The Well Rounded Musician

The definition of a Well Rounded Musician.

A Well Rounded Musician is someone who has connected their understanding of music aurally and practically.   When they see the music, the tonality, phrasing, harmony and texture, the intervals between notes etc. are all connected and they hear it internally. When listening and playing they envisage how it is written. The well rounded musician not only plays well but plays by reading and by ear and understands what they read and hear whilst playing.

Nurturing the Well Rounded Musician

Much is said about nurturing the “well rounded musician”.  It is the aspiration of examining boards, conservatoires and teachers.

Many students, especially those with good aural and kinaesthetic skills (the muscle memory of practical playing skills), play by copying without understanding.  Although often our most musical students, they can struggle to function happily in orchestras or ensembles where comprehending the score is imperative. They have great difficulty in learning new music by themselves and their sight reading is often poor. Likewise if music theory has been taught but not connected aurally and/or practically, we find musicians who are bound to the manuscript; they read well but are not necessarily creative and have difficulty understanding what they hear. They are often the ones who find it difficult to improvise and after years of learning they do not readily pick up an instrument and  play it without music or memory.

Ideally, musical understanding is integrated aurally and practically from the first lessons. If we consistently connect these 3 elements of theory, practical and aural in our teaching so they form the 3 sides of a constant triangle of teaching, then we can nurture a well rounded musician.

It is not difficult for a child of 5 to read a note on the manuscript, sing its name out loud and play it on the piano at the same time, connecting the notation aurally and practically. 

Neither is it difficult for a child to understand the format of the tones and semitones in a major scale, and to construct major scales whilst singing and playing them.  

These are just 2 examples of teaching for the well rounded musician from the start which can be developed in every lesson.

Benefits of nurturing Well Rounded Musicians

We need Well Rounded Musicians to play in orchestras, to be performers of all music, composers and to be teachers, and for creativity to flourish. In educating for these possibilities within classical music, we also create musicians who play jazz, rock and pop with a knowledge of how music works. They are independent musicians who are not limited to copying, based on good aural and/or practical skills alone, but are well rounded musicians who can achieve their full potential without limitations being placed on their creativity, enjoyment and desire to learn.

When students understand it they are more likely to continue learning music and inevitably enjoy music more.  Well Rounded Musicians not only have a lifelong enjoyment of music, they also have the freedom to choose whichever genre of music they favour and enjoy it to its fullest.