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Volume 17, Number 9

The Role of Music in Character Building

Yeni Rachmawati

THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF LEARNING http://www.Learning-Journal.com First published in 2010 in Champaign, Illinois, USA by Common Ground Publishing LLC www.CommonGroundPublishing.com. © 2010 (individual papers), the author(s) © 2010 (selection and editorial matter) Common Ground Authors are responsible for the accuracy of citations, quotations, diagrams, tables and maps. All rights reserved. Apart from fair use for the purposes of study, research, criticism or review as permitted under the Copyright Act (Australia), no part of this work may be reproduced without written permission from the publisher. For permissions and other inquiries, please contact <[email protected]>. ISSN: 1447-9494 Publisher Site: http://www.Learning-Journal.com THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF LEARNING is peer-reviewed, supported by rigorous processes of criterion-referenced article ranking and qualitative commentary, ensuring that only intellectual work of the greatest substance and highest significance is published. Typeset in Common Ground Markup Language using CGCreator multichannel typesetting system http://www.commongroundpublishing.com/software/

The Role of Music in Character BuildingYeni Rachmawati, Indonesia University of Education, Jawa Barat,Indonesia

Abstract: The phenomenon of moral crisis in Indonesia is increasing quite rapidly for the past 20years. Many experts believe that the crisis is indicator of failures in character and spiritual educations.Education has failed to build positive character. On the other hand selfishness, ignorance, aggressiveand destructive behaviors become dominant in society. Therefore, appropriate educational solutionsare needed to overcome this problem. Indonesia needs educational concepts, designs and implement-ations that can reintegrate aspects of cognitive, emotion, and spiritual intelligences. Music as one ofaesthetic creations is believed to be able to positively contribute to the process of character building.This research aims to identify impacts of music on character building, and to identify its mechanism.Delphi technique was used in the process of collecting data. A group of experts consist of 3 academiciansand 2 musicians were chosen as the data source and reference. Qualitative approach was used inanalyzing the data and enhanced by comprehensive literature research. The research concluded thatmusic influences various aspects of human; include physical, mental-spiritual, and behavior throughits melody and harmony. The result strongly recommends music as medium in building the foundationof positive and noble characters. Therefore it is recommended to include music as part of instructionalprograms in every stage of education, most importantly in early childhood education.

Keywords: Music, Character Building, Harmony, Aesthetics

Backround

THE INCREASING MORAL crisis in Indonesia has been leading to significantneed of character education at schools. This concern started to emerge in 1990s whenmoral crisis was considered to be widespread in societies. Student’s delinquencieshave become more and more complex and diverse. Behavioral problems such as

students’ fights, drug abuse, free sex, and crime have been increasing over the years. Someeducational experts argue that lack of emotional sense and sensitivity underlies such behavi-oral problems. They argue that lack of emotional sense and sensitivity leads to antisocial,aggressive, self-centered, and destructive behavior.

Achenbach and Hoell’s research (cited in Sumarta, 2000) shows that there were consistentdecrease of emotional intelligence (EI) all over the world, while cognitive intelligence andacademic achievements were tend to be increasing. Their research was conducted in 15 yearsperiod (1970s-1980s) to 7 -16 year old children in The United States and some other countries.They argue that the increasing rate of drug abuse, violence and crime, high prevalence ofdepression, hopelessness and helplessness, unwanted premarital pregnancies, and schooldropouts indicate the decreasing emotional intelligence. Furthermore, Sumarta (2000) arguesthat this phenomenon indicates failures of education in building positive characters. Nationaleducation system has emphasized more on the building of cognitive intelligence and hasundermined the importance of emotional and spiritual intelligence building. Therefore, such

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education only produces cognitively brilliant and academically high achieving individualsand yet very dependent due to their lack of emotional and spiritual intelligences (Sumarta,2000).

The main purpose of education is to build decent individuals with high ability to think,feel, and behave in a very decent manner, in other word, to make human out of a human.This is in line with Ki Hajar Dewantoro’s formulation of the purpose of education (Sardi,1985) which is included in the Undang-Undang Sistem Pendidikan Nasional No. 2, verseno.4, 1989. This implies education on all aspect of humanity and personality, which arephysical, cognitive, affective (emotion), behavioral, and spiritual. In this sense, educatorsneed to be able to develop both cognitive and affective (emotion) aspects of their students.Therefore, concepts of education that reintegrate both cognitive and affective aspects havebeen emerging quite rapidly. However, more comprehensive studies on how to implementthe concepts are significantly needed. This research underlines the art of music in the processof characters building. Ancient Greek history shows that music was important in buildingmajor positive characters. Therefore, music was the basic education for children. This researchfocus on the roles of music in characters building.

Research MethodThis research is a descriptive research with qualitative approach. Delphi technique is usedto collect data. Delphi technique is a technique which a group of experts makes decisionupon the problem being researched (Suryadi, tt). In addition, Fisher (2002) explains thatDelphi technique is a unique method to develop a prediction upon problems when factualdata is not available. This technique is very useful to make predictions on various problems(economy, technology, education, and social) and it has been used in many countries.

Delphi technique is used in this research based on three main reasons. Firstly, variablescontribute to character building are very diverse and complex. Secondly, previous researchon the psychology of music is very limited. Lastly, time to collect the empirical data is verylimited. In addition, Delphi technique is considered to be the most possible method to predictthe effects of music on character building. In the ideal manner, the effect of music on indi-viduals’ characters in the future can only be proven by longitudinal observation. Due to timeconstraint, it is much more possible to use experts’ scientific knowledge, experiences, andinsights as the ground of decision making upon the research problem. The group of expertsconsists of academicians and musicians from Indonesia and Germany. The experts are Soe-geng Syukur (academician, lecturer in music, UPI), Rita Milyartini (academician, lecturerin music, UPI), A.T. Mahmud (Indonesian musician), Addie MS (Indonesian musician), andDieter Mack (academician, Germany).

Result and DiscussionThis research generates a concept that drives understanding on how music influences humanlives and civilizations. Individual behaviors are roots of human civilization, and music playsimportant roles in building individual behaviors and their societies.

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The Essence of MusicBased on data, this research concludes that essentially music comes from God, the universe,self expressions, and social conditions of societies. Next sections explain each in detail.

Music Comes from God

Human is able to receive pure musical ideas from God incidentally, like a divine inspirationthat comes unexpectedly anywhere, anytime, in any conditions, as explained by AMS. Historyshows that God is essential in music. In ancient civilization music was part of the lives ofholy people, prophets, kings, and God’s descendants. They were the nobles who were ableto connect with God directly. Their music came from God and for God. Consistent to this,Prier (2002) explains that ancient Egypt and ancient Greek that had very high civilizationsbelieved that music came from Gods and Gods’ descendant kings. Music development andleadership were hold by religious leaders or kings. Before century, The Jews, who werefamous for their expertise in combining the art of literature and music, played music toworship their God only.

Before century, musicians were placed in high positions in the palace. Prier (2002) explainsthat in 3892 BC, when the first Pharao ruled Egypt, the principal religious leaders determinedthe seven holy notes. These seven holy notes were sung by men and women in temples af-terward. Based on this history, it is very reasonable to conclude that music in ancient timewere more decent and constituted very high moral values. Therefore, it can be assumed thatthe ancient time music affected individual behavior in a very decent and positive way. In-donesian history also shows consistent evidence that music was played to worship God.Until today, Indonesian societies are still aware of music created by the walis (Islamicleaders who were considered as holy men). In Java, the music of walis is called gending. InSunda, it is famous as pupuh. The lyrics of Gending and Pupuh consist of moral virtues,advices, and guidance of how to live a decent life. In addition, music created by the holiesis rooted from the core of their culture. Further analysis shows that every culture has its owncultural music created by their holies. The essence of music comes from God implies thatat the beginning of its presence the purpose of music was to persuade people to praise Godand do good deeds. Music was created to remind people of their limitation as human andthe grandeur of God, to lead human to the kindness and the truth. Therefore, it would not bemisled to conclude that the ancient music from God was closely related to positive charactersand it against immoral behaviors.

Music Comes from the Universe

Mack , in one of his arguments, explains that music can presence from the process of imitationof nature. He argues that music and nature is one unbreakable entity. The ancient Greek be-lieved that they could enjoy the harmony of natural music from hills, deserts, and seethesof the sea (Prier, 2002). The universe has uncountable lasting music. Just to name a few,music can come from the breeze of the air, the drops of water, and the surf of the sea. Fur-thermore, Prier (2002) explains that the stars’ orbits, the ratio of distance between objectsof the universe, their movements according to the strict law of the universe, graceful landscapeof the sun, the emergence of the moon, dusk and dawn had triggered ancient Greeks wishfulthinking of its harmony with the magical sounds of notes which beautifully construct

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melodies, even dance which is closely connected to music, was believed to be the imitationof the blink of the stars (Prier, 2002). In line with this, Khan (2002) argues that the effect ofthunders, rains and storms, description of hills and rivers make music a real art. Nature isthe source of music that inspired human to make its replication. In addition, Phytagoras(cited in Prier, 2002), the mathematician who was also the first music expert in Greek, foundthat there is consistencies between the difference of notes with the proportions in exact sci-ence. He argued that the proportion of the sounds/notes of nature is consistent to the proportionof distance between stars.

Related to the notion of music from the universe, Austides Quintilianus cited Panakmos,a follower of Phytagoras, that tasks in the art of music are not limited to the arrangement ofnotes, but also to harmonious extraction of what the universe has given all over its spheres(Prier, 2002). The reflection of music in the universe is very strong so that music exists everywhere. The existence of music to the universe is like the air to human life. However, not allhumans are sensitive enough to be able to recognize the existence of music in the universe.Ideally, humans should learn from the law of nature which very much based on the law ofharmony and disharmony. The universe always runs based on harmony and move towardharmony. When disharmony exists, the universe adjusts to re-create natural harmony. Theadjustment may have negative impact on human lives. For example, natural disaster is theresult of natural disharmony and a universe’s attempt to reach a new harmony. So doesmusic, harmony is the core of music. Therefore, one’s total comprehension and internalizationof the harmony in music could be reflected in one’s behavior. Individuals who sensitive toharmony would have ability to behave properly and appropriately react to their problem inlives.

Music Comes from Individual’s Self-image

Music exists before language. Music is the first language of human kind. Khan (2002) arguesthat at the beginning of the creation of human kind there was no language like we use today,the only form of communication was music. At first, humans expressed their feelings andthoughts through high and low, long and short pitch. High pitch reflected love and wisdom.They intensely used musical expressions of pitch to express sincerity/insincerity, agree-ment/disagreement, intention, preference, likes, dislikes, etc. Movements of tongue touchingdifferent spots in mouth and various movements of mouth and lips produce diverse tones(phonem). The groupings of these tones produce meaningful words as human expressionwe know today. Eventually music, as the main human communication tool, developed intolanguage, a more convenient tool of human communication. Nevertheless, language cannever be music free. Therefore, human also can never be disconnected to music.

The use of music as expressions of human feelings and thoughts is preserved and developedat the same time. Music eventually becomes richer and more and more diverse. The influenceof music on human lives is observed through the study of how human creates music. Internalfactors of human-self plays important role in the creation of music. These factors includesthe need to express thoughts, feelings, ideas, imaginations, fantasies, believes, virtues, per-sonality, self-satisfaction, and also biological aspect. However, as SS argued, these internalfactors are connected to and possibly affected by external factors such as ethnicity, race, re-ligion, cultural background, family background, perceptions, experiences and all other relatedconditions.

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Khan (2002) argues that there are innate factors that make human easily impressed bymusic and be able to create music. These innate factors are strictly related to biological systemof human body that determines human lives. Human has eternal rhythms as the sign of lifeproduced by the pulse of the blood vessel and the pound of the heart. Human life, bothphysically and mentally, is very much dependent on these rhythms. Every soul has uniqueand pure rhythms, melodies, and beats. These rhythms are manifested in many ways. Someof the ways are reflected in individual language accent, the way individual walks, eye blinks,and gestures. These rhythms also influence human in both cognitive and emotional aspects.Human’s cognitive intelligence affects the rhythm of work and the structured way of thinkingwhich follows the rule of harmony and work as harmonious as a musical melody. Emotionalaspect of human is also related to the innate rhythm. Anger affects blood flows and increasesheart beats into certain rhythm that makes human angry. Relaxation regulates blood flowsand decrease heart beats into certain rhythm that makes human calmer. Therefore, it is obviousthat human is internally rich of rhythm and beats that follow the rule of harmony.

Adding up, there are also external factors that make music intensely internalized in human.Some of these factors are heredity, family habituations, natural and geographical conditionsof the habitation. Whether we believe or not, heredity contributes to the construction of humanmusical body. Parents especially mothers subtly transfer their taste of music to their childrenwhen they play their favorite music. Geographical conditions of human habituation shapecertain rhythm in human souls. These conditions include weather, customs and language,indigenous culinary and social environment. For instance, Sundanese music (karawitanSunda) reflects Sundanese personality which is polite, humorous, calm, and peaceful. Then,it is possible that this kind of personality reflected in Sundanese music would be internalizedin Sundanese persons. Milyartini mentioned another perfect example,Gamelan, Indonesiantraditional music ensemble, which consists of various musical instruments and is played bya group of people, produce wonderful harmonious melodies without any conductor. This isactually the reflection of Indonesian societies’ social behavior that put public interest beforepersonal interest, and tolerance comes from social sensitivity.

Music has been formed and integrated within individual’s self as specific images. Projec-tions of these images would help individual to shape certain characters. Individual have atendency to choose type of music that consistent to the characters. Music preference reflectsvalues of the individual. For example, someone chooses dangdut because it has one of his/hercharacteristics, and so does individual who choose classic, pop, rock, etc. Basically, musicis internalized within individual-self and has become determinant variable of his/her person-ality.

As explained above, there are internal and external factors that influence internalizationof music within individual. Music preference is also influenced by internal and externalfactors. Internal factors include aspects of physical, personality, intelligences, social-emo-tional, moral and spiritual. External factors such as social conditions may also significantlyinfluence the preference. As Khan (2002) explains that adults enjoy and appreciate musicbased on their evolutionary classes and on which environment they were born and had grownup. Individuals who were born in a wild environment would prefer to sing wild lyrics, andurban people would sing pop. The more gentle the personalities the more gently the musicthey would enjoy. Characters in humans create a tendency toward music with the same orat least related characteristic. In other words, lively individuals love mild and easy music,serious individuals prefer classic, intelligent individuals like to use techniques, and simple

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individuals simply enjoy percussion (Khan, 2002). Therefore, it is important to start theprocess of high quality music to a child as early as during pregnancy period. A child whofrequently listens to high quality music would not have any difficulty to comprehend andappreciate higher quality music in his/her adulthood. In this sense, a child who is more fa-miliar to rough music or other types of soul weakening music would have difficulties tocomprehend more complex and higher quality of music. As a result, the child would havedifficulty to internalized and comprehend higher quality senses and characters.

Music Comes from Image of the Society

Music creation can be provoked by society’s social, political, and economy conditions. DMargues that music is a reflection of a society. Music can be inspired by common behavior ofa society and vice versa. Societies’ common behaviors include societies’ social problems,monumental events, general interests, specific orders, societies’ pressures, historical events,cultural customs, societies’ critiques and hopes, etc. Therefore, music trends in societiesrepresent profiles of the societies. In other words, “if we would like to see the quality of asociety, observe the quality of music trend in the society”.

Thus, we understand that certain characters in music are influenced by the characters ofthe societies and vice versa. Then, it is possible to conclude that music can become a vehicleto transform a society into better or even worse civilizations.

The Influence of Music on Human

The Influence on Human Physical Aspect

In line with the group of experts opinions in this research, literature research also shows thatmusic influence human physical aspect (Satiadarma, 2002; Merrit, 2003; Khan, 2002; Bosano,2001; Montello, 2004; Djohan, 2003). Merrit (2003) mentions that every time he askssomeone about his/her bodily reaction toward certain kind of music, words such as “fun!”,“refreshing!”, or “energetic” are often used to express the reaction. Only after we recognizedthat music changes physical functions within our bodies, we notice changes in heart beat,strength of muscles, and blood circulation that triggered by music. Rhythm, which is theimportant element of music, is the principle strength on our lives. Mother’s heart beats wasthe first music we sense in the womb. Music influence on human brain is one primary topicin the study of music influence on human body. AMS argues that it is irrefutable that music,especially classical music, influences the growth of neurons and characters of the individualswho enjoy it. Music of Mozart is believed to be relatively stable, following math’s rules,structured, and having high order of equilibrium, so that it is believed to be able to helpstimulating neurons. Adding up, Parson (cited in Satiadarma, 2002) states that melody pro-duces same brain waves in both right and left hemispheres, while harmony and rhythm focuson the left hemisphere. Nevertheless, music involves almost all parts of the brain as a whole.In line with this, Critchley and Hensen’s study on music and the brain (cited in Merrit, 2003)finds that music is non verbal and because of it music can reach limbic system (the primitivepreverbal part of the brain) which directly influences emotional and physical reactions suchas heart beats, blood pressures, and body temperature. Their study observed that music ac-tivates memories stored in corpus callosum, by this music increase the integration of all parts

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of the brain. Inayat Khan (2002) explains that music influence human physical metabolismby touching the five human senses –vision, hearing, smells, tastes, and touch-, through ourhearing. Khan (2002) argues that music is heard not only through our ears, but through allpores of our bodies. Sounds penetrate every parts of our bodies and its special influenceslows down or accelerates the rhythm of blood circulation; it arouses and calms the nervoussystem; it arouses people to a higher degree of passion or calms them down by bringingpeace inside them. Then, it is no doubt that music influences human body.

Music is one of stimulus that triggered individuals to response physically. The mechanismof its physical response is described as follow: ears receive music as a stimulus which isthen transferred to the brain. Through the brain, music influences the body system. In thebrain, music penetrates brain’s hemispheres that consistent to its interpretations. Music alsoinvades limbic system which regulates emotion. Then, the brain orders the body to responseto the music based on how the brain interprets it. When the brain interprets the music assoother, body circulation, heart beat, breath, and blood circulation would become calmer.These physical conditions are the basic of calm and peaceful behavior. On the other hand,when music is interpreted as exciting, it would bring excitement and enthusiasm. When thebrain interprets music as hardcore and rebellious, it would lead to faster heart beats, bloodcirculation, stronger and harder muscles. This is the condition when the body gets ready forrebellious and tough behaviors.

The Mentally Influence of Music on Human

Merrit (2003) states that notes, harmony, melodious and rhythmic patterns moves our emo-tions. Music influences emotions without any clear explanation. The language of the heartin fact invades brain hemispheres, including the left part of cerebral cortex or limbic systemwhich is not responsive to pure intellectual communication. Music includes heart in theprocess of learning. All experts in the group agree that music mentally influences individuals.SS argues that every type of music has the capacity to build and enlighten the human mindas long as it is proportional, in the sense that the music is in line with situational condition,cultural background, likeable and enjoyable for its listener. Without proportionality, musicwould not have any meaningful influence on individuals. Khan (2002) supports this argumentby explaining that a specific sound maybe used correctly, but in other occasion the samesound maybe use incorrectly. However, correctness or incorrectness of the use of a soundcan be seen from its harmonious or inharmonious effects. Main requirement of music to beable to positively influence individuals is the existence of harmony between the music andthe individuals.

AT Mahmud (2003) states that music can shape individuals into gentle or rough individuals.A child would become a rough person if he/she often heard bad and rough intonations. Fur-thermore, Parson (Satiadharma, 2001) argues that learning music in daily basis would increasecoordination skills, concentration, and memory capacity, which would lead to a better andsharper visual and hearing ability. The mechanism of how music influences mental is similarto how music influences human physical aspect. Music as stimulus is received by ears andtransferred to the brain. The brain will then interpret music and then transfer it to parts ofthe brain based on the interpretation. Music with high complexity would be transferred tothe left hemisphere of the brain. This also happens when the brain receives complex stimulussuch as math. More often the brain receives complex stimulus the more trained the brain to

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such complex stimulus. For early childhood children, who are still in the stage of sensorybrain development, musical stimulations would prepare and train their brain to processcomplex stimulus. Every type of music, when given continually and frequently, would affectspersonality on both cognitive and affective aspects. However, the internalized values andcharacter would be consistent to the values and character of the given music.

Music can also increase individuals’ mental health. As well-known, mental health playsimportant role in the process of character building. It is almost impossible to build positivecharacters without mental health. Mental health is defined as the condition in which theharmony and mutual relations among functions of soul are successfully achieved, the abilityto solve daily and common problems, and the ability to feel positively self-competence andhappiness (Darajat, 1994). Some behavioral examples of defective mental health are antisocialbehaviors, irrational anxiety, laziness, no passion to work, fatigue, jealousy, irrational sadness,low self-esteem, low self-confidence, hopelessness, hysteria, frustrated, spilt personality,bipolar disorder, etc. Several studies show that music is able to decrease risks to stress,anxiety, sadness, and to increase spirit and productivity. If music indeed improved mentalhealth, music could also help to build a strong foundation of positive characters.

The Influence of Music to Behavior

As a manifestation of human as a living creature, human behavior is essentially a processof interaction between human and his/her environment (Makmun, 2004). All experts in thegroup agree that music influences human behavior, either positively or negatively.

Positive influence occurs when individuals positively enjoy good music. Individuals’ re-jection to good music hinders the occurrence of the expected positive impact. Furthermore,AT.Mahmud (2003) explains that it does not take long for music to result in bad behavior.Therefore, negative impact of music to behavior is easier to observe than the positive one.It takes longer time for music to bring a good behavior. Continuity and consistency in expos-ing the music to individuals are the key for it to bring positive impact.

It is agreed that music could contribute to bad behavior. A.T. Mahmud and S. Syukur il-lustrate that the process of music internalization is similar to the process of psychologicalvalues internalization. Habituation is the key in this process. The frequency of music exposureto a child determines its impact on the child’s character. Children who frequently listen torough music tend to have rough personality. On the other hand, children who consistentlylisten to soft music would have softer personality. This is in line with what Aristoteles(Merrit, 2003) has said that “rhythm and melody are triggers of various qualities. Some ofthem are gentleness and courageousness. Yet, a discordance and tumultuous music oftendisconnects our body from our soul, so that we behave aggressively and rebelliously.”

Furthermore, Merrit (2003) explains that Hitler, who understood the power of music, oftenused Richard Wagner’s music to trigger aggressiveness of his soldiers. Moreover, Khan(2002) argues that adults enjoy and appreciate music based on their evolutionary classes andon which environment they were born and had grown up. Individuals who were born in awild environment would prefer to sing wild lyrics, and urban people would sing pop. Themore gentle the personalities the more gently the music they would enjoy. Characters inhumans create a tendency toward music with the same or at least related characteristic. Inother words, lively individuals love mild and easy music, serious individuals prefer classic,

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intelligent individuals like to use techniques, and simple individuals simply enjoy percussion(Khan, 2002).

The mechanism of how music influences human behavior is very much related to theprocess of how music influences human both physically and mentally as explained previously.Music as stimulus is received by sensory receptors, transferred to the brain, and the braincommands the body through effectors which then moves the body to behave as commanded.The occurrence of behavior is always antedated by mental and physical changes. Sub-sequently, if music influences mental and physical aspects of human, it surely influenceshuman behavior as well. The mechanism of how music influences human behavior will beexplained in an individual section.

The Mechanism of Music in Human Body

Based on data, discussions, and literature reviews, it is concluded that the power of musicinfluence is a result of its contribution to the creation of harmony and equilibrium withinthe structure of human body. Campbell (2001a) explains that music produce rhythmic stim-ulus which is received by ears as receptors and then processed in the nervous system andglands in the brain that reorganize the interpretation of sounds into an internal rhythm of thelistener. The internal rhythm improves the metabolism of human body. A better metabolismresults in better body immune system, and better immune system makes a stronger body anddefends the body from illnesses. This process begin in ears, Campbell (2001b) argues thatin the ears music interacts in an organic level with multiple neural structure. This is provenby the fact that 2/3 cilia in middle part of ears resonance only to high musical frequencies(3000 to 20.000 hertz). Studies show that babies are born with the ability to recognize mu-sical formations such as note/key, pitch, and tempo. Systems used by the brain to processmusic are identical to the systems of perception, memory, and language.

From ears, music is transferred to the brain. Neurons in the brain then will categorize theimpulse. Complex music stimulates the left hemisphere, emotional music activates the limbicsystem, and creative music goes to the right brain, and so on and so forth. From the brainsystem, the process continues to mentally behavior or acts as the brain ordered. In addition,human has soul which is also able to recognize implicit messages from the music he/sheheard. As mentioned by Sachari (2002) that beautiful aesthetical creations will only producedby individuals with positive character and sensitivity. What comes out of heart would onlybe recognized by heart. Supporting this Merrit (2003) mentions that great music comes fromthe heart of the composer not only from the mind. In one of his composition, Beethoven said“Music comes from the heart, hopefully it will find its way to the heart”.

Picture 3.3 describes the mechanism of how music works in human body and influencesindividuals. Please note that music mentioned in this section is good quality music. Thispicture describes that music as stimulus is received by ears and then transferred to the brain.Music with these characteristics: logic, systematic, complex, symmetric, high order, asmathematical patterns, will stimulate left brain. Music with lyrics will stimulate child’s lan-guage development. Music with creative and imaginative characteristics will stimulate rightbrain and spatial ability. Music with strong spirit, love, peace, or enthusiasm, will be receivedby the limbic system. Lastly, music with harmony, balance, and softness, will strengthenthe soul. If the composer included spirituality and aspect of God in the music, the spiritualityof the listener would be enhanced. From all of these physical and mental influences, indi-

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viduals will further process the recognizable information and stimulations so that all variablewill be integrated into certain behaviors, include behaviors with positive characters.

Roles of Music in Character BuildingBased on theoretical and data analysis, roles of music in character building are as follow:

Music as Basic Character Building

ATM and SS believe that positive characters will not grow within rough souls. Positivecharacters will only grow out of gentle and soft souls. Rough souls produce aggressive anddestructive behavior both to others and to the selves. Music has two conflicting polar withgreat influence on individuals. First polar could make the best of a human (e.g. softness,gentleness). The other could get the worse out of human (e.g. aggressiveness, roughness).It all depends on what kind of music that one is often exposed to. Soft music brings outsoftness and tenderness and the soul will become soft and tender as well. On the other hand,rough music damages the soul, increase aggressiveness, and trigger violence. In relation tothe process of character building, good quality music helps soften the sense/emotion whichis the basic of character building. However, it will be absurd to think that music is the onlyimportant contributing factor to build characters. It is impossible that problems of characterdegradation will be solved only by music. Music is only one first step to solve these problems.Other strategies -such as positive social modeling, habituation, and instructional learning-should also be implemented afterward. Historical evidence shows that the great Roman alsohad experienced moral degradation and this was reflected in its art of music. Prier (2002)explains that in 364 C Julius Caesar wanted high quality music and repented to overcomethe weakness of souls and immoral behaviors as a result of low quality music in parties. Hetried to recreatemusica-sacra (the holy music), which would return his image of art as whatwas done by Phytagoras, Plato, and Aristoteles. A gentle soul opens up opportunities to havea better relationship with God, to have great deals of love, and to develop harmonious attitudein social relationship based on mental health and a senses of beauty. Music has enormouspotential to build the foundation of positive character. These basic capability is the basiccharacter needed in positive character building.

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Picture 3.3: Music Mechanism

Music as the Builder of Moral Sense

Lickona (Suparno, 2002) states that there are three important aspects of successful moraldevelopment. The aspects are moral understanding, moral sense, and moral acts. Music playsimportant role in building moral sense. Moral sense consist of conscience, self-esteem, em-pathy to others, love for goodness, self-control and decency. Moral sense regulates individu-als’ good and bad behavior. It actually controls individual from doing bad behaviors. Indi-vidual can learn and train his/her conscience and sensitivity to goodness from the beauty,harmony, and order constituted in music. As argued previously, goodness is related to thesense of beauty. Goodness comprises harmony, balance, and equilibrium which also existin music. Compare to other forms of arts, music is a product of beauty which is relativelymore enjoyable and likeable in societies regardless of the variation of age and status. Hope-fully, early intensive musical stimulation will internalize good character within individuals.

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The Connection between the Principles of Music and the Principles ofPositive Character

The Principle of Beauty

Essentially, every human loves beauty as he/she long for goodness and the truth. Plato andneo Platonists, such as Plotinus (cited in tim Rosda ,1995: 32), view human soul as alwayssearches for beauty, to have and to understand it, as it also always long for the truth, love,goodness, justice, etc. Beauty is seen as active power and energy in the universe. Beauty isthe basic of goodness and goodness is the foundation of the truth. In order to get a healthyspiritual structure, the hierarchy of beauty should be followed one step at a time. Plato(citedin Djelantik, 1999) believed that the sense of beauty comes from love and beauty is veryclose to the ethic of good character and behavior. Love brings in the sense of beauty in human.If objects of beauty are materials or non-materials in any form of creations, it is called aes-thetic. If objects of beauty are human behaviors, then the sense of beauty is called ethic.

Music and positive character stand on the same principle that is beauty. Within music thebeauty is formed in melody and enjoyable sounds to listen to. On the other hand, withinpositive characters the beauty is reflected in forms of likeable behaviors.

The Principle of Portion and Proportion

Philosophical basis of goodness and beauty are appropriate portion and proportion. Plato(cited in Djelantik, 1999) knowledge about portion and proportion are main requirementsof beauty. Something will be considered beautiful if it is proportional and in appropriateportion. Goodness follows the same principle. Good behavior is proportional behavior, orcommonly called ‘just’ which means that the behavior is done appropriately. Over emotionalbehavior or under emotional behavior cannot be considered as good behavior. Over emotionalbehavior would lead to uncontrolled behavior such as anger and aggression. While underemotional behavior would lead to insensitive behavior, less intention and respect towardothers. Music is very strict to the law of portion and proportion. Under or over portion ofnotes will result in falseness. Continuous exercises and habit to appreciate, comprehend, andenjoy high quality music will train individual’s soul to be more sensitive to all kind falsenessand inappropriate behaviors in his/her life.

The Principle of Harmony

Harmony in music is a must. It is called music because the sounds and tones are arrangedharmoniously. Music is defined as a harmony of tones that can be heard. Khan (2002) arguesthat the truth of perfection lies upon the law of music that works within the universe as awhole. In other words, the law of music is the law of life, the sense of equilibrium, the lawof harmony, the law that rules equilibrium. These laws construct perfection of the universe(Khan, 2002). The law of music is the breath of life. It exists within human as a micro systemand within the universe as a macro system. Music is essentially the miniature of the greatestharmony of the universe. Harmony exists in all natural creations. Yet, the harmony coulddisappear by the inappropriate interference of human. Similarly, harmony is also the basisof positive character. Harmonious behavior is appropriate, balance, proportional, and equi-librium to the pure and natural environment. In other words, ‘just’ behavior is putting things

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in the right place. In one of his articles, Khan (2002) states that true happiness comes fromthe soul which filled with love, harmony, and beauty; and it will result in wisdom, peaceful-ness and serenity which are the determinants of life satisfaction.

The Implications of the Roles of Music in Character EducationMusic is not a new thing in the process of character education. In a dialogue called ‘politeia’Plato (cited in Prier, 2002) emphasized the importance of musical education for youth. Thereason is that rhythm and harmony strongly infiltrates human souls. Therefore a goodfoundation of musical education the youth will be able to comprehend weaknesses andmeanness of human behavior. This research implies that character education at school canbe started with refining the sense (emotion) and music can be used as the mediator. Charactereducation cannot be achieved only by academic approach which focuses on memorizingconcepts and knowledge. Positive character is reflected in acts/behavior not only in cognitiveaspect. Designing character education begins with choosing good quality music which hasto be in consistent to the characters of Indonesian societies. The root of Indonesian culturemust be taken in to consideration in choosing the music, because the harmony will only beachieved if the music is consistent to virtues of the societies. Without it, Indonesian willloose its authentic identities and characters, which are decent, polite, tolerance to diversity,and altruistic.

There are several interconnected strategies in character education. In this model, musicplays the role of character foundation building. Here are the strategies:

1. Preparing the foundation of positive/noble character2. Learning through social modeling3. Learning through habituation4. Developing knowledge

Picture 3.5: Stages in Character Building

At the first stage of a child’s life, educators need to prepare the foundation of positive andnoble character in the child. This foundation plays important role in the child’s moral devel-

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opment, by helping the child easier to recognize right or wrong. Before his/her logic fullydeveloped, a child can recognize right or wrong by his/her senses and feelings. Exposuresto harmony and proportion are important in order to refine a child’s sensitivity to right orwrong. Music can be used as mediator in improving a child’s sense of harmony and propor-tion. It is easy to do and almost every child loves music. Children learn harmony, proportion,and symmetric through music. With music, children can also learn various emotions suchas, love and care, bravery, spirit, and devotion. At the second stage, children need goodmodels from their environments. The foundation of basic positive character is not enough,because this is basically potential. Children need concrete examples of how to manifest thepotential. Learning through modeling is the most effective teaching in helping children toexpress their appropriate behaviors. The absence of positive behavioral models hinders thechildren from exercising good deeds and their positive characters. Eventually it will obstructhabituation process of positive behaviors. Next stage is learning through knowledge. At thisstage, children’s ability to think logically has developed. Therefore, they are able to rationallyunderstand right or wrong. Children will also have the ability to understand the law of causeand effect of the behavioral values structure, or to understand higher order of kindness: reli-gion and God. It is only at this stage that academic approach will work. By then, childrenwill be able to understand the subject of religion and character.

The Implication of Musical Influence in Society Building and CivilizationThere are countless historical evidences that show the development of music in line withthe development of a nation. Vice versa, there are also historical evidences shows degradationof music along the degradation of a nation. Prier (2002) mentions that the development ofmusic in Egypt was closely connected to the history of politic in the country. In Jews history,in its early development, music was lead by the prophet who was also the king, the KingDavid (Daud), and then was continued by the son, King Solomon. Then, experienced degrad-ation after music was sung by female singers of the palace who were also harems (concu-bines). The degradation (from holy men and kings to common people and concubines) madechoirs or music organizations of Israel fell down to the issues of morality and art. Thereforethe quality of music is strongly connected to the quality of the society. Composers whocreate high quality of music and preferred by the society will drive the society to the intendedquality of the music. Vice versa, composers who create bad music and chosen by the societywill bring the society to bad character of the music. Merrit (2003) states that composers willnot be able to insert values and views which are not in their personalities into their music.When we listen to their music, without us knowing it, the composers’ values and views aretransferred into ours. Mozart is a good example; he had a strong intuition and inserted thatelement into his music. Therefore, if you listen to Mozarts, you will be able to understandthe strength of your intuition. Based on the group of experts’ discussions, there is reciprocaland mutual connection between music products, individuals and societies. The connectionis described in the following picture (picture 3.6)

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Picture 3.6: Reciprocal and Mutual Connection between Music-the Self-society

Meanwhile in the discussion of music’s position in society, Aristoteles (Prier, 1991) arguesthat society consists of two schools of thoughts which are free societies and slave societies,in other words, societies with high civilization and societies with low civilization. Societieswith low civilization would be more interested to the skill of playing musical instrumentand over frenetic without any sense or art which would influence animal, children or slavesinstincts. Societies with high civilization would view music as something that could restorethe soul equilibriums, the consolation of uneasiness, and trigger patriotism and heroism(Aristoteles cited in Prier, 1991).

ReferencesBassano, Mary. Translate by Dinamika Interlingua. (2001) Penyembuhan melalui musik dan warna.

Yogyakarta: Putra LangitCampbell, Don.(2001). Efek Mozart, memanfaatkan Kekuatan Musik untuk Mempertajam Pikiran,Men-

ingkatkan Kreativitas, dan Menyehatkan Tubuh. Jakarta: GramediaCampbell, Don. (2001). Efek Mozart, Bagi Anak-Anak. Jakarta: GramediaDarajat, Z.(1994). Kesehatan Mental. Jakarta: CV.haji MasagungDjelantik, A.A.M.. (1999). Estetika. Bandung: Masyarakat Seni Pertunjukan IndonesiaDjohan (2003). Psikologi Musik.Yogyakarta:Buku BaikFisher (2002) The Delphi Method. (online). Tersedia: http://fisher.osu.edu/fin/813/delphi.htm. (26 jan

2002)Khan, Hazrat Inayat. (2002). Dimensi Mistik Musik dan Bunyi. Yogyakarta: Pustaka SufiMakmun, A.S. (2004). Psikologi Kependidikan. Bandung: Rosda karyaMahmud, AT (2003). Sebuah Memoar A.T. Mahmud Meniti Pelangi. Jakarta: GrasindoMerrit, S. (2003). Simfoni Otak. Bandung: kaifaMontello, L ( 2004). Kecerdasan Musik. Batam: Lucky PublisherPrier Sj, Karl .Edmund. (2002).Sejarah Musik, Jilid I. Yogyakarta: Pusat Musik Liturgi

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Sachari, A. (2002). Estetika. Bandung: Institut Teknologi BandungSardi, Martin. (1985) . Pendidikan Manusia. Bandung: AlumniSatiadarma, Monty P. (2002). Terapi Musik. Jakarta: Milenia PopulerSumarta, Sindhunata. (2000). Membuka Masa Depan Anak-Anak Kita, Mencari Kurikulum Pendidikan

Abad XXI. Yogyakarta: KanisiusSuryadi, K. (tt). Sistem Pendukung Keputusan. Bandung: Program Magister manajemen Industri PPS

ITBSuparno, P. (2002). Pendidikan Budi Pekerti di Sekolah. Jakarta; kanisiusTim Rosda.(1995). kamus Filsafat. Bandung: PT Remaja Rosda Karya

About the AuthorYeni RachmawatiI’m a lecturer at department of early childhood Teacher education. My study background iseducational psychology and curriculum development. My research interest is characterbuilding education, local wisdom and multicultural education, early childhood development,and development curriculum models.

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EDITORS Mary Kalantzis, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, USA. Bill Cope, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, USA.

EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD Michael Apple, University of Wisconsin, Madison, USA. David Barton, Lancaster University, Milton Keynes, UK. Mario Bello, University of Science, Cuba. Manuela du Bois-Reymond, Universiteit Leiden, Leiden, The Netherlands. Robert Devillar, Kennesaw State University, Kennesaw, USA. Daniel Madrid Fernandez, University of Granada, Spain. Ruth Finnegan, Open University, Milton Keynes, UK. James Paul Gee, University of Wisconsin, Madison, USA. Juana M. Sancho Gil, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain. Kris Gutierrez, University of California, Los Angeles, USA. Anne Hickling-Hudson, Queensland University of Technology, Kelvin Grove, Australia. Roz Ivanic, Lancaster University, Lancaster, UK. Paul James, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia. Carey Jewitt, Institute of Education, University of London, London, UK. Andeas Kazamias, University of Wisconsin, Madison, USA. Peter Kell, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, Australia. Michele Knobel, Montclair State University, Montclair, USA. Gunther Kress, Institute of Education, University of London, London, UK. Colin Lankshear, James Cook University, Cairns, Australia. Kimberly Lawless, University of Illinois, Chicago, USA. Sarah Michaels, Clark University, Worcester, USA. Jeffrey Mok, Miyazaki International College, Miyazaki, Japan. Denise Newfield, University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa. Ernest O’Neil, Ministry of Education, Sana’a, Yemen. José-Luis Ortega, University of Granada, Granada, Spain. Francisco Fernandez Palomares, University of Granada, Granada, Spain. Ambigapathy Pandian, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang, Malaysia. Miguel A. Pereyra, University of Granada, Granada, Spain. Scott Poynting, Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester, UK. Angela Samuels, Montego Bay Community College, Montego Bay, Jamaica. Michel Singh, University of Western Sydney, Sydney, Australia. Helen Smith, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia. Richard Sohmer, Clark University, Worcester, USA. Brian Street, University of London, London, UK. Giorgos Tsiakalos, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece. Salim Vally, University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa. Gella Varnava-Skoura, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece. Cecile Walden, Sam Sharpe Teachers College, Montego Bay, Jamaica. Nicola Yelland, Victoria University, Melbourne, Australia. Wang Yingjie, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China. Zhou Zuoyu, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China.

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