I'm glad I looked to see if WW answered before I posted this... yet I'll leave it in the original form as a *direct
answer to you Faldage, and an *interesting study in our different perspectives.[rant alert]
It is, as you suggested, only a graphical similarity that has *no musical function... except to confuse the student with arbitrary references like the mnemonic devices WW spoke of (which may *reflect musicality, but only a
tertiary form of it (literally)... bear with me). These names for notes may help a student bridge the gap of association that so many educators seem to think is necessary
, but it builds a permanent bridge that (for the most part) can never be destroyed, and supports a
triadic harmonic perspective and *western forms of music that divides cultures (but let's not talk politics
). An even larger problem exists in the inferrence (and I know as a fact that many young kids "pick up" on this) that *space notes have similar qualities to other *space notes... possibly (as they search deeper) some intrinsic opposite to *line notes, and this gets *proven (unfortunately mistakenly)over and over again as they learn. Further liguistic descriptions of what this *difference *is are pointless, as they are embedded in each individuals' exposure to the different sounds.
A similar issue occurrs often as a *budding pianist looks at black and white keys and wonders what and why (but let's not start that one).
Now lets get even deeper (I'm puttin on me galoshes fer dis one). All of this "bovine-dropping" is working from a base that (a) *pretends that there is some starting point from which to teach notes (let's just call it a "first" note) - yuk (b) continues to *assume that sounds should be *named by letters (what are they thinking?
) and (c) promotes the *ideal that key centers hold some devine reverence... oh, wait, I promised myself to not talk about religion... or was that politics?
I've seen commercials that offer a CD-Rom that claim to "teach you about the computer"... or even more
foolish is learning how to play piano (or any instrument for that matter) through your computer... learning the scales and notes I liken to a similar depth (and distraction thereof).
Back to the naming of sounds with letters... this is a cognitive step that (IMHO) is fully unnecessary (however difficult to replace) and has *clearly kept music from evolving into realms of complexities... as language has done. Of course it is the
real reason why music is considered the universal language by some, not because it accurately portrays cross cultural constants...
This should shed a
little light on what some issues there are... or at least some of the limits that WW is working within as a music teacher. It seems her creativity (which, BTW, I applaud) to take things outside the "box" is the most rewarding part (as it has been for me)... which says a lot about the "box". However, the box does have one overwhelmingly redeeming goal... everyone gets a chance. This one issue, I'll save for a day when it's raining cows (ie. music being turned into a competitive endeavor...) sickens me! (Ask me how I really feel...)
