Moving to South America Made Me Realize How Intimidating Learning Music Can Be
On October 30, 2021, I moved from Queens, NYC to Santiago, Chile. With my dog, Bjorn, my husband, Basti, and two stuffed suitcases, I flew over 5,000 miles to a new home, in a new city, in a new country. What I underestimated most about moving was not the overwhelming challenge of putting half of our things into storage and shipping the other half in cardboard boxes. And it also was not leaving beautiful, wonder-filled New York behind. It was the language barrier.
📍Santiago, Chile
I studied Spanish in school for 6 years, but the focus of those classes was reading and writing. The teacher explained everything in English and only spoke in Spanish to say new vocabulary words or demonstrate pronunciation. While I had a foundation in basic grammar and vocabulary, I could barely put a sentence together and didn’t understand a single word that anyone said. (Chileans are also known for having a very thick accent, using many idioms, and just making up their own verb conjugations, which doesn’t make for an easy learning experience.)
As a person who feels strongly about open communication and explaining my thought processes (we have a blog for a reason!), this was a great challenge. Of course, I knew I would have to practice and study the language, – which I was and still am very excited to do each day – but I underestimated how exhausting, alienating, and stressful it would be. My progress was slow and seemed to fluctuate with each day; one moment I could explain a complex music topic and the next I couldn’t ask for more water at a restaurant.
Who was I if I could not properly express myself? In fact, my mother-in-law (who, I must add, is a wonderful person, and always patient with me) once saw an Art Beyond the Ink Instagram post, where I was being silly and speaking to the camera. She said to me in Spanish, “This is another Rebecca whom I’ve never met before.”
Basti and I moving into our new apartment in Santiago
I realize I’m sharing most of this story in the past tense – but I still have a long way to go. I can’t yet be the person I am in English, in Spanish. And every day, I struggle to find a balance somewhere in between.
It dawned on me recently that this is how kids might feel when being taught a new concept or subject. Maybe a teacher chastises them for not knowing the answer or for asking a “silly” question. Or maybe the subject itself is filled with pretentious language that gets thrown around without a strong foundation to back it up (*cough* like music *cough*).
Bjorn looking out over Santiago
Throughout our careers, Emmalie and I have worked with teachers, who, from our point of view, made learning music alienating by using professional jargon. For example, we had teachers in 6- to 10-year-old classes mentioning the circle of fifths, composition techniques and opera history. I’m certainly not saying that this isn’t important to learn within music education, but it is very bewildering for a young child who may already feel that these topics are “not for them.”
Here at Art Beyond the Ink, when we teach music theory concepts to kids who have never had music education prior, we do it in two ways. Let’s, for example, look at the concept of dynamics:
We don’t use the word “dynamics.” We call it “soft and loud volume.” These are words that kids already know and can now apply in a musical context. The word “dynamics” is a technical term that doesn’t give any extra meaning than the word “volume” does.
We discuss what the volume is communicating in the music. The music isn’t just loud (we absolutely do not say “forte”), but rather, because the music is loud, we feel happy, or we hear an angry character, or the musical story ends triumphantly. Music theory has a layered purpose; it doesn’t exist on its own.
Language is vital to a successful learning environment, especially with instrumental music that may feel foreign and intimidating to young kids. I now know how it feels to be overwhelmed and lost in a space where you aren’t comfortable asking or can’t ask for assistance. Children should never feel like that while learning music, and I hope Art Beyond the Ink’s approach can change this.
Quick Links:
Learn more about how we developed our curriculum based on one kid’s musical story.
Check out our children’s workbook, which teaches general music theory and musical storytelling using a story-filled approach.
Learn more about how we collaborate overseas in the pilot episode of Co-Composed, an audio blog series.
Are you an educator interested in bringing musical storytelling to your students? Reach out to us! We would love to work with you and create a custom program that best fits your students’ needs.
