Comments on: A Waldorf Approach to Music, an interview with Jenna Dalton | Episode #32 https://oldsite.awaldorfjourney.com/2018/09/a-waldorf-approach-to-music-an-interview-with-jenna-dalton-episode-32/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=a-waldorf-approach-to-music-an-interview-with-jenna-dalton-episode-32 experiences, resources and advice from a Waldorf teacher on the journey Tue, 04 Jul 2023 16:25:33 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.7.1 By: Sue https://oldsite.awaldorfjourney.com/2018/09/a-waldorf-approach-to-music-an-interview-with-jenna-dalton-episode-32/#comment-9349 Wed, 19 Sep 2018 18:19:02 +0000 https://www.awaldorfjourney.com/?p=11969#comment-9349 In reply to Sue.

oops–I meant “anthroposophical” in the first paragraph 🙂

]]> By: Sue https://oldsite.awaldorfjourney.com/2018/09/a-waldorf-approach-to-music-an-interview-with-jenna-dalton-episode-32/#comment-9348 Wed, 19 Sep 2018 17:14:45 +0000 https://www.awaldorfjourney.com/?p=11969#comment-9348 Thank you for this interview! It was so good to hear Jenna speak to so many points especially how the development of the child factors into musical experiences for children. I am a pianist and piano teacher and am seeking to align my approach to piano teaching with the anthropological approach to child development where I can. That said, Jenna’s position that piano study should wait until high school seems quite extreme to me. I am well aware of Steiner’s thoughts about the piano and I agree that it is a highly mechanical and analytical instrument.

From the viewpoint of the anthroposophical understanding of child development, I can see why this would be the recommendation for piano–this is the stage when children are ready to be analytical. However, in my teaching and lived experience with the piano, the learning curve to develop fluency with keyboard notation (more notes per square inch that any other instrument!) is so steep that even though a high schooler would be very capable of learning quickly, they would simply not have the hours and years before “leaving the nest” to build much fluency. In practice, this means that they would be playing very rudimentary repertoire at a point in their lives when they have a vision of much more satisfying music and their ability to make music with others from the piano would be pretty limited.

Perhaps beginning after the 9 year change (but before high school) would be a good compromise if piano is to be the child’s main instrument. If a student is adding piano as a second instrument and they are highly capable on another instrument as a high schooler, I could see adding piano at that time. Thanks again for the interview!

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