Re: [Harp-L] Learning, Grammar and Theory (was Positions Playing)

[Jp Pagán <jplpagan@xxxxxxx>]

--- In harp-l-archives@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, IcemanLE@... wrote:
>
> We learned to talk and communicate through learning the rules - noun,
> pronoun, adjective, adverb. Anyone remember "diagramming a sentence"?
>

This may be egg-head niggling on my part, but the above is not true.  
We learn to talk and communicate without instruction whatsoever. We  
pick it up from people around us. Learning "the rules" (grammar rules)  
happens only after we can already talk and communicate. Pre-school  
children communicate quite well without having any clue what "noun"  
is, and there are grown adults all around the world who speak  
eloquently and communicate masterfully without knowing how to read or  
write, much less diagram a sentence. The parallel to music should be  
quite clear.

Language, like music, is an innate human capacity, not a "learned  
skill" like plumbing or typing or surgery. The "rules" (grammar) of  
language and music alike are abstractions and codifications of what we  
humans know how to do without even having to think about it.

I will agree in part with one comment:

> Not many people learned to communicate (speak/write at a
> high level) through ear training alone - at least not the ones who  
attended
> school.

Understanding music theory and written music, much like understanding  
how to read and write and the grammar of language, can help us to  
bring our musicianship, like our communication skills, to a higher  
level. Most importantly, they give us a common language with which to  
store, replicate, share and explore musical concepts, bringing us into  
a new age of music, much like written language brought us out of the  
age of the oral tradition (arguably, recording does this better than  
written music, but the point stands).

Anyway... sorry. But being clear about what written music (or written  
language) does or doesn't do is an important part of making the  
argument that it is a good thing—and it is. You don't need to learn  
"the rules" to communicate or to play, but I believe it will make your  
life much richer if you do.


Umm... keep on harpin'!
:)

 -Jp