education
Music-education programmes are of two types
PROFESSIONAL
In the former type, the aim of the programme is to create new performers, composers and scholars.
recreational
In the latter type, the aim of the programme is to expose children, adolescents and adults to a variety of musical genres and practices.
Often both types of programmes share in the same kind of utilitarian philosophy that identifies extracurricular benefits such as transferable skills and social progress as the ultimate goals of an early and long exposure to music.
The most characteristic form entails hours of voice or instrumental lessons and of choral or orchestral rehearsals; the world’s most famous and publicly subsidized example is the programme called El Sistema in Spanish-speaking countries or In Harmony in Anglophone countries. However, such a utilitarian philosophy is grounded on lay knowledge rather than on hard scientific evidence.
For instance, systematic reviews of commissioned evaluations of El Sistema/In Harmony have shown that methodological flaws result in advocacy rather than in explorative research: that is, the watchmen buy into the institutional narrative about a socially transformative programme aimed primarily at the poor without offering the tools for a deeper analysis into the programme’s effects on the students’ physical, mental and social health.
Likewise, critical reviews of popular theories on the alleged cognitive and academic outcomes of exposure to music – the so-called ‘Mozart Effect’ – have highlighted their lack of adequate empirical support as well as the difference between music listening and the more cognitively complex and educationally significant phenomena of music instruction.
Furthermore, not only have the design and analytical techniques of the studies in which these so-called positive effects of music instruction are reported been found flawed, but also the interpretation of their results gnarled and contorted.
In fact, were it not for the increasing cuts to school music provision across many countries and the ensuing polarization of the debate over the allocation of funding, there would be no need to disregard the inherent value of music and distinguish between its intrinsic and extrinsic benefits.
On the contrary, musical participation seems to afford opportunities to enrich human experience in holistic and integrated ways, and categorization serves to preclude this unique value.
The Sanna Method of Music Education is an original method of music education
First developed back in 1995 and ever since regularly refined and tested numerous times. It simultaneously addresses the needs of the body, the mind and the community by promoting the physical, mental and social health of aspiring musicians through their technical, aesthetic and ethical development which are considered as essential, complementary aspects of one and the same educational process.
The method comprises a series of sequential learning objectives along a three-tier system leading to the acquisition of specific skills, knowledge and values, and ultimately to a comprehensive objective: to become a good musician and a good human being.
The comprehensive objective is obtained by training the whole body as well as the intellective and affective sides of the mind.
The individual objectives are achieved via a series of learning and teaching activities and by using specific learning and teaching materials; they are measured and evaluated at the end of each block, year and cycle.
Each learning and teaching session is an event featuring live or recorded music and, according to the pedagogical principle of ‘first sensation, then cognition’, a number of physical and cognitive activities which encompass individual exercises, team games and creative projects.
The process entails practising motor, perception and literacy skills; thinking musically about temporal, spatial and structural elements; collaborating with tutors, fellow-students and other stakeholders.
The ensuing product is understanding music or finding meaning in music – learning music as opposed to learning about music – and, through the acquisition of specialized skills and knowledge and the promotion of specific values, finding one’s identity as both an individual and a member of a community.
Over the past thirty years, The Sanna Method of Music Education has informed several music-education programmes for children, young people and adults in Italy, the UK, Kenya and Cuba, and involved thousands of amateur as well as professional musicians.
It currently informs the Musicianship, String Playing and Ensemble Music curricula designed for Early Music as Education (EMAE) and implemented in Liverpool by the Liverpool String Academy and in London by the London String Academy.