Gregg's Utne Reader File

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This is my space for Utne Reader articles

-- Anonymous, November 11, 1998

Answers

I am writing this in response to the article in the June 98 Utne Reader article on page 98 titled "The Standard Treatment".

I gleaned from the article that a piece of music is considered a standard when it has passed the test of time. Certainly many songs qualify for this status, and each individual will probably have a different list. I think the music of Cole Porter, Duke Ellington, George Gershwin, and others are in the standard category because they contain some essential elements of music. The most important element is melody. The melodies written by these masters stand alone, in other words, you can sing or play them on an instrument, or just whistle them. Another element is harmony. The harmonies are crafted in such a way as to mate perfectly with the melody. Add interesting rhythms, lyrics, and a good arrangement and you have a formula that leads to a standard. The elements alone, however will not guarantee success.

The master composers also give their songs a part of their soul. This is the part that touches the heart of the listener. A standard will evoke something in the listener no matter when it was written. It will touch each person in a different way and feed your soul as you listen.

-- Anonymous, November 14, 1998


I read with interest your response to "The Standard Treatment" article. I too believe that music evokes something in each of us. Music does indeed touch the soul. It can create a mood or take us back to a place long forgotten. I wonder if the kids today get from music what I did and still do. I would hope so. It does scare me when I think of the lyrics in some of todays music and the impact it can have on young people. I have also heard of a study that found music that has a rhythym opposite the beat of the heart can lead to aggressive behavior. Not sure if my info. is accurate though. I used to facilitate a music therapy group with chronic mentally ill adults. It really is quite amazing how through music these individuals were able to open up when in other therapeutic settings, they could or would not discuss problems or issues. Enjoyed your comments.

-- Anonymous, November 23, 1998

I feel that you have diagnosed the music industry very well. Much of todays music is lacking the balance of the full, rich and harmonized music of days gone by. As a fellow musician and connoisseur of fine sounds I enjoyed your response to this article. I find difficulty listening to much of the modern music and don't even consider rap a music form at all. I'll stick to the classics and hope that the youth of today will at some time develop an appreciation for real music.

-- Anonymous, December 15, 1998

Second Utne Reader Article / July - August 1998

I chose the article "The Art of Genius" by Michael Michalko page 73.

I was intrigued by this article as I read it. One sentence that captured my thoughts was on page seventy four__ "The mark of genius is the willingness to explore all the alternatives, not just the most likely solution." An example given was by Albert Einstein when he explained that the average person when confronted with the problem of finding a needle in a haystack would stop when he or she found a needle. Einstein went on to say that he would tear through the entire haystack looking for all possible needles. As scholars studied the statistics of geniuses they found that average physicists had much higher IQs than a Nobel Prize - winner genius Richard Feynman. Psychologists have concluded that creativity is not the same as intelligence. Most people of average intelligence tend to think reproductively. In other words they tend to rely on what they have been taught or what has worked in the past when confronted with a problem. A genius will think productively. They try to look at a problem in many different ways.

There were four side bar articles each written by creative people, physicist Richard Feynman, poet Maya Angelou, artist Cathy Johnson, and composer Frank Zappa.

Richard Feynman wrote that he used to "play" with physics because he just loved doing it for his own entertainment. I think that he raises a great point about learning in general. No one forced him to do the physics problems he tried to solve, they served no scientific purpose. He just did it because it was fun and exciting to him. I wonder if he were in our classes if he would drive us crazy or we would allow him to explore on his own. I'm not sure he would fit into our idea of a "good" student. Sometimes I believe we crush that innate ability to be creative in our students because of the way our school systems our designed. We tend to frown on students who do not fit the mold. Many creative people in fact have dropped out of school in order to be free to learn in their own way. Many of them are self-motivated and have gone on to be quite successful.

Frank Zappa used to love writing music sixteen hours a day because he thought it was fun. "I could hear everything in my head, and I kept telling myself how thoroughly bitchin' it was." This quote from the article seems to indicate a sense of belief in what he was writing. Frank was for the most part a self taught musician. He went to college for a quarter to study counterpoint. He dropped out because he was not interested in the academia of music. Many hours were spent on his own in the library reading and studying the works of composers such as Stravinsky, Varese, and others. Again, another self-motivated person who did what he loved to do.

It seems to me that all of the people in this article were independent thinkers who had the self confidence to "march to their own drummer" so to speak, and do what they loved to do. My fear is that we as teachers are not as likely to nurture creative thinkers because we have to meet the bottom line, higher test scores.

-- Anonymous, January 05, 1999


Hi Greg, I enjoyed reading your response to this article. I read this one too and found it very interesting. I think that as teachers, it is easy to judge students according to how well they perform at school. This article reminds us that we need to be in tune to those students who sometimes don't fit mold and try to look a bit deeper. We must take the time to get to know our students and value the wide range of capabilities they demonstrate. I hope this reminder will help us to better appreciate our "non-conformists".

-- Anonymous, January 17, 1999


Your thoughts are very interesting. I am a fan of most types of music and enjoy using it in my classroom. Music can have some important messages for us.

-- Anonymous, March 11, 1999

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