Proceedings of the III International Symposium on the Paradigms of Teaching Musical Instruments

Abstract

To some extent education shapes personalities and aesthetic values. In arts education it is common to observe a mismatch between what is taught and contemporary production. A good example of this is generally found in music education, and in particular the teaching of musical instruments. Many techniques, methods and repertoire which are used today for teaching musical instruments are the same that were used over one hundred years ago. Aware that music education institutions - as any institution - tend to react slowly to the changes and progress of the overall music creation outside the academia, we need to constantly measure our educational tools, so that what we truly teach represents where we come from and prepares and envisions artistic possibilities for the future. In order to discuss and contextualize these issues, this symposium included lectures and talks related to the topic of instrument teaching covering three broad chronological periods: (1) an overview of the past, (2) the present, and (3) the future. Thus, for each of these chronological periods, scientific work was presented from different areas of research, such as: historical musicology, performance practice, composition/repertoire, pedagogy (e.g. methods and techniques; the teaching of ‘old’ or new instruments), 'new musicology' (e.g. gender studies and ‘new’ music styles), and music technology