Quite so - another example, I think, of people who can't afford a better education being educated only to the point necessary for taking their place in a machine which generates profits for others. I have the feeling we're being herded into social divisions of Dickensian proportions.

Edit: Having said that, and read the article, it should of course be recognised that spellings change over the history of any language in just this sort of way (unless, as in many European countries, there's an official body which decides on these things). The "unable to read and write" I was thinking about was an inability to understand the written language adequately and to express oneself articulately in it, and there's an increasing amount of this around of course.

The gestures are very simple and are to indicate pitch - they help the children to associate the low notes with a low hand position etc.

Edit  - sorry messed up quote, phone rang so I posted in haste!

Now I've messed up Edit - meant to Modify and did Quote instead. Time to zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

And has used them.

He even almost went as far as to suggest that British imperialism had had some positive benefits in playing a part in eradicating old feudal practices in India. Marx was no cultural relativist*. Cultural relativists, paradoxically, tend to idealise certain non-Western cultures (and folk cultures, working class cultures, etc., in the West) without considering the ways in which those cultures are themselves tied up with the economic and political situation of the people inhabiting them.

*That said, there's a strong case to be made that Marx's work neglects many issues of gender, racism (certainly in terms of its existence as a casual ideology), sexuality, etc.

Thank you. In another of your posts you said that children who have individual lessons need to learn to read music as early as possible. I hope you don't subscribe to the common fallacy that Suzuki teaching takes place entirely in groups. Two of my kids learnt the fiddle by the Suzuki method, the younger starting just before he was four. They had a weekly individual lesson and a fortnightly group lesson. A good teacher can teach music through music, almost non-verbally, by the listen-and-copy method. The child comes the the lessons knowing the pieces by ear, having heard them repeatedly at home for many weeks. The score is there on the stand, and gradually the child learns to associate the sound with the dots. As I said, formal notation tuition can begin when the child is ready, just as it does with reading language.

Yes, right . . . In 1853, writing about British rule in India, Marx described the "profound hypocrisy and inherent barbarism of bourgeois civilization that lies unveiled before our eyes, turning from its home, where it assumes respectable forms, to the colonies, where it goes naked."

Capitalist progress, he wrote in "The Future Results of British Rule in India," resembled a "hideous, pagan idol, who would not drink the nectar but from the skulls of the slain."

Similarly, in a speech to radical workers in London in 1856, he said: "On the one hand, there have started into life industrial and scientific forces, which no epoch of the former human history had ever suspected. On the other hand, there exist symptoms of decay far surpassing the horrors recorded of the latter times of the Roman Empire."

In the days when recorded music was never longer than one side of a 78, most music was played from sheet music.  I have a piles of my grandfather's cousin's sheet music from just pre WW1, mixing a few classics (Beethoven sonatas) and a lot of popular music of the day (If you were the only girl in the world is strictly speaking not Music Hall,  but George Robey who sang it was). 

rauschwerk,

You are right. Suzuki method can work. For some reason I saw more violinists that were taught by this method, than pianists. 

I saw violinists of 11and 12 years old in California playing all the same pieces without any ability to read. Some of them thought about professional career and I knew they will not be able to have it. Bad teachers can give bad name for any method.

One should learn how to read music as soon as one is ready, that is as soon as possible.  If it is postponed for too long one will not be fluid. One can learn to speak with no accent up until certain age and we loose this ability after nine. We still can learn, but there will be strong foreign aceent. The same with reading music, only cut off age is probably six or seven.

Here I meet pianists that started to play by ears. Later they learned how read, but they are insecure and slow readiers.

On the other hand some people can only play from written text, loose the ability to play by ears or improvise.

Also after a while the uniformity of Suzuki method brings some degree of scepticism. Everybody plays the same pieces, the same way. At the head of the organization Suzuki himself (the only authority).Are they training individuals or producing Toyatas?  I know one teacher (violinist) who while still a supporter of this approach introduces her own ways in her teaching. The good point is that this organization tries to improve skills of their teachers and there are conferences and meetings.


As long as the teacher has good professional skills and the most important he/she has LOVE for children and for music methods does not matter much. The best teachers always started little children with playing by ears and immulating the teacher, but one should not stay too long on this stage of development.