The regional competition “Jugend musiziert” starts at the weekend. Here is a look at five tips on how to ignite a passion for music in the offspring!
The first round of the “Jugend musiziert” regional competition will start in Saxony next weekend. The qualifying rounds will take place on Saturday and Sunday in Auerbach, Zwickau, Chemnitz, Flöha and Stollberg; For music students in Plauen, Reichenbach and again in Zwickau, things will get serious on February 3rd, 4th and 5th. Hundreds of young musicians face the competition at a high level: at state and federal level, the participants meet a jury that often already has their music studies in mind.
At the regional level, however, efforts have been made for years to prioritize the fun of being there rather than maximum performance. The largest German young music competition wants to kindle the desire to make music itself. This is also reflected in the competition categories: in addition to wind and string ensembles as well as vocals, piano and harp solo, in 2023 there will also be the categories pop drums and jazz solo. A few hundred participants start in the region, with each preliminary round being open to the public. The fact that the parents and relatives of the participants in particular are listening is certainly inevitable in a certain way – but it also shows that this support for music remains in a “bubble”.
The question is of general value: How do you manage to get children excited about music? Especially when the current curriculum for Saxony claims the same thing in primary and secondary schools as well as grammar schools, but in practice the opposite is attempted? So parents have to do it themselves. Maybe like this:
1. A musical home!
Music never works on its own: every listener brings at least 50 percent of the emotionally explosive mixture to heart and head – via moods, expectations, experiences or suggestions from the immediate and wider environment. In other words: taste in music grows together, and that is only possible by listening to each other. So keep your ears wide open for what the offspring is playing. Participate, hear your children’s music, and really hear it! It’s not about conceding, it’s about active exchange: Let the music of the new generation play on an equal footing, argue, wrestle with details and try to approach each other seriously and with passion! That sounds trivial, but it’s tricky: adults have already “understood” their love of music (of course also from their environment!), which is why it’s difficult for them to emotionally understand other approaches as equally valid. But that is necessary, because acceptance is a first step, but only half the battle. If, on the other hand, you create real openness, a win-win situation arises from which both sides can draw a lot!
2. Start today!
Our curricula grew out of the (educational) bourgeois idea that classical orchestras and ensembles need young talent in order to maintain a cultural tradition. But it’s not about the children, it’s about us! Didn’t all current music ultimately develop from baroque and classic? Don’t we have to start at the roots? What a mistake! Today’s music is inevitably closer to young people, more familiar, more appealing. So it is usually essential to find your way around the roots of techno and hip-hop, punk rock and indie folk, disco pop and dancehall. Current music comes only to a small extent from European classical music and much more from Afro-American blues and a number of later side branches such as electronic dance music.
Therefore it makes more sense to start today instead of yesterday! One must not forget that a newcomer to music is first faced with the ever-available treasure trove of pop culture since the 1950s. This is extremely ramified and valuable above all in its diversity beyond a clear line. So you need orientation: Knowing Adlibs and Autotune is more essential than the difference between opera and operetta. Above all, it is culturally no less valuable! Once the passion for music has gripped you, you will also find joy and meaning in a sound journey to your roots. A canon from Bach to Beethoven may then make sense there – but today it is rather a deterrent.
3. Music is not an end in itself!
Meaningful music is about social connection. And that sometimes also demands demarcation in the common difference. How else is the search for meaning supposed to work? Anyone who wants to promote a love of music should not just push for openness, but should respect savespaces: this research, this intimate immersion in front of the eyes of adults who are deliberately kept in a state of incomprehension, must be possible. So make it possible: Some things should only be accessible to those in the know who have shown themselves to be sensible through the intimate examination of certain details!
4. Making is fun…
An instrument for each child? This is the right approach! Understanding comes from touching, so space is needed for pleasurable trying. The experience that you can create and learn to master sounds yourself is probably one of the most important sparks for a passion for music. Sparks and tinder just have to come together: There are recorder lessons in elementary schools and high schools with string classes. That doesn’t do any harm, but it rarely fits in with the musical reality of the adolescents. In view of the marginally few people who still play these instruments after their school days, one wonders: Wouldn’t drum kit, synthesizer, DJ or battle rap classes make more sense?
5. … but also listen!
The presentation is not a minor matter: music has to be experienced! So take your children to concerts and festivals – but not so that they “get the right thing”, but primarily to see their favorite artists. From the age of ten at the latest, girls and boys should have experienced this live! Important: Do not leave it at that, but definitely extend the listening pleasure into the household: put a decent system in the living room and/or children’s room! Make sure you have a selection of sound carriers that also deserves the name and show the youngsters how to use CD players, turntables, cassette decks or even streamers to their heart’s content! And create sound: Listening to music through laptop speakers, gaming PCs or Bluetooth mono jacks is ultimately like trying to experience the joys of Italian cuisine with a cold, half-baked ready-made pizza: So set up boxes that deserve a name! This can also be used on Ebay and doesn’t have to degenerate into luxury – but if you want to cook properly, you can’t avoid equipment such as stoves and refrigerators.