Music appreciation

One of the responsibilities as a music teacher is to acculturate students to different styles of music. Traditionally, this has been predominated by Western Classical composers such as Bach and Beethoven, but I would like to take a deeper look into what it means to teach music appreciation in a P-12 setting.

The first question is to decide what classes and grade levels should have a music appreciation focus. Should 7-12 band and choir students focus on music appreciation? While there is a place for active listening, I think that these two classes are performance-based classes and should focus on performance. In other words, it doesn't hurt to include some forms of music appreciation in band and choir, but I hesitate to say that it deserves a formal place in the curriculum. 5th and 6th grade students are also enrolled in band and choir, so I would also shy away from music appreciation in these classes  as well. (although it may be a good time to include focused listening, provided it is well structured into the curriculum). This leaves active listening to preschool through 4th grade - six years of instruction to cover the vast subject of music appreciation.

So what is music appreciation? It consists of learning about and listening to different styles of music, focusing on a variety of high-quality selections and historically significant selections and composers. The problem arises of which songs should be studied and how much time should be spent on each song. The possibility arises of combining active listening with music history, music theory, and movement activities. In other words, music appreciation is least effective when it is just focused listening. There needs to be some kind of activity or context. This further complicates the inclusion of music appreciation into the curriculum.

Finally, the most common question about music appreciation needs to be addressed. What music should be included in the curriculum? While the final decision rests with the teacher, there should be some kind of guidelines that make it easy to include the right music. I believe that the song selection should mirror the cultural and historical values of the community - the school, city, state, and country - where the students live. However, this also needs to be balanced with the traditional Western art music curriculum that is so prominent in music education. Personally, I believe that Western art music is the foundation of music education - it's something that we cannot afford to leave out of the curriculum. Next in importance comes traditional music from America and around the world. This includes folk music as well as historically significant popular music such as those in Broadway productions. Third is cultural world music, including jazz, that educates the students about people of other cultures. Finally, if at all, is the current popular music that the students can hear on the radio.

While this is a broad generalization of active listening, or music appreciation, a curriculum must be designed that includes specific styles, songs, and composers with accompanying intentions and activities that fit and balance with the rest of the curriculum.