How Popular Musicians Learn: A Way Ahead for Music Education

by Lucy Green

During the last 150 years or so, many societies all over the world have developed complex systems of formal music education based on Western models. Common to most are one or more of the following: educational institutions, from primary schools to conservatories, partly involving or entirely dedicated to the teaching and learning of music; written curricula, syllabuses or explicit teaching traditions; professional teachers, lecturers or "master musicians"; systematic assessment mechanisms such as grade exams, national school exams or university exams; music notation; and a body of literature, including texts on music, pedogical texts, and teaching materials. Alongside or instead of formal music education there are always, in every society, other ways of passing on and acquiring musical skills and knowledge. Within these traditions, young musicians largely teach themselves or "pick up" skills and knowledge by watching and imitating musicians around them and by making reference to recordings or performances and other live events involving their chosen music. This book is based on the outcomes of research from interviews which took place between October 1998 and May 1999 with 14 popular musicians living in and around London, aged from 15 to 50. Informal learning practices and formal educational experiences over the last 40 years of the 20th century were studied. The conditions necessary for informal music learning are discussed, especially in terms of the musical enculturation of children. The characteristics of informal popular music learning and those of formal music education are compared, and the author considers whether the learning practices, attitudes and values of popular musicians, as articulated throughout the book, may or may not reasonably be adapted and included within formal music education in a move to help re-invigorate the musical involvement of the populace at large.

Genres: Music, Education

250 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 2002

About the author

Lucy Green (born 1957) is an Emerita Professor of Music Education at the UCL Institute of Education, UK. She had a key role in bringing the informal learning practices of popular and other vernacular musicians to the attention of music-educators, thus transforming classroom practice.

Reviews

[Tara Brabazon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lucy Green is an outstanding scholar and it is always a privilege to read her work. She has a capacity to enter difficult, controversial and challenging discourses and arguments and lay a pathway through these issues for the rest of us.

This book is impressive because - theoretically - it subverts theorizations of cultural value. From that foundation, we can begin to understand how music education (and learning and training) can take place.

I am most moved by her direct engagement with what is happening in primary education at the moment, particularly with regard to music education. The lack of both expertise and confidence in music by primary teachers is deeply deeply troubling and hampering concrete and passionate musical engagement in generation of students.

[Julio Diaz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Finally an academic vindication of of people who play by ear.

Dots are a wonderful resource and they make you grow exponentially by speeding up your acquisition of information as a performer, composer and so on.

There is however a wonderful world of popular musicians and conservatoire musicians and scholars, literate musicians if you like, often turn their nose down at popular musicians.

It’s true that popular genres do not often have the complexity and intricacy art music has -one only has to listen to the charts to see low information songs are plentiful.

Popular music conventions allow for other processes and for some beautiful results that ‘conservatoire’ musical approaches simply cannot match. Perfect example of a popular music convention of this kind, is the Nashville numbers system. Simplifying and streamlining communication and information sharing between musicians without all the obstacles of the written page. Just beautiful.

And while this may not work work well for visual musicians, but allows for aural musicians to focus on the actual object of music, that is, sound.

[Hueyuen Choong · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was the first book I've ever read that touched on this topic, and at first reading in 2014 I was nodding my head till the end as I could relate to almost topic discussed. I re-read this book again this year, and while still agreeing with every point it made, I began to notice the aspects that were consciously excluded from the analysis and discussions as it was decided that they 'lie at the edges of the book's central concerns' (p. 12). I find myself constantly agreeing and yet at the same time constantly wondering if those aspects had bearings on the findings presented. Nonetheless, the aim of the book is to discuss how popular musicians learn, not why they learnt in a certain way (even though I believe answering the 'why' would make the 'how' more meaningful), and in that light, this book did answer the questions it put forth, and for anyone interested in this topic, this is not only a book worth reading, but the one you should start with.

[Katie Thorley · Rating 5 out of 5]

This made me totally rethink my perception of musical learning. After reading about how popular musicians normally have healthy and happy relationships with their instruments and musical identities because they have learned their skills through informal, enjoyable methods, it made me want to write about how unhealthy and discouraging classical, formal methods of learning can be and continue to modify my teaching away from them. It made me sad about my love/hate relationship with my first instrument but encouraged to try practising a different way to get back on track.

[Nathan St Pierre · Rating 3 out of 5]

So, I found this to be a profound analysis of how *I* learned music. However, so much has happened in 20 years that it needs serious updating. It does, however, remain a very important read for any public school teacher involved with class guitar, ukulele, or keyboard.