How’s the Water?

You’ve probably heard some version of “The Fish Story” that goes basically like this:

This story is really a metaphor for Awareness and Perception. The water represents invisible structures – cultural norms, habits of thought, assumptions, or systems we live in everyday, and the fish represent how we go about our life unaware of how deeply we’re shaped by our surroundings. The point is that the most obvious and important realities of our life are often the ones that are hardest to see and talk about.

This is true for me and music.

Music is, and has always been, significant in my life. Growing up, I thrived in band, orchestra, choir, and piano lessons. In college, I skated through music theory, music history, aural-training, and composition. But my music education wasn’t limited to lessons, classes, and practice rooms. My relationship to music was shaped by hours and hours of listening to all kinds of music wherever and whenever I could. Whether it was from a far off clear channel AM radio station or record albums with friends, appreciating ALL KINDS of music was just as foundational to my identity as a musician, and to my understanding of myself, as my formal music training.

As a young music major, I wondered why so much music that holds great meaning in people’s lives – popular music, jazz, the blues – was not treated more seriously by the formal music academy. But, like the young fish in the story, I was unaware of “the water” – those embedded traditions and assumptions of my musical training.

Collegiate and public school music programs in the U.S. were formed around the desire to train musicians and educate teachers who would perpetuate the appreciation of classical music in schools and civic performing ensembles. Looking back over a century, you will find little change to the basic structure of these programs. This is “the water” of most music education, even today.

There has always been a gap between the interests of formal music studies and its relevance to life in music beyond the academy. I observed this many decades ago as a young music major, but the difference between now and then is that the gap is not only wider, but significantly more complicated. Another difference is, I’m no longer a young fish asking innocent questions. Now I’m the old fish asking “How’s the Water” and, I’m finding “the water” of formal music studies to be stale and unappealing.

This is deeply disappointing to me. Music can be such a powerful force for good. But the stale water is preventing formal institutions of music education from addressing today’s social challenges and tapping into the power of music as a catalyst for positive change.

This is not just the old fish spouting off about the future of music education. This is borne out in real time with the decline of participation in school music programs and formal music education. Like fish, institutions need fresh water to survive. They need streams of new ideas and different perspectives that reflect the complexities of a dynamic global society.

For music education, fresh water can be a new purpose, a relevant purpose that promotes creativity and collaboration, social and cultural understanding, navigating challenges and problem solving, building self-confidence and character, not just in music, but in any of life’s pursuits.

This is all doable, right now. There are many fresh streams to tap into. It’s time to change the water.