The Training of the Caribbean Pop Musician (excerpts from Chapter 3. of Seretse's Diploma Thesis) return to Seretse's Resume

Training Caribbean Pop Musicians?

The factors identified by Pamela O'Gorman that affect the Jamaica School of Music include Government cultural policies, relationships with foreign countries, economic conditions, social and class factors (such as the strength of a ruling cultural "elite"), and the association of different kinds of music with different social strata. She notes that the bases for the reorganization of the school in 1972 was a report into the training of musicians in England in 1965, financed by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation. The African American Department was developed in response to the needs of the local popular musician, and that in turn to raise the standards of the local recording and entertainment industry.

O'Gorman sites the following as factors for the partial success of the school in achieving these objectives.

• At first students were mature amateur musicians who had full time jobs and were not interested in submitting themselves to rigorous musical training.
• Young aspiring working class instrumentalists lack previous musical training and face economic pressure.
• The course was designed to produce musicians who were competent in three areas:
  1. Performance
  2. Arranging
  3. Band conducting

O'Gorman states that the soul-searching of the staff consistently pointed to economic pressure as the reason for the school's absence of success. It is also the main reason cited for the high rate of drop outs in the program. She notes however that the highest proportion to have completed their studies come from the Eastern Caribbean. These students, "...had (a) more developed instrumental skills, (b) better education, (c) high motivation and(d) sufficient funds to see them through school.".

The other difficulty she points to is tutors. To find tutors fully conversant with Caribbean popular music as well as Jazz is difficult. Some are fine musicians but poor or unreliable teachers. Others are physically not available or are not attracted to the pay and prefer to perform for a living. The solution offered is that the school must train it's own staff, assisting them to study and travel.

In looking at music as a language and not just a set of isolated skills related to the production of sound, we see sounds being used in a communal sense as a means of communication, which is the case in the indigenous musics of the Caribbean.

In the book How Languages are Learned (Lightbown & Spada, Oxford University Press, 1993) ten factors are listed that influence the acquisition of a second language:

Learner Characteristics
Learning Conditions

Knowledge of another language
Freedom to be silent

Cognitive maturity
Ample time to learn and plenty of contact with proficient speakers

Metalinguistic awareness
Corrective feedback-grammar etc.

Knowledge of the world
Corrective feedback-word choice

Nervousness about speaking
Modified input

All second language learners will relate to these in different ways according to age, gender etc. This gives an indication of the wide range of issues that must be taken into consideration when designing learning experiences. One issue that deserves great consideration is the fact that the Department, in name, is devoted to the study of Afro-American Music or as it was later called, Caribbean, Latin America and Jazz Music. Let's stop and look at what exactly is this music and how is it measured?

John Storm Roberts makes the point that "The concept of music as a purely aesthetic experience is foreign to Africa.". He goes on to argue that African music differs from the European in that it is far more functional, thus in judging the value of a musical moment, the question is not whether it was good, but rather if it was effective. This has implications for curriculum development right down to the basics of setting educational objectives.

As Afro-American music is a marriage of both African and European forms, whose measuring rod should we use? In discussing Black Music in the Undergraduate Curriculum at a national seminar held at the Black Music Center of Indiana University in 1969, Dr. Undine S. Moore stated that. "Learning is facilitated, and teaching made joyful when the basic literature is in some measure a part of the student's heritage or his life. The sense of dignity, of pride, releases the student, and he creates more freely in all his idioms because of his release,".

On the same panel Portia Maultsby raised a few questions for those developing courses in Afro- American Music.

1. What are the prevailing attitudes of Black students and music departments concerning Afro-American Music?
   • She points out the general feeling that Anglo-Saxon music is superior and Black inferior, hence she states that, "Too often the structural components of Afro-American music are compared with Western Music.". This should not be for all forms of music but must be viewed in its proper context. Afro-American music is distinct and should not be measured by Western Structures.
2. What is the role of Black music in the university curriculum?
   • Black music should not be lightly regarded. It should have the same scholarly approach as when dealing with European music.
3. How can the works of Black composers be included in the teaching of music theory?
4. What new approaches and concepts relating to Afro-American music should be considered by music administrators?
   • There must be more emphasis on improvisation. There needs to be more ensembles which relate to Black music. We must teach about the music industries, the legal aspect etc.
5. Can Afro-American music be viewed independently from its history?
   • No.

Ms. Maultsby further states: "Anyone who is entrusted with the education of our students should approach his teaching from the standpoint of the end result: sound. And that must be allied to human expression.".

Robert Glidden in defending Eurocentrism in music education in the U.S. opines that, "One will more readily understand other cultures if one first understands well certain basic characteristics of one's own culture, and one will more readily understand the arts of other cultures if one first understands certain basic universals about the arts of one's own culture,".