MUSICAL LITERACY AMONGST GUITAR STUDENTS

by John Wakelin

This is an essay I wrote as part of my Graduate Diploma in Teaching (Secondary) degree at Auckland University. It discusses the problems created in the education system for students who have been taught the guitar using TAB instead of traditional music notation, and explores some possible resolutions to these problems. The essay scored 97% and won the highest mark for the special research paper that year.

Abstract

The incorporation of popular music in the modern music syllabus has been shown to be a highly effective method of engaging music students, and many secondary school music departments have utilised it in an effort to encourage students to take music as a subject. When students study music that interests them they are studying something that defines a major part of their personal identity, and these musical tastes are often an integral part of the peer groups that teens belong to. The utilisation of a student’s personal musical interests in their schoolwork makes the learning process interesting and relevant, as the subject matter is something that the students understand, enjoy, and can relate to.

Unfortunately the use of popular music in the modern music syllabus does have its drawbacks, and its inclusion has been a major contributor to musical illiteracy amongst music students. Due to the informal methods and circumstances in which popular music is often learned (Green, 2006), traditional music notation can sometimes be relegated to a status of secondary importance and can be considered irrelevant by some as a result.

The rise in the use of alternative notation such as TAB and the resulting musical illiteracy is a problem that can have far reaching negative repercussions for a music student, and these implications become progressively worse as the student progresses through the school music syllabus. Students who struggle with musical literacy will have problems with subjects that have music theory as their basis such as harmony or analysis, and will try to avoid these classes to their own detriment as a result. In addition to this, universities usually have a musical literacy test as part of the entry criteria to their music programmes, and as traditional musical notation plays an integral part of a music degree’s core theoretical subjects an applicant can be declined entry if this aspect is weak.

Introduction
The incorporation of popular music in the modern music syllabus has been shown to be a highly effective method of engaging music students, and many secondary school music departments have utilised it in an effort to encourage students to take music as a subject. When students study music that interests them they are studying something that defines a major part of their personal identity, and these musical tastes are often an integral part of the peer groups that teens belong to. The utilisation of a student’s personal musical interests in their schoolwork makes the learning process interesting and relevant, as the subject matter is something that the student understands, enjoys, and can relate to.

Unfortunately the use of popular music in the modern music syllabus does have its drawbacks, and its inclusion has been a major contributor to musical illiteracy amongst music students. Due to the informal methods and circumstances in which popular music is often learned (Green, 2006), traditional music notation can sometimes be relegated to a status of secondary importance and can be considered irrelevant by some as a result.
'The apparent difficulties a large number of music students are faced with in the endeavour of mastering adequate music-reading skills has prompted many music educators to abandon music-reading instruction or at least minimise the emphasis on music literacy.’
(Gudmundsdottir, 2010).
The most popular form of alternative notation is the use of tablature for electric guitar and bass players, or TAB for short. The ease and speed at which TAB can be learnt and utilised, combined with the inherent difficulties of learning to read music, has led to many guitarists and bass players abandoning traditional music notation. These students often don’t see the relevance of learning to read music when TAB is an easier option, and view traditional music notation as outdated and having no practical application on their instrument. This problem is exacerbated by the fact that many of their favourite musical artists don’t appear to be musically literate, and if they are this is often downplayed as it can conflict with the artist’s professional image. In the world of popular music style can take precedence over substance, and the fact that an artist has had a formal musical education or holds a degree in music can lead to an image that is deemed uncool.

The rise in the use of alternative notation such as TAB and the resulting musical illiteracy is a problem that can have far reaching negative repercussions for a music student, and these implications become progressively worse as the student progresses through the school music syllabus. Students who struggle with musical literacy will have problems with subjects that have music theory as their basis such as harmony or analysis, and as a result will try to avoid these classes to their own detriment. In addition to this, tertiary institutions usually have a musical literacy test as part of the entry criteria to their music programmes, and as traditional musical notation plays an integral part of a music degree’s core theoretical subjects an applicant can be declined entry if this aspect is weak.

Some music teachers try to resolve the problem by teaching music literacy separately from musical instruments, but this creates the following problems:
  • A disconnection between the student’s theoretical knowledge and his musical instrument.

  • Without the reinforcement of practical application on an instrument, musical literacy will remain weak with a high chance of regression.

  • The delivery of lessons in a consistently boring theoretical context with no practical application reinforces the negative connotations of musical notation.

  • Students still fail to grasp the importance of learning to read music other than something they are forced to do by their music teacher. It doesn’t appear to have a practical application.

My experience as a guitar teacher has shown me that the further a guitar student progresses down the path of tablature, the harder it becomes to draw them back and instruct them using traditional music notation. The necessity of using elementary pieces of music when teaching music notation to an advanced guitar student is a very disengaging exercise, and further reinforces the already existing negative associations a student may have with traditional notation.

The purpose of this paper is not to debate whether tablature is acceptable or not, but rather to acknowledge the long-term problems that it raises for secondary music teachers and their students, and to examine the possibilities of how to remedy the situation. Musical illiteracy is an issue that won’t go away by itself, and is something that music teachers need to acknowledge and address. Failure to do so raises serious ethical questions as to whether it is acceptable to knowingly produce music students unable to gain entry to a tertiary music programme. Is it possible for a secondary school education system to justify senior music students that are deeply deficient or incapable of reading traditional musical notation?

As my university lecturer in music education said to me recently with regard to music theory:

‘What other subject ignores the core essentials of its form?’
Dr. Trevor Thwaites, Faculty of Education, Auckland University.

The main objective of this essay is to answer the following question:

What pedagogical methods can be utilised to make the transition from guitar tablature to traditional music notation?

The question will be answered through the referencing of various related literature, and a survey that questions students about their views of learning to read music. The results are then discussed with the aim of developing a course of study for teaching musical notation. The purpose is not to provide a ready made course of study, but to examine the possibilities of what might be important considerations when constructing one. The three mains sections of the essay are as follows:

  • A Closer Look At Reading Music.

  • The Student's Perspective.

  • The Development Of An Effective Pedagogy
Click to continue - A Closer Look At Reading Music.