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It’s About Playing Music!

The goal of an intellectual life is similar to the goal of the artist. Understanding is the goal of the intellectual and understanding happens when “you pass from playing the piano to playing music.

Bloch observed "the artist chooses the media and the goal of every artist is to become fluent enough with the media to transcend it. At some point you pass from playing the piano to playing music."

That is an interesting quote. The musician in me smiled at it.

Chonsi

This is a reply I made on another forum and your being a teacher I thought you might find it interesting. This is a reply to an apparent teacher of music who commented how wonferful s/he felt when her or his student crossed this threashold.

I have very little talent in the arts but I have tried to comprehend the nature of understanding as regards studying books. It appears that you agree with me that understanding is a tipping point, it is like when water becomes ice and it is something that few people experience. Is that correct?

I am also interested in the Douglas Adams quote “"Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so."

I have been trying for two years to acquaint people with some ideas that I think of as important but I have gotten the feeling that young people especially have a very negative attitude toward learning. I assumed that this was because of the way that I went about things but the quote indicates this is a universal situation. Is this a universal situation and to what do you attribute it?

It was a good example-from the rote mechanics of learning a subject to the actual application of it, on a higher order of thinking.

What do I attribute it to? The way society is, where specialization has taken place, and you do not have the wide spectrum of knowledge that let's you think outside fo the box. What are the most popular majors at universities today? Business, computer science, something applicable to the business world. Since my major was in the humanities, it is not a favored area as far as employment goes. But it is much more broadening for the mind.

The arts themselves are also not a favored major. Young people are not encouraged to learn them as much as when we were young. I always thought my children were the exception-they took music, dance and art lessons. My daughter is an art major today in college. I am supportive of this, and hope she will always be an artist in some form, it is a gift.

More competitive objectives for children are encouraged by their parents-sports activites where competition is a key component. That has changed since we were younger, from the fun of playing the game to a 'you have to win' situation. It is a distinct change in societal values.