In a message dated 1/9/01 2:43:39 AM Central Standard Time, Richard.Brekne@grieg.uib.no writes: << The sentence below especially caught my eye.... I am curious as to why you take this position. Perhaps I am also not quite sure what exactly you mean by "music theory" in this context. Do you mean knowing simple chord types basic note scales ? Wimblees@AOL.COM wrote: > (If the student doesn't even have a basic understanding of music theory, then > I wouldn't even teach him/her tuning.) >> Jim also questioned this. I have had some bad experiences with wanna be tuners who had absolutely no knowledge of music theory. And I mean that in the broadest sense. I am not talking about chord progressions, etc., although knowing the circle of fifths is very helpful. But a student should at least know what a musical scale is, where the notes are on the piano, and what intervals are. That is what I call basic music theory. Without that basic music theory, it would almost be impossible to teach tuning. Now that doesn't mean someone can't learn that along the way, but it just makes the whole process much harder. It's just like teaching kids how to play the piano, or any other instrument. Half of the time spent learning to play an instrument is spent learning music theory. The other half is learning how to play the instrument. When I taught band, the kids who had a year or two of piano lessons learned to play the clarinet much faster than those who didn't have that "basic music theory" knowledge. So as it related to teaching tuning, if that is all your are asked to do, or required to do, you should not also have to teach the theory, unless, of course, it is part of the curriculum. Willem
This PTG archive page provided courtesy of Moy Piano Service, LLC