For this week's blog post, we're going to do something a bit different. I recently came across this fantastic YouTube video of a Ted Talk that featured famous music education advocate, Richard Gill. I thought it to be so inspiring that I decided to share it in the Vibe Music Academy blog, complete with timestamped highlights of what I thought to be some of the best points he made. If you don't have time to watch the whole video, check out some of the quotes below; they're simply brilliant.
1:48 - "We have the most extraordinary power to change lives with music and to evolve people with music."
2:30 - "Every child, I believe, should have access to properly taught music in the hands of a properly taught teacher."
5:05 - "Music is important for the following reasons: it is abstract, it doesn't mean anything outside itself. When we play a sound, you can interpret that sound as you wish."
6:16 - "Music does not describe; music does not narrate; music does not tell stories. Music evokes; music suggests; music implies; and music opens up the mind of a child in an extraordinary way."
7:17 - "This abstraction...is what offers a child a chance to move in to a really special world of thinking."
7:22 - "Children must make their own music."
9:15 - "Singing is how we engage every child. Singing is how we teach children to be literate...Singing is how we teach children to analyze."
12:09 - "The power of creative thought transferred from music to all other areas of learning is hugely potent."
12:29 - "Music is worth teaching for its own sake. It is worth teaching because it is good. It is worth teaching because it is unique. It is worth teaching because it empowers children spectacularly."
Riveting. I had two major takeaways from Richard's speech.
Music education will uniquely and powerfully impact all areas of a student's development,
But, more importantly, it is worth teaching for its own sake, simply because music is good.
Is your student experiencing the benefit of music? Sign up for a free lesson at Vibe Music Academy, and get your kid involved in quality music education that will last a lifetime.
- John Gotsis, Owner and Music Instructor at Vibe Music Academy, Hamilton County, Indiana
