Examine The Role Of Notation

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Examine the role of notation in the development of skills and understanding in music, drawing on your own experinece and music traditions known to you. Support your theories with refernce to current research and approaches to music learning. Describe your process of learning a system of notation which was new to you and reflect on the role of notation, aural skills and musical memory in music making within that new tradition. The second and linked part of the essay should expand on these ideas and refer to your reading, seminar discussions, notes and your own experince of music study. In this section, you should explore advantages and disadvantages of including aspects of notation in the development of musical skills and understanding. Music notation is a representation of ‘musical’ notes and rhythms onto paper, using ‘symbols’. Notation serves the purpose of providing some kind of musical instruction. It’s essentially documenting ‘musical sound,’ be it for comminication between composer/arranger to performer, or for retrieval by future generations. It can be used as “a piece of analysis, a thinking tool, a map.” (Glover & Young p.165) There are different approaches and methods to be considered in learning to play an instrument, that will further play a major part in development of skills and technique. Understanding notation, it seems, has always played a central part in music education, and in learning instruments. However, the ‘need’ to understand notation can be questioned. There is no ‘real’ reason why one can’t become a competant musician, without being able to read or write standard notation. Well known and hugely successful musicians such as Thom Yorke (Radiohead), Paul McCartney, and Jimi Hendrix, perfected their art without the need for notation. I intend to explore the beneifts and constraints of notation, in relation to

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