Re: [Harp-L] Learning, Grammar and Theory (was Positions Playing)

[IcemanLE@xxxxxxx]

In a message dated 3/13/2009 12:25:19 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,  
jplpagan@xxxxxxx writes:

--- In  harp-l-archives@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, IcemanLE@... wrote:
>
> We  learned to talk and communicate through learning the rules - noun,
>  pronoun, adjective, adverb. Anyone remember "diagramming a  sentence"?
>

This may be egg-head niggling on my part, but the  above is not true.  
We learn to talk and communicate without  instruction whatsoever. We  
pick it up from people around us.  Learning "the rules" (grammar rules)  
happens only after we can  already talk and communicate. Pre-school  
children communicate quite  well without having any clue what "noun"  
is, and there are grown  adults all around the world who speak  
eloquently and communicate  masterfully without knowing how to read or  
write, much less diagram  a sentence. The parallel to music should be  
quite  clear.

Language, like music, is an innate human capacity, not a  "learned  
skill" like plumbing or typing or surgery. The "rules"  (grammar) of  
language and music alike are abstractions and  codifications of what we  
humans know how to do without even having  to think about it.

Good points. However, we do learn both in schools - there must be a reason  
that grades 2 - 6 seemed to have a lot of English classes. Perhaps so we learn 
a  higher degree of better communication.


I  will agree in part with one comment:

> Not many people learned to  communicate (speak/write at a
> high level) through ear training alone -  at least not the ones who  
attended
>  school.

Understanding music theory and written music, much like  understanding  
how to read and write and the grammar of language, can  help us to  
bring our musicianship, like our communication skills, to  a higher  
level. Most importantly, they give us a common language  with which to  
store, replicate, share and explore musical concepts,  bringing us into  
a new age of music, much like written language  brought us out of the  
age of the oral tradition (arguably, recording  does this better than  
written music, but the point  stands).

Anyway... sorry. But being clear about what written music (or  written  
language) does or doesn't do is an important part of making  the  
argument that it is a good thingâand it is. You don't need to  learn  
"the rules" to communicate or to play, but I believe it will  make your  
life much richer if you do.
 
So often we learn the rules - then are given permission to break them or  
forget them. "Learning the rules" in and of itself is a good thing - grammar or  
music.
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