It doesn’t have to be useful

As a teacher I often hear the question, “How is this going to be useful?” And I don’t just hear it from students. I hear it from adults some times too.

But that question is missing the point of why people should learn about the arts and about music. Trying to make some strange reason why learning about art and learning to appreciate music is “useful” misses the whole point of learning about it.

It’s worth learning about it’s something that you’re interested in learning about. And music, art, literature, and every subject will have plenty of people that are interested just in learning about them.

One of the strangest reasons to teach music is “learning music improves math skills.” I understand the people that are saying this likely have good intentions, but I think it’s a strange and misguided way to say that “learning music is worthwhile.” If the only reason to learn or teach music is because it improves your math skills, then people should practice more math and not learn music. Working on math will improve your math skills more than learning about music. 12Tone has a great video about this topic that I suggest everyone check out.

Learning music is worthwhile on it’s own.

Having a deeper understanding and appreciation of music will allow you to listen to and appreciate more music over your whole lifetime. It opens up a whole new world of enjoying music. You’ll hear all types of music in different ways.

I personally don’t think everyone should be forced to learn about music and take multiple music theory classes. But having the option for the students that are interested, and there will always be people interested, is the goal. Music is worthwhile to learn about if it’s something you’re interested in, therefore it should be available for the students that are interested in it.

ISJ