Dr. Ruth Wright came into the class to tell us about an organization she is part of called "Musical Futures". This program first began in the UK but has since expanded into Canada. It focuses primarily on an "informal learning experience", which caters to students aural skills, before their score reading skills. The program seeks to make use of informal learning processes typically found outside of school to teach music within the school in order to build off of a student's musical interests.
The program is defined through 6 main branches: Entitlement: Engaging ALL students in the program. Relevance: Connecting between in and out of school experiences. Empowerment: Students having control over the direction of their education. Practical/Hands-on: Learning to explore music and becoming musicians in a practical way. Personalization: Meeting the individual needs of students -> allowing them to set their own goals. Aural: Music is learned through predominantly aural learning. Sustainability: Creates music learning experiences students can use moving forward in life. I think this program really tied into what I was talking about with my last annotated bibliography, in terms of the idea of an "elitist" hierarchy between classical art music and "popular" music. I like how the program doesn't put an emphasis on needing to force "classical" music on students. Instead, it seeks to build on the musical interests students have already been exposed to before coming into the classroom. I think this is important because often I feel as though students are treated like "blank slates", even when they have prior music knowledge that isn't considered "the curriculum" and they're expected to just forget about that and focus on learning music a certain way. Most importantly, what I really enjoyed from this ideology is the fact that students are in charge of their own learning. I think students often take music because it's a "mark booster" or "bird course", and then they don't end up trying or enjoying the class. However, I think if students get to set their own goals and map out their own goals of what they would like to get out of music class, it creates such a great dynamic in classrooms where students are motivated and willing to learn, as they are interested in what they are learning. Not only that, but the program still teaches important musical skills, but by incorporating them into a student's own agenda, which can prove very useful for students who have trouble engaging. We put this kind of learning into practise by splitting into groups to learn a song we all thought was fun to play and learning it by ear on instruments that we don't normally play. I have to admit, it was really quite daunting, and I realized how much I rely on sheet music to learn music! However, it was a lot of fun, and really rewarding, as everyone in the group was all basically on the same level (aka, having never played their instruments before). The most interesting thing I believe would be how different everyone's songs turned out, despite having all having the same instructions. I think that really goes to show that people come with so many different backgrounds with different musical experiences and that manifests in so many different ways. I think in all, that's what the Musical Futures program is all about, and it's incredible to see.
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Carole PalattaoI'm an 18 year old studying classical voice at Western University. I'm also a hardcore mental health advocate, and I do creative writing on the side for fun!
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