key signature, intervals, circle of fifths, circle
of fourths. At this stage they ask the question:
"What does transpose mean?" You can safely
answer:
"To change a piece of music from one key to
another"
Not only will they instantly understand what it means from that
simple definition, but if you have taught them carefully, they
will quickly figure out ways of doing it as well!
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