Music in Education

Kseniya ShilovaGroup 753

What Role Does Music Play In People’s Lives?

Music enriches and elevates people spiritually;

Music awakens an appreciation of beauty;

Music develops intelligence in other spheres;

Music brings pleasure and joy etc.

What Is Music?Music is…• science (it has its own structure; the laws it obeys; it has melody, tempo, timbre etc);• foreign language(most of the terms are in Italian, German, or French);• history(it reflects the historical events and the mood that accompanies them);•intellectual exercise (to understand what is implied requires certain skills);• art (it is the manifestation of human emotions and feelings).

Nowadays music can be met…

• At concerts• In restaurants and cafes• In shopping malls• At sports events• In cars• On CDs, DVDs etc

It seems that the only place where music and song

is omitted is … schools.

Should Music Be Introduced to the Process of Learning?

“Against”• There is no space in school schedules for extra classes devoted to music education

“For”• Music can be integrated to other disciplines

• Pupils are overloaded with other classes, additional information will be harmful

• Art and particularly music are supposed to loosen emotional stress

• Music education is excessive: schools teach literature which is enough to provide moral and aesthetical education

• Every kind of art is important in its own way: music is the essence of emotional experience of the mankind which should be part of the proper personal development

• It is more important to contribute to economical, health, computer literacy etc.

• Musical education makes a person humane; without spiritual upbringing a person can apply all his/her competences to negative activities

Dmitry Kabalevsky (1904 - 1987)

• D. B. Kabalevsky, a composer of outstanding talent, devoted his life to the development of musical education at schools because of his conviction that music lessons play a very important role in the Curriculum.

• He was the inventor of the effective programme of music lessons at comprehensive schools.

• He was the editor of the famous magazine “The Teacher of Music” which continues inspiring teachers to pay more attention to the importance of musical education at schools.

Why Music In Education?

It has been noticed that music…

• promotes a higher order of thinking skills;

• provides a way to self-expression and creativity;

• encourages teamwork;

• fosters discipline and commitment;

• bears a therapeutic outlet for people;

• helps exercise intellectual abilities.

The Influence of Music

It’s interesting to know that… music by J.S. Bach reinforces intellectual abilities;

music by L. van Beethoven teaches to forgive;

music by R.A. Schumann cultivates understanding;

music by R. Wagner arouses striving to unity and evokes fraternal feelings;

jazz music fills up with energy.

Music and Song In Language Learning

How can music (or a song) be introduced to a language lesson?

as means of motivation increase(on the pre-learning phase); as means of relaxation (between phases to decrease stress);

as means of phonetic-lexical-grammatical exercise(on the phase of training and fixing the material).

Conclusion“Why do we teach music? Not because we expect you to play and sing all your life. Not so you can relax. But… So you will be human. So you will recognize beauty <…> So you will have more love, more compassion, more gentleness, more good, in short, more life”.

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