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.”
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.”
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