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

[IcemanLE@xxxxxxx]

Sorry - last posting was a bit confusing regarding past statement and  
current comment.
 
I'm resending it with "<<<" and ">>>>" around past  statements to hopefully 
make more sense.




<<<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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