Jan 11 2009
Where Has All the Music Gone? The Sound of Music: Silenced
Author: Christine Phoenix Green
As a (previously) full time piano/music teacher of over thirty years experience in the school system and private studio, I, as well as many other fine private teachers, have been watching a drastic and devastating trend: The silencing of personally studied music, and the lack of interest of students and their parents in investing time and energy into the experience of music and mastery of a preferred instrument…if not for excellence, than at least for pleasure and delight!
Please notice that even with the severe economic times we are facing now, I did not include the notion that finances are a major part of this trend, for one sure thing I have observed over these past 30 years as a teacher, is that parents will try their very best to give their children the best for their future. What I am seeing is a change in values in what the culture feeds us as important and relevant, that both spurs us on to have more STUFF, and to indulge in an all-consuming and compulsive love affair with technology, gidgets, widgets and techno-toys that keep us and our children in a state of denial about some of the darker more painful shadows we would rather not deal with. We are losing our sense of beauty, literacy and elegance. And in some instances we are just plain lazy. It is now easier, quicker and perhaps more amusing to download other people’s music (some of it lovely, some of it trash) and to play with the techno-toys and games than it is to spend the sometimes solitary time necessary to use your brain, your imagination and your HEART to make your own music, to learn to discern and delight in the beautiful musical “language” and sounds of the Masters of both historical and contemporary composition.
This trend makes me think of the comparisons between the two ancient Greek cities of Sparta and Athens. Sparta, center of sports and war games,Athens,center of the arts,crafts and music. What are our own values here? Why are so many of our after-school students leaving their piano, flute, violin, cello lessons to be on the field 5 days/nights a week in competitive sports, going back home to hours on the computer to chat or play the latest video game in between getting homework done? We long-serving teachers of music, loving our craft and loving to share it with others, have watched our dedicated careers of service dwindle and fade away, so that it is practically impossible to support ourselves as musical or artistic mentors.
For myself, my practice has shifted towards teaching adults and Elders who are returning to the piano or coming in finally to fullfil a long-awaited dream of making music for themselves, bringing beauty, delight and pleasure into their lives. Oddly enough, the sense of excitement, dedication and pride in their accomplishments is so wondrously child-like and full of fun that the line in this artistic expression blurs as to who is actually the child and who is the adult! Perhaps it is time in these challenging times of cultural and economic upheaval,to question our priorities and once again experience the simple values of creating beauty, enjoying nature, eating with and talking to each other in our homes and making music together when we gather. We need perhaps, to re-align our own “inner Sparta and Athens”.
Christine Phoenix-Green has been a practicing career piano teacher in South County, RI for over 30 years, and is a Spiritual Director, Retreat Facilitator and Intuitive Guidance Practitioner. As always she is taking new students who desire to learn the piano for pleasure and self-expression.
Email her at: cphoenixrising@earthlink.net
