The process of music learning is a natural process, when in an appropriate “sound environment.” The musical mind develops a sense of meter and a sense of tonality effortlessly, through the process presented in OTEC courses. The musical mind also acquires rhythm and tonal syllables with effortless ease through the process presented in OTEC courses, and should proceed through music reading just as effortlessly. Learning music should not be a struggle at any stage of development. Any struggle in the classroom to develop a sense of meter or tonality, to acquire rhythm or tonal syllables, or to read music is indicative of a lack of musical readiness for the task, the imposition of the thinking mind, a poor syllable system, or unmusical teaching. The musical mind is open to learning and growing. It absorbs like a sponge—through sound, syllables, and symbols—when teaching meets its needs.

Rhythm and tonal syllables used for OTEC courses speak directly to the musical mind and offer opportunity for significant musical growth. They reflect rhythm and tonal audiation, while presenting a language with which the musical mind can communicate. The thinking mind, however, would like to think that any language is its sole domain. Struggle in the classroom to “get the syllables,” “remember them,” or “learn the syllables” to a particular pattern is because the thinking mind rather than the musical mind is leading the way.

Rhythm syllables are immediate for the musical mind with extensive experience with the various meters through Immersion and Interactivity. Tonal syllables should be just as immediate, allowing only for the greater difficulty of tonal itself, not any greater difficulty of tonal syllables. Rhythm reading is immediate for the musical mind that has acquired rhythm syllables. Tonal reading should be just as immediate, again allowing only for the greater difficulty of tonal itself, not any greater difficulty of tonal syllables or tonal reading. 

Rhythm and tonal syllable systems that do not precisely mirror rhythm and tonal audiation will cause students (and teachers) to struggle with syllables. The thinking mind will go through all kinds of gymnastics to master syllables, thinking it is helping, while getting in the way of the musical mind. Rhythm and tonal syllable systems that do not precisely reflect rhythm and tonal audiation will not only make syllable acquisition difficult, but they will make music reading difficult, or result in rhythm reading being far more immediate for students than tonal reading, or vice versa.  Students should be able to go from sound to syllables to symbols with effortless ease.

Unmusical teaching can shift the focus from the musical mind to the thinking mind, making syllables something imposed from the outside, rather than something that naturally adheres to what is inside. As gesture communicates directly to those of a foreign tongue—yes, no, come here, stop—bypassing language, so do syllables communicate directly to rhythm and tonal audiation, bypassing the thinking mind, if rhythm and tonal syllable systems precisely mirror rhythm and tonal audiation.

The greater the focus on musicality, rather than the syllables themselves, the more the musical mind will come to the forefront and the more the thinking mind will recede. The greater the focus on the syllables themselves, the more unmusical the teaching becomes, and the more the thinking mind comes to the forefront. 

Rhythm and tonal syllables are accessible to very young children with the appropriate background. Three and four year olds can competently dialogue in at least Duple and Triple meters with macro/micro beat patterns and divisions in syllables, deliver the resting tone and working tone on syllables in any tonality, and dialogue in syllables with various tonal segments. Older children, whose thinking mind has been disengaged through sheer musicality, learn with the same effortless ease as young children. Older children lose themselves in sheer musicality, losing the thinking mind, enabling the acquisition of rhythm and tonal syllables with effortless ease.

Little children have so much to teach us about the musical mind—the development of a sense of meter and tonality, the acquisition of rhythm and tonal syllables, and the process of music reading—as their thinking minds are not yet sufficiently developed to dominate their learning process. They cannot compensate for lack of audiation through counting, music theory, or mental gymnastics.  They demonstrate the wonder of the musical mind as a sponge that learns joyfully with effortless ease through sound, syllables, and symbols.