As sense of meter and a sense of tonality are in the domain of the musical mind and provide the foundation for all higher levels of music learning, including improvisation, music reading and writing. The medium for the foundational level of music learning is sound, through immersion and interaction with a variety of meters and tonalities. Teaching “about music,” talking about quarter notes, or lines and spaces, speaks to the thinking mind, which does not command the musical mind, no matter how knowledgeable. Rhythm, tonal, and movement are the native language of the musical mind, which requires that we speak the native tongue.
Children who are experienced and somewhat skilled with meters and tonalities in deliberate vocal interaction are ready to move to the next plane of music learning—rhythm and tonal syllables. The importance of this level is often overlooked, yet rhythm and tonal syllables provide the bridge to music reading, and they provide common ground for communication between the musical mind and the thinking mind. The syllables distinguish verbally what the musical mind distinguishes in sound, providing a means for the musical mind to reflect on what it knows in sound, and providing a language for the musical mind to communicate what it knows in sound. Rhythm and tonal syllables are “logical” to the musical mind, as they are consistent with sound, labeling what the musical mind already knows in sound. Rhythm and tonal syllables also make logical sense to the thinking mind, inviting “parallel play” between the thinking mind and the musical mind.
The next plane of music learning is music reading and writing—processing the symbols of notation through the musical mind. Rhythm and tonal syllables provide the language with which to read and write music. The musical mind and the thinking mind become more intimately involved at this level of music learning, as the musical mind powers music reading, while the thinking mind serves to guide the musical mind about some of the conventions of notation.
The foundational level requires full immersion in sound—meters and tonalities, with vocal interaction in those meters and tonalities. The next higher level requires full immersion in meters in rhythm syllables and tonalities in tonal syllables, with vocal interaction in syllables. The highest of the three levels of sound/syllables/symbols requires full immersion in meters and tonalities in notation read in rhythm and tonal syllables, with interaction in meters and tonalities in notation, which is the process of reading and writing music.
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