tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/music-theory-38777/articlesmusic theory – The Conversation2023-06-28T12:35:03Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2077962023-06-28T12:35:03Z2023-06-28T12:35:03ZUS music education has a history of anti-Blackness that is finally being confronted<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/534363/original/file-20230627-26812-uskrxe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=862%2C116%2C5128%2C3871&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">These multicolored notes reflect the diversity of music across the world.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/musical-note-shape-bokeh-backdrop-royalty-free-image/1147839051?phrase=music+theory+notes&adppopup=true">MirageC/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>When it comes to achieving racial diversity, music education at the university level in the U.S. still has a long way to go. </p>
<p>One of the leading professional organizations, the Society for Music Theory, <a href="https://societymusictheory.org/announcement/executive-board-response-journal-schenkerian-studies-vol-12-2020-07">put it bluntly</a> in 2020: “We humbly acknowledge that we have much work to do to dismantle the whiteness and systemic racism that deeply shape our discipline,” the group wrote.</p>
<p>The focus on white, male Europeans in textbooks and music selected for study has been <a href="https://theconversation.com/music-education-has-a-race-problem-and-universities-must-address-it-143719">called into question</a> by countless scholars and practitioners because of <a href="https://www.currentaffairs.org/2022/03/can-music-theory-education-overcome-its-whiteness-problem">music education’s deep roots</a> in anti-Blackness. </p>
<p>In recent years, the simplest solution for music professors has been to find nonwhite classical composers and use their work on a program or concert to demonstrate the school’s commitment to diversity. One person whose work some professors have used in such a way is <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/02/05/the-rediscovery-of-florence-price">Florence Price</a>. A composer and music teacher who died in 1953, Price is considered to be one of the first Black female musicians with mainstream appeal.</p>
<p>But <a href="http://philipewell.com/">in my view</a> as one of only a few Black scholars in the field of music theory, such diversity efforts often serve only to reinforce the whiteness and maleness of the system. </p>
<p>Ethnomusicologist Dylan Robinson <a href="https://www.erudit.org/en/journals/is/2019-v39-n1-is05836/1075347ar.pdf">calls these efforts</a> “additive inclusion” in that they give the impression of making positive change but serve only to maintain an overemphasis on the work of white male Europeans.</p>
<h2>Music theory textbooks</h2>
<p>In 2020, <a href="https://www.furman.edu/people/megan-lyons/#">music theorist Megan Lyons</a> and I did <a href="https://mtosmt.org/issues/mto.20.26.2/mto.20.26.2.ewell.html">an analysis</a> of the seven most common undergraduate music theory textbooks in the U.S. </p>
<p>We wanted to establish a baseline of the racial and gender makeup of the composers represented in the books to see what teachers were offering to our students as the most important music to consider in the undergraduate music major.</p>
<p>Music theory courses, usually spread over four or five semesters, are often considered the most crucial aspect of the major, and theory textbooks are presented as authoritative sources that outline the essentials of the discipline. </p>
<p>Representative titles include “Harmony and Voice Leading,” “Harmony in Context,” “Harmonic Practice in Tonal Music” and “Concise Introduction to Tonal Harmony.” </p>
<p>Looming large in these textbooks is the word “<a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/harmony-music">harmony</a>,” the sound that is heard when two or more instruments or voices sound together, though in a global context the term has other meanings as well. What is considered harmony in the U.S. is based on European notions of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/tonality">tonality</a>, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/pitch-music">pitch</a>, <a href="https://www.simplifyingtheory.com/music-scales/">scale</a>, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/mode-music">mode</a>, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/key-music">key</a> and <a href="https://online.berklee.edu/takenote/conjunct-disjunct-melody-basic-definitions/">melody</a>.</p>
<p>The three composers the books most commonly represented were Germans <a href="https://www.biography.com/musicians/johann-sebastian-bach">Johann Sebastian Bach</a> and <a href="https://www.bl.uk/people/ludwig-van-beethoven">Ludwig van Beethoven</a> and Austrian <a href="https://www.operaphila.org/whats-on/on-stage-2016-2017/figaro/composer/">Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="A black and white portrait of a white man wearing a white powdered wig and holding a sheet of music." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/534173/original/file-20230626-12748-u5iebb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/534173/original/file-20230626-12748-u5iebb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=646&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534173/original/file-20230626-12748-u5iebb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=646&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534173/original/file-20230626-12748-u5iebb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=646&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534173/original/file-20230626-12748-u5iebb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=812&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534173/original/file-20230626-12748-u5iebb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=812&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534173/original/file-20230626-12748-u5iebb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=812&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A mid-19th-century engraving of Johann Sebastian Bach.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/illustration/bach-antique-engraved-portrait-royalty-free-illustration/164111851?phrase=Black+classical+musical+composer&adppopup=true">FierceAbin/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We found that of the nearly 3,000 musical examples cited in the textbooks, only 49 were written by composers who were not white and only 68 were written by composers who were not men. </p>
<p>On rare occasions those two subgroups overlapped, as with Florence Price. Only two examples were written by Asian composers.</p>
<p>All told, almost 98% of the musical examples were written by white men who mostly spoke German, and these seven textbooks represented about 96% of the market share.</p>
<p>Left out of textbooks are the many African American musicians who contributed significantly to American music, such as classical composers <a href="https://songofamerica.net/composer/dett-robert-nathaniel/">Nathaniel Dett</a>, <a href="https://www.loc.gov/item/ihas.200038842/">James Reese Europe</a>, <a href="https://www.lapl.org/collections-resources/blogs/lapl/julia-perry-american-neoclassicist">Julia Perry</a> and <a href="https://www.loc.gov/item/ihas.200038858/">Clarence Cameron White</a>. </p>
<p>Also generally excluded were nonclassical genres like jazz, blues or bluegrass, or contemporary popular music such as hip-hop, soul or punk. </p>
<h2>Anti-Blackness in music conservatories</h2>
<p>American music academies generally reflect the social norms of the day. Anti-Blackness was commonly accepted in all music institutions until well into the 20th century through the <a href="https://www.press.umich.edu/11865737/destined_to_fail">eugenics of music pedagogue Carl Seashore</a>, the <a href="https://scholarlypublishingcollective.org/uip/am/article/38/4/395/261756">white supremacy of the composer-pianist John Powell</a> and the <a href="https://mtosmt.org/issues/mto.20.26.2/mto.20.26.2.ewell.html">racism of music theorist Heinrich Schenker</a>.</p>
<p>In her 2019 master’s thesis “A Message of Inclusion, A History of Exclusion: Racial Injustice at the Peabody Institute,” violinist Sarah Thomas details a <a href="https://jscholarship.library.jhu.edu/handle/1774.2/62108">common American story of racial angst</a> in higher education. </p>
<p>Thomas focused on the Peabody Institute, founded in 1857 in Baltimore, Maryland and the oldest U.S. music institution, and its board members’ letters about the possible admission of Black pianist Paul Brent.</p>
<p>In July 1949, Peabody President William Marbury <a href="https://exhibits.library.jhu.edu/exhibits/show/a-message-of-inclusion/policy-change-at-peabody/acceptance-of-brent">wrote the school’s board of directors</a> and reminded board members of the school’s unofficial policy at the time:</p>
<p>“We are brought face to face with the issue whether to modify our long-standing rule against the admission of negro students,” Marbury wrote. </p>
<p>Once the issue was put to a vote, only one board member, Douglas Gordon, openly opposed admitting Brent and cast the one dissenting vote. </p>
<p>“It seems to me that it would be a great mistake to change the present policy,” <a href="https://exhibits.library.jhu.edu/exhibits/show/a-message-of-inclusion/policy-change-at-peabody/acceptance-of-brent">Gordon wrote</a>. “In our climate the presence of negroes can to some be extremely offensive.” </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="One black student stands with a group of white classmates." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/533001/original/file-20230620-12148-mzmx1q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/533001/original/file-20230620-12148-mzmx1q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=474&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533001/original/file-20230620-12148-mzmx1q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=474&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533001/original/file-20230620-12148-mzmx1q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=474&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533001/original/file-20230620-12148-mzmx1q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=595&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533001/original/file-20230620-12148-mzmx1q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=595&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533001/original/file-20230620-12148-mzmx1q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=595&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Paul A. Brent, the first Black student to enroll at the Peabody Conservatory, is second from the right in the back row in this 1953 photograph.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://cdm16613.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p16613coll11/id/285">Peabody Institute</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Though Brent was admitted and became the first Black student to enroll at Peabody, the abhorrent views of Gordon still remain present today in more subtle forms. </p>
<p>The study of jazz is one such example of racial exclusion. </p>
<p>Generally considered a Black musical genre, jazz is now part of most music educational institutions, but is virtually always separate from the mainstream music major. </p>
<p>In a few cases, students are able to major in jazz. But in most cases, if students wants to major in jazz, they must major in classical music while playing jazz on the side.</p>
<h2>Change in music education is coming</h2>
<p>Citing declining enrollments for music majors across the country, the College Music Society in 2014 published a <a href="https://www.music.org/pdf/pubs/tfumm/TFUMM.pdf">manifesto for change</a> to the undergraduate music major.
It deemphasized music and methods of the Western canon while emphasizing the need for students to engage with music from different cultures and with new technologies. </p>
<p>This change has taken many forms. </p>
<p>Musicians are rethinking their curricula to treat all music of the world on equal footing as the European standards. </p>
<p>Piano proficiency and European language requirements are being reconsidered – in some cases cast aside – by music institutions. Other schools are creating new music majors for those working with digital sound and sound design, or for those studying popular genres such as blues, rock, metal and country. </p>
<p>Academic work in music is changing as well, and students can now at times get credit for work <a href="https://theconversation.com/hip-hop-professor-looks-to-open-doors-with-worlds-first-peer-reviewed-rap-album-153761">outside of traditional paper writing</a>.</p>
<p>It’s my belief that the sooner we musicians, irrespective of our own identities, can face up to our racial segregationist past, the sooner we can all reap the benefits of our nation’s unique musical diversity.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/207796/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Philip Ewell does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The predominantly white European field of music education in the US is changing radically these days as schools confront anti-Black histories.Philip Ewell, Professor of music theory, Hunter CollegeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1657592021-08-11T20:05:33Z2021-08-11T20:05:33ZCurious Kids: how does music get onto a cassette tape?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/415366/original/file-20210810-23-1e8xmx3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=49%2C0%2C5472%2C3497&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><blockquote>
<p>How does music get onto a cassette tape? — Paul, age 9, Adelaide</p>
</blockquote>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/curious-kids-36782"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/291898/original/file-20190911-190031-enlxbk.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=90&fit=crop&dpr=1" width="100%"></a></p>
<p>Hi Paul!</p>
<p>That’s a great question. To answer it very briefly, music is recorded onto a cassette tape using electricity and a magnetic field. Now let me explain what I mean by that. </p>
<h2>Sound gets turned into electricity</h2>
<p>Imagine you’re singing into a microphone while playing a guitar. When you sing, you use your vocal cords in your throat, your mouth and your breath to make the air around you vibrate — and these vibrations are what create sound.</p>
<p>Similarly, when you pluck or strum the strings of a guitar, this causes the wooden body of the instrument to vibrate, which also vibrates the air inside the guitar, creating sound. </p>
<p>Both the microphone and the guitar “pickup” (a special kind of microphone for “picking up” sound from an instrument) have tiny magnets that vibrate with the movements of air, and produce an electrical current. </p>
<p>The current flows through the microphone and guitar cables to the tape recorder, through which a plastic tape is slowly moving. The electrical signal creates a magnetic field in the recording head and this is what allows sound to be recorded.</p>
<p>But what happens within the tape recorder itself during this process?</p>
<h2>How magnetic tape works</h2>
<p>A cassette tape is a plastic shell that surrounds two rotating spools.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="A collection of cassette tapes on grey carpet" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/415089/original/file-20210808-19-1kns1hh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/415089/original/file-20210808-19-1kns1hh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=799&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/415089/original/file-20210808-19-1kns1hh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=799&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/415089/original/file-20210808-19-1kns1hh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=799&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/415089/original/file-20210808-19-1kns1hh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1004&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/415089/original/file-20210808-19-1kns1hh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1004&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/415089/original/file-20210808-19-1kns1hh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1004&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A collection of cassette tapes/</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mike Flamenco/unsplash</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Another long, thin piece of plastic is wound around the spools. This is the “magnetic tape” on which the sound is recorded.</p>
<p>This tape is covered with a magnetic material that contains iron, and which reacts when it comes close to a magnetic field. The material could be iron oxide, chromium dioxide, or sometimes barium ferrite.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A diagram of a magnetic tape recorder showing the mechanical parts." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/415090/original/file-20210808-23-hax9vy.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/415090/original/file-20210808-23-hax9vy.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=305&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/415090/original/file-20210808-23-hax9vy.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=305&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/415090/original/file-20210808-23-hax9vy.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=305&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/415090/original/file-20210808-23-hax9vy.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=383&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/415090/original/file-20210808-23-hax9vy.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=383&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/415090/original/file-20210808-23-hax9vy.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=383&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A diagram of a magnetic tape recorder showing the mechanical parts.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">University of California Santa Cruz Electronic Music Studio</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In the diagram above, we can see the basic parts of a tape recorder. Here’s what happens when an empty cassette tape is used to record sound.</p>
<p>The magnetic tape starts on the <em>supply reel</em> and a motor on the <em>takeup reel</em> winds the tape past the <em>heads</em> (4, 6, 7). Each head contains metal coils. When electricity is sent to the coils in the <em>record head</em> (6), it generates a tiny magnetic field. </p>
<p>When the tape enters the magnetic field generated by the record head, the magnetic particles on it align in proportion to the strength of the field. The loudness and pitch of the sound (how high or low it is) make the magnetic particles align in different patterns as the tape passes through. </p>
<p>Later, if we want to play our recording back, we wind the tape past the <em>play head</em> (7), where the pattern of the magnetic particles recorded on the tape produces an electrical signal that is converted back to sound. </p>
<p>These particles will stay in the same arrangement unless they are exposed to a new magnetic field — so a tape can be played back many times, until it wears out!</p>
<p>The remaining head is the <em>erase head</em> (4). This lets us erase sound from a tape by using a constant electrical charge to “reset” the magnetic material on the tape as it passes through, erasing any previous recordings. </p>
<p>The <em>capstan, rollers</em> and <em>arms</em> all help to keep the tape stretched out as it passes through the heads, so that it moves at the same speed and gets a good-quality recording.</p>
<h2>A little history</h2>
<p>Cassette tapes were <a href="https://www.usa.philips.com/a-w/about/news/archive/standard/news/press/2013/20130910-Philips-compact-cassette-golden-anniversary.html">developed by the company Philips in 1963</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="An image of the first model of compact cassette tape sold by Philips in the 1960s" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/415087/original/file-20210808-90251-7vnxzu.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/415087/original/file-20210808-90251-7vnxzu.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/415087/original/file-20210808-90251-7vnxzu.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/415087/original/file-20210808-90251-7vnxzu.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/415087/original/file-20210808-90251-7vnxzu.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/415087/original/file-20210808-90251-7vnxzu.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/415087/original/file-20210808-90251-7vnxzu.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An image of the first model of compact cassette tape sold by Philips in the 1960s.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Philips USA</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Although recording to tape <a href="https://www.vox.com/2016/5/16/11672678/tape-recording-70th-anniversary-jack-mullin">had been possible since the 1930s</a>, the technology was large, awkward and expensive. The Philips Compact Cassette was cheap, portable (small enough to carry around) and could be used at home or in the office, with basic recording equipment. </p>
<p>But when Masaru Ibuka, the co-founder of the Japanese company Sony, wanted a way to listen to his favourite music on long flights, he sparked an invention <a href="https://www.sony.com.au/electronics/walkman-revolutionized-listen-to-music-on-the-go">that would change the</a> way we listened to music forever: the Sony Walkman. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="Image of the original Sony Walkman TPS L" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/415088/original/file-20210808-19-1r6n9qp.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/415088/original/file-20210808-19-1r6n9qp.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=953&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/415088/original/file-20210808-19-1r6n9qp.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=953&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/415088/original/file-20210808-19-1r6n9qp.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=953&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/415088/original/file-20210808-19-1r6n9qp.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1197&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/415088/original/file-20210808-19-1r6n9qp.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1197&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/415088/original/file-20210808-19-1r6n9qp.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1197&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Original Sony Walkman TPS L.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Binarysequence/wikimedia</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The Walkman was released in 1979 and brought music into every part of our lives. Not just our homes, or cars — but anywhere at any time! It is more or less a portable cassette player that connects with headphones.</p>
<p>Since then we have seen huge improvements in portable music technology, with MP3 players coming out in 1997 and eventually the Apple iPod’s <a href="https://www.cnet.com/pictures/the-complete-history-of-apples-ipod/">release in 2001</a>.</p>
<p>Today, we don’t even need a special device just to record or play music. We can do everything on our phones! But cassette tapes were the first invention that let people easily record and play on the go.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-do-astronauts-go-to-the-bathroom-in-space-153370">How do astronauts go to the bathroom in space?</a>
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</em>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/165759/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Christopher Wenn has received funding from a City of Hume COVID-19 Arts Activation Grant in 2020. </span></em></p>Cassette tapes were the first great advancement in portable recording and playback. You can draw a direct line between them and the music apps on every smartphone today.Christopher Wenn, Tutor in Production (Technical), The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1351412020-04-13T12:15:52Z2020-04-13T12:15:52ZMaking music at a distance – how to come together online to spark your creativity<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/326592/original/file-20200408-179222-1i7yayt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=41%2C18%2C3026%2C2023&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Nathan Williams and his band play zydeco from the back of a truck in a Lousiana Mardi Gras parade. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/nathan-williams-sings-and-plays-the-accordion-with-his-news-photo/540702834?adppopup=true">Philip Gould/Corbis via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>People are social creatures. While many of us are making the best of social isolation, we’re much better together than apart. This is especially true with music that we create collectively – everything from jam bands and choruses to orchestras. Music connects us to each other and to our spiritual lives and can magnify our <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JT09JbaEh_I">collective creativity</a>.</p>
<p>What happens to music when we can no longer gather? Many of the ways we connect in person have been transferred to online transactions. Can music make this shift to a virtual connection? </p>
<p>I am a <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=WFwL1aMAAAAJ&hl=en">professor</a> at the School of Music at the University of South Florida. I teach, among other things, creative thinking in music. In my book <a href="https://www.giamusic.com/store/resource/to-create-book-g10054">“To Create: Imagining the Good Life Through Music</a>,” I write about how music helps us connect with our spirituality and, of course, with one another. </p>
<p>A month ago, most faculty members in the USF music department were resistant to any talk of <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/why-music-lessons-need-to_b_10314552">immediate and sweeping change</a> in the way we operate. However, as we learned more about how our well-being was at great risk, those attitudes quickly changed. In the last few weeks, my university moved all of our operations online because of COVID-19. We conduct private lessons, teach academic classes and meet together using video conferencing technology.</p>
<p>We had to figure out, logistically, what some people have known for quite some time. Making music online is not as bad as we thought. There are practical ways to take advantage of this time to teach yourself music and connect with other people online to create music together.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/326605/original/file-20200408-109213-106kytm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/326605/original/file-20200408-109213-106kytm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/326605/original/file-20200408-109213-106kytm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/326605/original/file-20200408-109213-106kytm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/326605/original/file-20200408-109213-106kytm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/326605/original/file-20200408-109213-106kytm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/326605/original/file-20200408-109213-106kytm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/326605/original/file-20200408-109213-106kytm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">A pianist in Moscow prepares for an online concert without an audience.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Virus-Outbreak-Russia/5d7b1c4ff3504200b6f82db163a874b9/2/0">AP Photo/Pavel Golovkin</a></span>
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</figure>
<h2>The energy of community creativity</h2>
<p>People have been making music in online communities since at least the <a href="https://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/intellect/jmte/2012/00000004/f0020002/art00008">inception of YouTube</a> in 2005. Individual and group performances are posted online and, for many years, music collaborations have been conducted in <a href="http://music.arts.usf.edu/content/go/music-education/mjme/links/virtual-choral-singing.asp">purely online environments</a>. </p>
<p>Most of us possess an innate desire to create, to take simple things and use them to form more complex things. With music, we take notes and rhythms, melodies and harmonies, and assemble them in ways that express who we are. </p>
<p>When we make music as a community, we do together what is rarely possible alone. We form bands and choruses of fellow musicians and create intricate, complex and sometimes wonderfully simple music that flows from our desire to make sounds that are expressive and beautiful.</p>
<p>That can be in person. But it also can be online. My advice? Find your community. Here are a few ideas to better connect musically with others while keeping your distance. </p>
<h2>Music and people online</h2>
<p>This is an excellent time in the history of music education to learn how to play an instrument online. There are vast music lesson resources available online, beginning with YouTube. Try starting or expanding your reach as a musician with online resources including <a href="https://www.fender.com/play">Fender Play</a>, <a href="https://www.playgroundsessions.com/?gclid=Cj0KCQjw1Iv0BRDaARIsAGTWD1taVvZxSLrN5acsrP_YKhRqVNDVW5Vw2jR00d-xV0qFjifnZfsHKa8aArsGEALw_wcB">Playground Sessions</a>, <a href="https://yousician.com/lp/gskw1piano?gclid=Cj0KCQjw1Iv0BRDaARIsAGTWD1vVmRvUJfDbm9hwqiAMQJoGBeYgY8SD1kN6ddvO25GlQcRMuXCjS6EaAi-DEALw_wcB">Yousician</a>, <a href="https://www.lessonface.com">Lessonface</a> and <a href="https://takelessons.com/online/music-lessons">TakeLessons.com</a>. Most of these resources are free for the first few months, and then require US$10 per month to continue.</p>
<p>You can also start a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2reeNKtRjg">band online</a>. Maybe you are, like me, a musician who is displaced and without people to play with because of social distancing. You don’t have to be alone. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.jamkazam.com">JamKazam</a> and <a href="https://www.soundtrap.com">Soundtrap</a> offer platforms where you can connect and collaborate with other musicians. Create a login, a profile, input the instruments/voice that you would like to collaborate with, and you can be off and running in a world of music. Your first song is free, and then every one after that costs around $3.</p>
<p>One morning, I received an invitation from a drummer in Germany who wanted to jam with me on Jamkazam. <a href="http://www.coverwithme.com">Coverwithme</a>, <a href="https://bandontheweb.com">Bandontheweb</a> and <a href="https://www.guitarmasterclass.net/guitar_forum/index.php?showtopic=30740">Guitarmasterclass.net</a> are other places where people are forming bands and coming together musically online.</p>
<p>If you are a musician who used to enjoy sharing your music with other people by performing, take this time to acquaint or reacquaint yourself with online social media services. I upload a <a href="https://www.instagram.com/randlesc2/">daily improvisation video</a>, my primary means of musical self-expression, and find it therapeutic – a catharsis from the emotional drain of social distancing.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/326580/original/file-20200408-179754-1yrbvov.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/326580/original/file-20200408-179754-1yrbvov.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/326580/original/file-20200408-179754-1yrbvov.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=336&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/326580/original/file-20200408-179754-1yrbvov.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=336&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/326580/original/file-20200408-179754-1yrbvov.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=336&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/326580/original/file-20200408-179754-1yrbvov.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=422&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/326580/original/file-20200408-179754-1yrbvov.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=422&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/326580/original/file-20200408-179754-1yrbvov.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=422&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">The One Good Thing Chorus in Brooklyn connected singers around the world by computer.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Virus-Outbreak-One-Good-Thing-Chorus/de7680826d204ee4985d78b206386bda/6/0">AP Photo/Jessie Wardarski</a></span>
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<p>COVID-19 has forced music educators to think about online learning. Friends in Minnesota recently compiled a list of resources for <a href="https://tinyurl.com/BandELearning">teaching band online</a>. Researchers at <a href="http://music.arts.usf.edu/content/go/music-education/mjme/links/virtual-choral-singing.asp">Purdue University</a> in Indiana and the <a href="http://www.uwindsor.ca/e-soca/7/dr-janice-waldron-music-education">University of Windsor</a> in Windsor, Ontario, are reviewing the ways that people learn music online. </p>
<p>This way of learning has <a href="http://music.arts.usf.edu/content/go/music-education/mjme/">many unexpected benefits</a>, and it is not likely to go away any time soon. Music teachers may embrace this way of thinking and doing, both in times of crisis and when our lives return to normal. </p>
<p>[<em>You need to understand the coronavirus pandemic, and we can help.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=upper-coronavirus-help">Read The Conversation’s newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/135141/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Clint Randles does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Musicians around the world can connect with you online as you keep your social distance. Try it!Clint Randles, Associate Professor of Music Education, University of South FloridaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/874592017-11-15T10:59:40Z2017-11-15T10:59:40ZHave scientists found a secret chord for happy songs?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/194603/original/file-20171114-26420-xs74n9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In the BBC radio comedy show I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue, panellists are sometimes asked to sing “one song to the tune of another”. Hilarious results ensue when the words of one song fit the rhythm and metre of the other but they have completely different sentiments: <a href="https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/42916/jabberwocky">Jabberwocky</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/jerusalem-a-history-of-englands-hymn-55668">Jerusalem</a>, for example. The game works because audiences recognise the disconnect between the sentiment of the lyrics and the music. Everyone knows that a good tune needs not just to fit the rhythm of the words but to convey something appropriate to their meaning. </p>
<p>We can explain the meaning of lyrics by looking at their component words and grammatical structure. But how do we explain the meaning of music? What does the music of, say, Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah convey? <a href="http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0173392">Some people think</a> if we gather enough data to answer these questions then we might be able to program a machine to work out what our ears tell us with ease: that Jerusalem is rousing and Singin’ in the Rain is joyful.</p>
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<p>New research published in the journal <a href="http://rsos.royalsocietypublishing.org/lookup/doi/10.1098/rsos.170952">Royal Society Open Science</a> attempts to tackle this issue by investigating the links between the emotions of lyrics and the musical elements they are set to. While the methods used are sophisticatedly statistical, the conclusions are extremely dry. The finding that a single chord type is most associated with positive lyrics is a huge simplification of the way that music works, highlighting the sheer scale of the challenge of creating a machine that could understand and compose music like a human can. </p>
<p>The data came from combining information from three large-scale public sources, two of them originally intended for entirely different purposes. The authors downloaded the lyrics and chord sequences of nearly 90,000 popular songs from <a href="https://www.ultimate-guitar.com/">Ultimate Guitar</a>, a longstanding community website where users upload their own transcriptions of music.</p>
<p>To match the lyrics of the songs to emotions, the researchers took data <a href="http://trinker.github.io/qdapDictionaries/labMT.html">from labMT</a>, a crowd-sourced website that rates the emotional valence of words (the degree to which they represent good or bad feelings). The details of when and where the songs originated from were taken <a href="http://www.gracenote.com/">from Gracenote</a>, the same database as your music player probably uses to show artists’ information.</p>
<p>By correlating the valence of words with the type of chord accompanying them, the authors confirmed that major chords were associated more with positive words than minor chords. Unexpectedly, they found that <a href="https://www.musictheoryacademy.com/understanding-music/seventh-chords/">seventh chords</a> – chords with four different notes rather than the usual three – had an even higher association with positive words, even in the case of minor seventh chords. This is in constrast to <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0305735614552006">other studies</a> which have placed the valence of seventh chords between minor and major.</p>
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<p>Quantitative studies like this of music and emotion are becoming increasingly common and popular, using ever larger quantities of data. The <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0929821042000317813">most highly cited articles</a> in Journal of New Music Research (which I edit) are of this type. They sometimes provoke amazement that art, often set in opposition to science, can be explained by numbers. And sometimes they provoke fear that soulless machines are invading the territory of human creativity.</p>
<p>Counting things is a proven way of making discoveries in other domains, so we shouldn’t be surprised this is so in music also. And those who are frightened of the musical machines need to be aware that it is too late: they are among us already. Look, for example, at <a href="http://songsmith.ms/index.html">Microsoft’s Songsmith</a>. My fear, instead, is that humans will make do with poorly made musical machines. We should not ignore the knowledge of centuries of music theory just because we have shiny new data science tools.</p>
<p>The authors of this new paper come from a university (Indiana) with one of the largest music schools in the US, but they all worked in the Department of Informatics. While they thank some members of the music school for discussions, the sophisticated statistical analysis in this article is not matched by a depth of music theory.</p>
<h2>More than decoration</h2>
<p>Seventh chords are not interchangeable with major and minor chords. They have a particular musical function and occur at different places in a phrase, just as adjectives have a different function from nouns. The authors claim their approach of using the words of vocal music as a key to its emotional content is novel, but this is not the case. One of the most influential books on music and emotion in its day, The Language of Music by Derek Cooke (1959), used exactly that approach. Alas for modern universities, where researchers’ universes seem to have been shrunken to their own particular disciplines.</p>
<p>We should beware the lazy assumption that words carry the true meaning of a song and music and the rest are just feelings, to be applied like cake decorations. Music has its own elements and structures, and speaks in many ways. The experience of music is <a href="http://www.research.lancs.ac.uk/portal/en/publications/music-seeing-and-feeling-with-the-ears(a73a2f00-7c6b-4613-8f70-80969aa97358).html">so much more</a> than just its sounds.</p>
<p>Quantitative studies have huge potential to help understand these processes, but they need to treat the music in the light of what we know about it as music. After all, the meaning of the music of Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah seems clear. If only the same could be said about the words.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/87459/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alan Marsden has received funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council and is editor of the Journal of New Music Research.</span></em></p>New research claims to have found a link between types of chords and the lyrics they are typically paired with.Alan Marsden, Senior Lecturer in Music, Lancaster UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/775742017-05-17T10:52:56Z2017-05-17T10:52:56ZThe insidious class divide in music teaching<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/169751/original/file-20170517-24307-1kbuz37.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Tommaso Lizzul via Shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>A passionate debate is raging regarding musical education which threatens to unbalance the already critically privileged world of classical music. And, ironically, some of those who believe that music education should be made more accessible are arguing for measures that will actually exacerbate that privilege.</p>
<p>In a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/mar/27/music-lessons-children-white-wealthy">recent article in The Guardian</a>, writer Charlotte C Gill argued that musical education is now harder to access for many at state schools. Gill’s main contention was that music had “always been taught in a far too academic way”, singling out a focus on notation, sight-reading and theoretical understanding. Notation, she wrote, was “a cryptic, tricky language – rather like Latin – that can only be read by a small number of people, most of whom have benefited from private education”.</p>
<p>In response, more than <a href="https://ianpace.wordpress.com/2017/03/30/response-to-charlotte-c-gill-article-on-music-and-notation-full-list-of-signatories/">700 professional musicians, teachers and others</a> – including many who were either educated or are now teaching in state schools – <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/education/2017/apr/05/this-romanticisation-of-musical-illiteracy-is-risky">signed a letter</a> opposing Gill’s ideas, which it said “amount to simple anti-intellectualism”. It added:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>… through her romanticisation of illiteracy, Gill’s position could serve to make literate musical education even more exclusive through being marginalised yet further in state schools.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Check your privilege</h2>
<p>The news that a core requirement of music theory <a href="http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2017/3/22/music-concentration-changes/">was to be dropped</a> from the curriculum at Harvard University, prompted <a href="http://thelogjournal.com/2017/04/25/what-controversial-changes-at-harvard-means-for-music-in-the-university/">a vigorous defence</a> by some other faculty members. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"848207180759171072"}"></div></p>
<p>The response by professional musicians in the US, including American composer John Adams, was similarly impassioned, but the debate quickly became charged. One musicologist compared the defence of music theory to white supremacy, while another developed a “<a href="http://www.kendraprestonleonard.com/2017/04/01/music-privilege-walk-statements/">privilege walk for musicians</a>” based upon a <a href="https://peacelearner.org/2016/03/14/privilege-walk-lesson-plan/">recent US tradition</a> of such things for students. This required that those who, for example, had been taught music theory, cared about notated music, or could read more than one clef, should step forward in order to check their privilege.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/169754/original/file-20170517-24330-6cvsw8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/169754/original/file-20170517-24330-6cvsw8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=417&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169754/original/file-20170517-24330-6cvsw8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=417&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169754/original/file-20170517-24330-6cvsw8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=417&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169754/original/file-20170517-24330-6cvsw8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=525&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169754/original/file-20170517-24330-6cvsw8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=525&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169754/original/file-20170517-24330-6cvsw8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=525&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">You need to understand theory to be a performer.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jirapong Manustrong via Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Many of the respondents to Gill’s article challenged her claims about notation and theory being impossible other than to those from privileged backgrounds, but the Harvard decision reflects a different outlook. The general quality of state education in the US compared to many countries in Europe and East Asia was demonstrated by the <a href="http://www.oecd.org/pisa/keyfindings/pisa-2012-results.htm">country’s relatively mediocre scores</a> in the 2012 Programme for International Student Assessment survey. This indicates that many students educated in the US are facing serious educational disadvantages.</p>
<p>The response to such a situation in a social democratic country, at least until recently, might be to invest more heavily in state education – and specifically music provision therein – to make musical skills available to as many as possible (perhaps also raising taxes in order to do so). But the Harvard decision – and by implication other denigrations of literate or theory-rich music – instead constitutes a race to the bottom, dumbing down and deskilling a curriculum while purporting to increase diversity. </p>
<p>The Harvard decision was ostensibly made to meet the needs of students without a traditional musical background – but if so, what alternative musical background do they have, and can it be judged intellectually equal to that traditionally required for a Harvard music education? Harvard faculty member Anne Shreffler <a href="http://thelogjournal.com/2017/04/25/what-controversial-changes-at-harvard-means-for-music-in-the-university/2/">dismissed the idea of music “standards”</a> as “a very amorphous and ideology-laden concept”. </p>
<p>But consider this: if standards in the education of surgeons or air traffic controllers were to be relaxed and not compensated for, there would be an outcry. Lives may not be at stake with music education, but surely the situation is little better?</p>
<h2>Knowing the score</h2>
<p>All of this follows various factors which have plagued musical study in the Anglophone world for some years now. Traditionally in the developed world, a distinction grows through the course of musical education between studying to <em>make</em> music and studying <em>about</em> music, but these boundaries have become increasingly blurred. A greater dialogue between performance and the study of music theory is always to be welcomed – but this can also lead to the devaluing of the latter in favour of the former. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/169748/original/file-20170517-24307-1jog5cd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/169748/original/file-20170517-24307-1jog5cd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=407&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169748/original/file-20170517-24307-1jog5cd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=407&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169748/original/file-20170517-24307-1jog5cd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=407&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169748/original/file-20170517-24307-1jog5cd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=511&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169748/original/file-20170517-24307-1jog5cd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=511&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169748/original/file-20170517-24307-1jog5cd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=511&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Nina Simone studied at Julliard but never made it in the classical world.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Tom Blunt</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
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<p>Some writers on primary and secondary musical education have collapsed this distinction in ways which conveniently sideline requirements of notation and theory. It is certainly true that one can make various types of music without needing either of these things but – as was also argued by the celebrated Australian music educator Peter Tregear – independent study of music is much more difficult without <a href="https://theconversation.com/musical-literacy-a-skill-of-some-note-s-48575">some theoretical and literacy tools</a>. Parallel systems such as “<a href="http://research.culturalequity.org/psr-history.jsp">Cantometrics</a>”, developed by the classic ethnomusicologist Alan Lomax, which involves the study of different song styles and the social backgrounds from which they emerge, are not necessarily any easier to master.</p>
<p>More broadly, there has been a sustained assault on Western classical music from some academic quarters. Back in 2003, educationalist <a href="https://blogs.music.indiana.edu/estelle-jorgensen/about/">Estelle R Jorgensen</a> noted the negative connotations of elitism and privilege, <a href="https://ianpace.wordpress.com/2017/04/08/an-inspiring-defence-of-the-teaching-of-western-classical-music-and-musical-literacy/">despite her passionate arguments</a> for such music’s multicultural roots and global reach. Ideally, Anglophone education would also include equally sophisticated study of non-Western musical traditions – but the far more common outcome is an increasing dominance of contemporary Anglo-American pop.</p>
<p>A disproportionate number of places in UK conservatoires are already taken up by the privately educated – in 2012-13, only 38.1% of students at Britain’s Royal Academy of Music <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/universityeducation/10728091/The-universities-with-the-most-and-least-state-school-students.html">went to state school</a>, even though <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2014/aug/28/elitism-in-britain-breakdown-by-profession">about 93%</a> of the general population go to one. The figure for the Royal College of Music was 43.9%. By 2017, the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-38842482">figures were 48.5% and 56.9%</a> – alongside many who have received a traditional musical education in <a href="https://www.hesa.ac.uk/data-and-analysis">continental Europe and East Asia</a>. </p>
<p>It might be hoped <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/2010-to-2015-government-policy-school-and-college-qualifications-and-curriculum/2010-to-2015-government-policy-school-and-college-qualifications-and-curriculum">that recent changes to Music GCSEs requiring staff notation</a> will lead to further improvement in these figures. But the opposite of this, the removal of core musical skills from state education can only reinforce the privilege that is already fostering elitism in music.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/77574/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ian Pace works for City, University of London, and has been guest teacher or lecturer, or external examiner, for various other musical departments and conservatoires in the U.K., Europe and North America.</span></em></p>Doing away with the study of musical theory and notation will simply entrench elitism in the music world.Ian Pace, Head of Performance and Lecturer in Music, City, University of LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.