A performer of music employs critical thinking in order to communicate through the piece he/she is performing. Creating beauty and expressing emotion through a piece of music requires much more than an ability to play notes. Intonation and rhythmic accuracy are extremely important, and achieving those things requires the performer to free him/herself from self-deception and evaluate his/her own technical abilities honestly (a form of critical thinking itself), but more than that, a performer must understand what the composer intended for his music to express. Understanding this requires the performer to analyze the texture, the dynamics, the chord progression, etc. and divine meaning from what was written. The performer interprets this data and brings it to life how he sees most fit, employing techniques he has studied for years. The ability to interpret data and use tools to create something personal from that data is the very essence of critical thinking.
Monday, March 22, 2010
Critical Thinking in Music
A performer of music employs critical thinking in order to communicate through the piece he/she is performing. Creating beauty and expressing emotion through a piece of music requires much more than an ability to play notes. Intonation and rhythmic accuracy are extremely important, and achieving those things requires the performer to free him/herself from self-deception and evaluate his/her own technical abilities honestly (a form of critical thinking itself), but more than that, a performer must understand what the composer intended for his music to express. Understanding this requires the performer to analyze the texture, the dynamics, the chord progression, etc. and divine meaning from what was written. The performer interprets this data and brings it to life how he sees most fit, employing techniques he has studied for years. The ability to interpret data and use tools to create something personal from that data is the very essence of critical thinking.
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3 comments:
I completely agree- not enough people use critical thinking in music. Luckily, at USC, those who do not think critically in music are very obvious..
I really like your ideas about self-deception versus truthful evaluation-- that is often hard for us to do! Also, I agree that the communication of emotion and expression are definitely key in this and are probably not attempted enough.
So true. I am no music major, but I used to play the piano and the flute and a large portion of learning and playing music is critical thinking. It is really neat to discover that critical thinking does not only exist in the areas of just math, science, and writing. Critical thinking is also a vital part of music and architecture too :)
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