Reading about different adult’s and the various ways in which they learn music in communities was a very interesting topic and I found myself thinking about many different things. Being able to understand all the different ways in which people learn was also very important to read about since it’s relevant to what we’re exploring in music education right now: How to teach music in different and efficient ways and which methods work better than others. What I found most interesting were the informal ways of learning music which are really starting to grow recently with the technology we have today. More and more adults are able to become self taught musicians through non-formal learning. I myself know of people who do music as a hobby and have learned to use music production software to produce music and through ear training unintentionally apply theoretical techniques to their music. It’s interesting just how much can be learnt just from listening and exploring music. It’s frustrating that there's preconceived notion in society that the best way to learn music is in a formal setting when that’s not necessarily true. In my opinion all of these methods of learning music are viable and I think it may be beneficial for musicians to try to learn in all of these ways. I think each method focuses on and cultivates different musical techniques and that and that a musician using all of these styles to learn in better off than the one who is only learning in one style. This is also due to the fact that everyone has different learning styles and may thrive with different methods I was a bit surprised that adults may have a few advantages of learning music as compared to children since I thought that young developing have more advantages when learning music and it becomes harder as you age. It’s nice to know that this isn’t completely true. I think that the reading really made the distinction between the methods clear and it’s something that will come in handy when thinking about way to approach music education and how music can be taught within our society.
Bibliography:
Veblen, K. K. (2018). Adult music learning in formal, non-formal and informal contexts. In G. McPherson & G. Welsh (Eds.). Special Needs, Community Music, and Adult Learning: An Oxford Handbook of Music Education, Vol 4. Pp. 243-256. London: Oxford University Press. Music, and Adult Learning: An Oxford Handbook of Music Education, Vol 4. Pp. 243-256. London: Oxford University Press
