Teaching Music and Learning the Values of Communication - Essay Example

The paper "Teaching Music and Learning the Values of Communication" is an excellent example of an essay on music. Alison sat in unresponsive as always. Her music teacher came to her and suggested they start practice. She did not look at him or even react in any way to show she noticed his presence. She was shy and unsocial. Teacher Davis felt disappointed and frustrated. This had been going on for the last several months. Alison was totally unresponsive and worse was that she did not interact with the other students or express interest in anything.

Teacher Davis taught her some basic keys even though she was not concentrating at all.  That evening Davis lay in bed and thought about Alison. She seemed to have hidden potential in music. What strategy would he use to arouse her interest in music? What approach would he use to put her potential into action? These questions kept running in his mind until an idea finally crept up in his mind. The next day teacher Davis started by telling Alison a story. This was not normality so Alison got curious as to what teacher Davis was up to.

The story was of a little girl called Stacy. She was a sad girl because nothing in life interested her. She did not seem to fit in her peer group or make up her mind on what to pursue in life. One day as Stacy and her mother were walking outside the park, they saw a man playing the guitar inside the park and a small crowd had gathered around him. Stacy listened to the beat of the guitar and felt attracted to the crowd. She pulled her mother so they could get closer to the man playing the guitar.

She felt so comfortable listening to music and would not budge when her mother suggested they go home. The guitarist noticed Stacy’s interest and called her to him. She ran and sat on his lap very eager to learn to play the guitar too but the guitarist told her “go learn to play an instrument and then we can team up and together make this park melodious than ever before”. This appealed to Stacy so much. However, she was not certain which instrument she would choose. After a few days of confusion, her mother finally chose the Piano for her.

She could not wait to start her lessons. To everyone’s surprise, she learned pretty fast because she was motivated by her desire to join the guitarist. The day finally came when she was to play with the guitarist. She went to the park nervous, uncertain of how it would turn out. Once her piano was in place, the guitarist smiled at her and gave the go-ahead. They started playing. The sweet melody of combined rhythm filled the air. A crowd gathered around them as they played their instruments.

It was apparent that Stacy had found happiness in the piano. Right there and then she decided to name her piano Joy because of the joy it brought to her. From that day henceforth Stacy pursued her love for music and inspired many more people with her music. Alison smiled widely at teacher Davis because of the happy ending. She was so intrigued by the story. Teacher Davis had combined linguistic, bodily, musical and logical elements of communication to teach Alison. Although Alison had a hard time speaking, she could listen.

The gestures used by the teacher entertained the child. Alison sang along to the songs that her teacher sang to her, the songs Stacy sang. There are many ways to teach. The formal approach failed to work on Alison. However, Teacher Davis explored another way, an entertaining and fun approach. As the teacher played the piano to illustrate how Stacy played, Alison got interested. She wished she knew how to play so she could play like Stacy. Alison looked at her teacher and said, “Teacher Davis, will you teach me how to play the piano?

I will call her Joy too just like Stacy’s piano.”