Move to the Music
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MOVE TO THE MUSIC Understanding the relationship between bodily interaction and the acquisition of musical knowledge and skills in music education Beweeg op de muziek De relatie tussen lichamelijke interactie en de beheersing van muzikale kennis en vaardigheden in muziekeducatie Proefschrift ter verkrijging van de graad van doctor aan de Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam op gezag van de rector magnificus Prof.dr. H.A.P. Pols en volgens besluit van het College voor Promoties. De openbare verdediging zal plaatsvinden op donderdag 24 mei 2018 om 13:30 uur Cornelis Jacob van den Dool geboren te De Lier Promotiecommissie: Let your body move to the music. Let your body go with the flow. Promotoren: prof.dr. C.J.M. van Eijck - Madonna, Vogue (1990) prof.dr. T.A.M. Bevers Overige leden: prof.dr. E.H. Bisschop Boele dr. B. Titus dr. R. Timmers Promotiecommissie: Let your body move to the music. Let your body go with the flow. Promotoren: prof.dr. C.J.M. van Eijck - Madonna, Vogue (1990) prof.dr. T.A.M. Bevers Overige leden: prof.dr. E.H. Bisschop Boele dr. B. Titus dr. R. Timmers Preface – Music is in the mind: how my body got removed from doing so the students dexterously circumvented the notes on the sheet music by making a sound learning and how I reversed this recording while focusing on my hand movements on the piano. Back in 2007, smartphones were not yet widely available in Nepal, or at least they were the reserve of the upper class alone. My students As a piano student at the conservatory, I was a huge fan of Bach. It was with great fervor and were dependent on sound recordings coupled with visual data, stored as a memory from the music determination that I studied Bach’s work. During my weekly class, the teacher noticed something class. Week after week I got increasingly aware of the pivotal role of my visual example and the odd. Emerging from under the polyphonic structures of Bach’s work, there was a constant, regular sound recordings for the learning process. Not the cognitive comprehension of written notes, but the beat produced by my foot, holding the complex, autonomous melodies together. Despite regular auditory input of a sound recording, the visual input of my hands on the piano, and my swaying body warnings from my teacher, pointing at the annoying nuisance my foot produced, I couldn’t help but on the beat, served as the mainstay of learning for my students. This shook the foundations of my involving my body in the learning process. It was partly habitual and partly deliberately studied. After own educational belief systems. I had spent my formative years at the conservatory actively a few weeks of consecutive warnings, the teacher stopped my feet from moving, turned his head to removing my body from learning, as most of my classes were geared towards cognitive learning. me with a determined look in his eyes and said: “music is in the mind.” Regardless of what my Once in Nepal, I suddenly realized that the body played an essential role in learning. This realization teacher said, I felt the music in my body. formed the driving force and inspiration of my quest to reverse the Cartesian split and find the links This anecdote is exemplary of learning processes in which the mastery of knowledge and between bodily involvement and the mastery of music. Back in 2007, the realization that the body skills is considered a cognitive endeavour. The body is an obstacle that needs to be tamed. The classic plays an important role in learning was a hunch and not substantiated by any data. A decade later, I division between body and mind influenced our educational system and ways of knowledge proudly present my study on the role of the body in musical learning processes. transmission (Bowman & Powell, 2007). But what if children and students were to allow their body to be fully included in the musical learning process, as an equal partner to the mind? This is a music educational question, and yet it is an allegory of a broader question about the role of the body in learning processes in general. In this study, I will explore the role of the body in musical learning processes with the specific aim of understanding the relationship between bodily movements and the mastery of knowledge and skills. At a broader level, this study seeks to contribute to learning and teaching in general in which the body is celebrated and used to its full potential. With two case studies in Nepal and the Netherlands, I examine how bodily interaction is conducive to the acquisition of musical knowledge and skills. The large datasets compiled for this research were collected through fieldwork in Nepal and the Netherlands. With an extensive amount of video material, observations, and interviews, I strive to present two unique case studies on musical learning. Both complementary case studies show how young musicians acquire musical knowledge and skills by sensing the other, through embodied learning strategies. This dissertation is the result of a musical journey that started about a decade ago. In 2007 I embarked on a plane from Amsterdam to Kathmandu. In an attempt to broaden my musical horizon, I left my secure job as a music teacher in the Netherlands. Enticed by the unknown adventure, I accepted a position as a piano teacher and teacher trainer in Kathmandu. During my work as a teacher, I discovered that my method of teaching often fell short. Against the backdrop of a conservatory training, I desperately taught my students to read the notes. But whatever I tried, the notes were ignored. Every week, the students politely requested me to play the piece for them. By Preface – Music is in the mind: how my body got removed from doing so the students dexterously circumvented the notes on the sheet music by making a sound learning and how I reversed this recording while focusing on my hand movements on the piano. Back in 2007, smartphones were not yet widely available in Nepal, or at least they were the reserve of the upper class alone. My students As a piano student at the conservatory, I was a huge fan of Bach. It was with great fervor and were dependent on sound recordings coupled with visual data, stored as a memory from the music determination that I studied Bach’s work. During my weekly class, the teacher noticed something class. Week after week I got increasingly aware of the pivotal role of my visual example and the odd. Emerging from under the polyphonic structures of Bach’s work, there was a constant, regular sound recordings for the learning process. Not the cognitive comprehension of written notes, but the beat produced by my foot, holding the complex, autonomous melodies together. Despite regular auditory input of a sound recording, the visual input of my hands on the piano, and my swaying body warnings from my teacher, pointing at the annoying nuisance my foot produced, I couldn’t help but on the beat, served as the mainstay of learning for my students. This shook the foundations of my involving my body in the learning process. It was partly habitual and partly deliberately studied. After own educational belief systems. I had spent my formative years at the conservatory actively a few weeks of consecutive warnings, the teacher stopped my feet from moving, turned his head to removing my body from learning, as most of my classes were geared towards cognitive learning. me with a determined look in his eyes and said: “music is in the mind.” Regardless of what my Once in Nepal, I suddenly realized that the body played an essential role in learning. This realization teacher said, I felt the music in my body. formed the driving force and inspiration of my quest to reverse the Cartesian split and find the links This anecdote is exemplary of learning processes in which the mastery of knowledge and between bodily involvement and the mastery of music. Back in 2007, the realization that the body skills is considered a cognitive endeavour. The body is an obstacle that needs to be tamed. The classic plays an important role in learning was a hunch and not substantiated by any data. A decade later, I division between body and mind influenced our educational system and ways of knowledge proudly present my study on the role of the body in musical learning processes. transmission (Bowman & Powell, 2007). But what if children and students were to allow their body to be fully included in the musical learning process, as an equal partner to the mind? This is a music educational question, and yet it is an allegory of a broader question about the role of the body in learning processes in general. In this study, I will explore the role of the body in musical learning processes with the specific aim of understanding the relationship between bodily movements and the mastery of knowledge and skills. At a broader level, this study seeks to contribute to learning and teaching in general in which the body is celebrated and used to its full potential. With two case studies in Nepal and the Netherlands, I examine how bodily interaction is conducive to the acquisition of musical knowledge and skills. The large datasets compiled for this research were collected through fieldwork in Nepal and the Netherlands. With an extensive amount of video material, observations, and interviews, I strive to present two unique case studies on musical learning. Both complementary case studies show how young musicians acquire musical knowledge and skills by sensing the other, through embodied learning strategies.