All children are born musical. The challenge is to remain musical as we grow up.
–Sir Ken Robinson
This blog is for anyone who has ever had any relationship with music lessons: You gave them or took them, loved them or loathed them. However music lessons have worked their way into your radar, read on.
In 2000 I created Music House: a personalized, exploration-based approach to musical self-discovery and learning. For two decades I have turned my living room into a laboratory where, working with students one on one, I have gained remarkable insights into how children learn and what is happening when they don’t, why it is that music lessons fail so many people, and how the significance of this extends far beyond just music. I am excited to share the revelations, rewards and challenges of my experiment in this blog.
Each of these blogs will have two parts:
1) A Puzzler based on something that actually happened in a music lesson. As the parent, child, observer, or teacher in the story, you get to play detective, and try to come up with a solution.
2) The Reveal posted below the Puzzler the following week. This will describe what actually happened and what I see as the significance.
Your participation is vitally important. I hope you will share your own ideas, feel free to debate graciously, and turn this into a lively, thought-provoking forum!