Why “Integral?”

The Limitations of the “One-Size-Fits-All” Approach

Too many music teachers have only one way to teach their content. They learned their methods and techniques from their teacher, and hey, it worked, so it must be the only technique that is correct. All other methods are either “just plain wrong” or at best, almost right. This naturally leads to a “one -size-fits-all” approach to music pedagogy that assumes that if the student isn’t understanding something, it’s their fault! But this is a major misunderstanding.

Sure, if the student actively ignores their teacher, it’s the students fault. I am not arguing that. But so often I find students who are really trying to understand what the teacher says, but no matter how much effort they put in, they never understand the meaning the teacher is trying to convey. No matter how much they practice a technique, they get it wrong. No matter how much they practice to a metronome, their timing is still all over the place. What’s going on here? Is it the students fault? No- the teacher is at fault.

Magic!

This “one-size-fits-all” approach is a misguided approach to music pedagogy and it is one based in a lack of awareness; a lack of awareness of how they themselves learned music; a lack of awareness of the “invisible” processes at play that lead to effective mutual meaning-making. You see, there are different stages of development of “musical meaning-making” that we are all on. It’s like a spectrum: at the earliest stages, we are like babies. Everything is noise! Just think back to when you heard a new music genre and thought “what on earth is this? This isn’t music- this is just noise!”. Like a Boomer listening to Dubstep for the first time. This is “Stage 0”. But when we start to discern a beat, we realise there’s repetion to this “noise”. This is the start of stage 1 (sensorimotor). Eventually, as we progress, not only do we sense repetition; we sense pattern in the repetition, leading on to an intuition of not only rhythmic pattern but of melodic shape. Then, you intuit harmonic tension and release. At the moment, you don’t know the difference between these three processes-they are undifferentiated. You don’t know how or why they work, it just works. Like magic. This is Stage 1, or at what Philosopher Jean Gebser called the “Magic Structure of Consciousness”. It is comparable to Piaget’s “sensorimotor” to “preconceptual” stage. We all begin our music intelligence at this stage and it is where the average western person stays for most of their life.

Mythic

Music tuition really starts at the next stage. We learn that this repetitive rhythmic pattern has a name. It’s called: “Four/Four”. And this tune that you’re humming is called a “melody”. And this bundle of “notes” played together is called a chord!!! We are putting words to the sounds. In other words, we start adding concepts. We realise that there is a way that music works; we don’t understand the rules yet, but there’s definitely something going on… This stage is called “Mythic”, or “Preoperational Intuitive Cognition”. This is a marvellous stage- you start to label everything, because everything you listen to has a name! “That’s a trumpet, that’s a trombone, that’s a saxophone, and I know the difference!”, “This song is a waltz”, “This song is in Bb Major”. It is an exciting time; the way you listen to music has been forever changed.

But eventually you realise that there’s something missing. You know the song is in “Bb Major” but, when asked, you realise you have no idea what “Bb Major” really is. You may be able to play Bb Major because you watched “How to play Bb Major scale on guitar” on YouTube, but you have no idea why it works or how it’s constructed. If someone asked you to play an “F# Major” scale, you might find yourself freeze; you haven’t watched that video yet; no one told you how to play F# Major! You know you are stuck at this stage when you get frustrated at your instrument, at music. You just don’t know how to develop. All this frustration is saying is that you are at the limits of the mythic/preoperational stage and it’s time to evolve. It’s time to learn the rules that govern the concepts.

Music Theory (Rational)

Enter the “Concrete Operational” stage. This is a stage of rationality. You learn the rules that govern the concepts; the how and why scales are constructed; time signatures are constructed; harmony is constructed; a piece of music is constructed. In other words, you learn music theory. Now, I know what you’re probably thinking, music theory is SO BORING, I just want to play good tunes and have a good time. And actually, I totally agree! Most teachers make theory indescribably dull. They make it unnecessarily tedious. I remember when I had to write a “Bach Chorale” for my A-Level Music coursework. It was such a grind, learning about leading notes, baroque voicings and not writing parallel fifths… yawn. What teenager cares about how Chorales are constructed?* I just want to bash drums! All I can say is, if you learn music theory from me, I make it the most fun thing you’ve ever learnt. Just ask my student Gemma (she’s a total music theory beginner).It took us about an hour to sing through a C Major scale, partly because it’s hard learning this stuff for the first time, but mostly because of all the time we spent laughing together everytime a mistake was made! Don’t misunderstand; I wasn’t laughing at her! I love mistakes, mistakes are how we grow. And Gemma was making all the mistakes that day- meaning, she learned an awful lot! Most teachers have this weird thing where they say “mistakes are okay, as long as you don’t do it again”, which sounds like good teaching, but really, inside you, you have a strange feeling like they’re judging you. This becomes more apparent in later lessons when you keep making the same mistakes and the teacher has had enough. Maybe they explode in rage! and shout at you! Or, if they’re the quiet type, they look at the floor, have a deep sigh… and lament how little you have learned. Shame on you… Does this sound familiar? I see this happening all the time.

The Problem… and the Solution

This is the “one-size-fits-all” approach that I was talking about earlier. If the teacher has only one way to teach their materials, I’m sorry to say it, but they aren’t a very good teacher. You must assess which level of musical development the student is at. This will determine how you explain your content to them. This will also change your “why” language. You must assess their emotional state when they enter the room (Why? Because positive emotional states enhance learning. Negative emotional states, on the other hand, greatly diminish learning. This is a deep topic that I will do another post about soon). You must then get them into a positive state and keep them there for the entire lesson. This is imperative; I can’t stress this enough. There is no point in teaching a mopey student. And that, interestingly enough, is the teacher’s responsibility. I once taught a student with ADHD; his previous teacher told me “He’s unteachable” (his own words). He couldn’t focus on anything for longer than 20 seconds maximum. Instead of shouting or lamenting (like his previous teacher) I realised I’d have to develop a (rather extreme) quick-fire rapid lesson plan where the content is constantly changing. I’d have four pieces of content for the lesson (usually I’d only have one or two) that we would go between every 20 seconds. It was rather intense, but it worked. A few weeks later, by the end of our lessons, he could focus on one exercise for around 2 minutes. I was so proud.

Each stage is rich with valuable insights and experiences. But most music teachers have no idea that these stages exist, and so they only teach from their own stage, in the way that that stage dictates they teach. It changes the words that they use to describe the content that they teach. Say, a teacher is speaking to you using words from a Formal Operational stage**. If you’re just starting to get to that stage yourself, their words will be music to your ears. But what if you’re at a Preconceptual stage? It’ll be like they’re speaking gibberish. You may think “Wow, they’re clever because they use fancy words like ‘modal interchange’ or ‘negative harmony’ but I have no idea what they’re on about” and so you end up learning absolutely nothing. This is terrible teaching. It’s not good enough for the student and for the teacher.

The Integral Drums Approach

The fix is simple- we must develop. We must become aware of these stages of development and communicate with the student on their level. We must pay attention to their emotions and have effective methods to keep their attention. This isn’t a “One-Size-Fits-All” method; it’s more of a “Your-Size-Fits-You” method. The best part about this; once you become used to this more involved style of teaching, lessons become more dynamic, more exciting, more fun, for both the student and the teacher!

At Integral Drums, we take a developmental approach to our music lessons. We assess what stage of musical development you are at and tailor the content to your needs. The Integral Drums Approach combines an understanding of musical development, instrumental technique, developmental psychology and affective science into one pedagogical framework. You’ll learn faster and have a deeper understanding of music. And most importantly, you’ll have the best time doing it!

*No offence if you do…(!)

**There are actually more developmental levels beyond Concrete Operational. The next is “Formal Operational” where most professional musicians are at today. But then there is “Systematic” cognition (ever heard of “systems theory?), then “Meta-Systematic” cognition, “Paradigmatic” cognition and “Cross-Paradigmatic” cognition. Some theorists propose stages of cognition ABOVE these! I won’t go into these now. The point is, there is no end to our musical development.