Why Music Lessons Need To Keep Up With The Times

Dr Clint Randles’ wrote a great post a few years ago at TheConversation.com, Why music lessons need to keep up with the times.” He compares the skill set of a modern music instructor to that of George Martin, who produced the Beatles. Randles says that Martin is an example of the role modern music teachers.

Music Teacher as Producer is a video from Clint Randles which expands on some of the point he makes in his paper. Randles says, “It makes good sense for us to put recording arts … at the core of what we do.” That’s because recorded music is “the primary way that people experience music in the world.”

I also recommend John Kratus’ article, Music Education at the Tipping Point, available as a free PDF download at researchgate.com.

Kratus states, “The two factors that I believe have brought us to this tipping point are changes in the ways music is experienced and changes in educational practice. In both cases, music education has become disconnected from the prevailing culture.”

I will be posting more to the Teaching Music category. But now I’m going to start writing about the music itself. In upcoming posts, I will write about the history of rock music, and related music. I will also write about radio, movies, books, television and popular culture in America from the 1940s to the 1990s. Some of this is based on my personal perspective as a musician growing up in the 1960s and 70s.

I’m going to tell the story on rock music and popular culture that’s different from most other retrospectives. There is a lot you probably don’t know about music from the second half of the twentieth century. What follows is my take on the history we should preserve. If you’re interested in learning about the classic rock era, I will link to some of the most interesting and entertaining content on the web, mostly on YouTube.

I will also post lessons for guitar, piano and bass. I will also talk about performing (gigging), recording, drum programming, gear, and more. I hope you’ll check it out.