Pasadena Outlook 20/06/2013
By Merin McDonald
The Outlook
Ralph
Waldo Emerson wrote, “The secret of education lies in respecting the
pupil. It is not for you to choose what he shall know, what he shall do.
It is chosen and foreordained and he only holds the key to his own
secret.”
The key to unlocking this secret, according to Hans-Peter Becker, is music.
In fact, the founder of Modern Music School has dedicated an entire book to the subject.
Available on Kindle, the aptly titled
“Unleash The Secret of Education and Learn How to Raise a Happy Child” is part parenting, part music theory, drawing on Becker’s own research as a befuddled first-time father.
“When
my daughter was born, I didn’t have a clue about children — how should
I?” he says. “You study music, you study economics, and then you have a
child — who’s teaching you then?”
Becker is no stranger
to music or economics, having studied the latter in his native Germany
before dropping out to pursue a drumming career in Hollywood. “I told my
parents, ‘I am going to try this and if it works, it works, and if it
doesn’t, I’ll go back and be an accountant,’” Becker says.
Luckily,
it worked. After completing the drumming program at the Musicians
Institute, Becker played enough gigs to earn a living, and, inspired by
his training at the Institute, returned to Germany to start a music
school of his own.
In 1987, Modern Music School was born.
Originally focused on drumming, the school soon expanded its repertoire
to include other instruments and quickly gained popularity through word
of mouth.
The school now has more than 80 locations throughout Germany and Greece. Its first American branch opened in Pasadena in 2011.
What
makes the program so successful is the unique approach it takes to
teaching music. Becker says this all stems from understanding how
children learn. “There are different learning types — those who are who
are more auditive, more kinesthetic, more visual — so a teacher should
know how to respond to them.”
All too often,
he says, education systems focus on putting knowledge into a child’s
brain. His approach, largely inspired by the teachings of Maria
Montessori, focuses rather on extracting the knowledge and talent he
believes each child possesses innately.
Many of us might recall
taking music lessons as children, but few persist into adulthood,
perhaps dissuaded by obligatory rehearsals and overbearing parents. When
music becomes a chore, as with any homework, children are more inclined
to abandon it.
“Children are already experiencing a lot
of pressure at school, so why should music be more pressure? It should
be fun,” Becker says. “We never tell our students to practice. A good
teacher gets a student so excited that he or she eventually will
practice.”
Becker’s staff does this by breaking the
traditional teacher pupil mold and encouraging students to practice in
groups, forming their own small-scale rock bands. Playing with other
children stirs up a healthy competitiveness, improving each player’s
individual skills and helping to build self-esteem.
The same model
is used for Modern Music’s Summer Music Camp, which brings in guest
instructors who’ve worked with the likes of Taylor Swift and Katy Perry
so students can learn from the peers of their pop idols.
The
benefits of this type of education reach well beyond the music studio.
Learning an instrument not only fosters creativity, but it can also
improve a child’s focus, concentration, and cognitive skills — all of
which translate to better performance in the classroom.
“When
you play a guitar or drums, you use your right hand and your left hand,
you use your feet — you exercise both sides of the brain,” Becker says.
This is why music education can be especially helpful to children with
learning disorders, though that’s a label Becker prefers to avoid.
“If
a child is not doing well in school, parents need to ask themselves,
‘Is it my child, or is it the system?’ More often than not, it’s the
system,” he says.
“You need to give kids the opportunity to find
their element. Once they are doing something they love, the attention
and the focus is there.”
To Becker, the biggest
obstacle in music education is the false (and commonly lamented)
assertion that some people simply aren’t “musical.”
“Everybody
likes music,” he says. “But when you ask if they play it, they say ‘I
am not musical.’ Everybody can run. One guy may be faster, the other may
take longer, but eventually everybody can do it. It’s the same with
music.”
Sure, not everyone entering Modern Music School’s
doors will leave a concert pianist, but Becker says each student’s
success is relative to his or her own objectives. “We set goals with our
students — we ask them what they want, and we help them reach those
goals,” he says. “If they come to class, it’s already the first step.”
