Revisioning Music Education

A Workshop With Music Teachers

Organized by Underscore Records Pvt Ltd

Delhi Public School • Varanasi • July 27, 2010

Supported by the Ford Foundation

Contact • email: info@underscorerecords.com • +91 97176 54113 1

 BACKGROUND

Music education in the Indian school system occupies an insignificant position, with many
educational institutions preferring to do away with arts and music education altogether.
Some of these schools retain such subjects, but merely as hobby activities. There is therefore
an urgent need to review teaching methods, syllabi and content. This workshop with music
teachers from several branches of the prestigious Delhi Public School discussed several
important issues in an effort to understand and address the following points:

1. Ways of enhancing the quality of cultural awareness among school going children;

2. Ways of ensuring that the diversity of Indian music is given due importance in the teaching
of music,

3. Ways of helping the students to appreciate the world of arts, music and literature

4. Ways of introducing a capsule on the appreciation of music in the curriculum of teacher

education;

5. Help understand the status of art and music schools and colleges in the country.

PARTICIPATING SCHOOLS
DPS Varanasi, Surat, Patna, Pune, Ludhiyana, Sonipat, Bilaspur,
Bangalore (North), Jalandhar, Gandhi Nagar, Panipat, Agra
 MAIN POINTS OF DISCUSSION

• The workshop primarily focused on expanding the scope of music education in schools
to project the diversity of musical traditions. Special emphasis was given to studying
marginalized forms from folk repertoire that reflects India's plural culture. Teachers
were encouraged to adopt an interdisciplinary approach while teaching, in order for
students to make tangible connections between music and other subjects of learning.

• The teachers spoke about common problems that they faced and the strategies that
they had evolved to address the same. Some of the problems across the board
pertained to the restricted time given to music lessons in school timetables, the lack
of interest in students with regard to Indian classical music and the difficulty in
assessing the impact of lessons on the students.

• The workshop focused on methods of collecting resource material towards building an

audio-visual library and a library for books and periodicals.

• Teachers were acquainted with information available on the net that could be used as a
teaching aid in the classroom situation. Teachers were also informed about podcasts
and video-casts prepared by Underscore Records and available on
www.UnderscoreRecords.com and on the Youtube channel for Underscore Records,
which could be freely accessed by teachers and students. Such material is of vital
importance since information about folk forms and other traditional genres is not
easily available.

• Teachers were made aware of the necessity to protect and respect Intellectual Property
Rights while downloading and copying material. The exemption of such restrictions
in an educational situation was also discussed briefly. It was hoped that such
knowledge would percolate to the student community and would prepare them as
responsible listeners.

• The workshop addressed the issue of promoting alternate careers for students
interested in pursuing the study of music, in a manner that would not only reduce the
strain of live performance but would also direct the students' attention to writing
about, and documenting and cataloguing information about diverse musical forms
from India.

• The workshop also addressed the need to create a syllabus and adopt pedagogical
methods, which would concentrate on articulating and explaining concepts related to
Indian music with clarity rather than laying emphasis on performance abilities alone.