Music Neurosis - Society

In this article I use the term "neurosis" not in its main meaning - "painful experiences / sensations of a psychogenic nature", but in a more everyday sense. Neurosis is a habitual reaction of a person to certain circumstances, which once brought relief and benefit, and subsequently lost any meaning

Remember the old, old anecdote about the little red frying pan? When a young wife embarks on an investigation, from what such a fright it is necessary to cut off the tails of the sausages, she finally comes to her husband's great-grandmother, who asks with surprise: "Well, is my little red frying pan still alive?" I undertake to prove that with teaching our modern children to play musical instruments in the format of a music school, things are about the same. That is, we are dealing with a neurosis. Only under our hands we do not have soulless sausages, but quite live people, quite severely traumatized by what used to serve for survival.

Girl, do you want to make music?

God took me, as they say, myself: there were seven dog runs to the nearest school, there was no one to carry. Therefore - private lessons with long breaks from 4 to 16 years old, only piano, no solfeggio (sorry), no choir (sorry very much), reporting concerts and exams (happy, hurray, hurray, I hate performing). Perhaps it is for this reason that I have been playing all my life, carrying a piano, a guitar, constantly listening to music, and even returning to school at about 40. Moreover, I attracted all my friends whom I could reach, we had a small class of one teacher, we arranged "home parties", discussed works and generally had a great time.

But as a psychologist, I hear the theme “the main horror of my life is the musician” all the time. People wake up at night in a cold sweat, screaming, in a state of panic attack, when they dream of all this: a concert, a lesson, a stage. Choking up with tears, successful adult women tell how they were beaten with a belt, denied food and sleep, in a "milder" version - deprived of communication with friends or parents for unlearned music assignments, bad grades in music. How they went on stage on bending legs, how they vomited before the test, I know several cases when children attempted suicide, just to get rid of hated activities.

And all this torment for what? So that the child could play the Revolutionary Etude at the guests' place? Very few of the guests generally agree to listen to classical music without asking, and the argument “when you come to the company, play, and everyone will gasp” is high time to ban. Granny, how do you imagine that, am I going to go on dates with a piano under my arm? Or look for him in the bushes? What nonsense is prehistoric ?!

That's it: prehistoric. I'll tell you now.

Music education as a cultural phenomenon

From about ancient times to the 18th century, only professionals owned the skills of playing musical instruments: it was a more or less respected job. Heterosexuals, courtiers and itinerant musicians, church organists were members of various guilds, such as those of shoemakers or executioners.

Although in matchmaking paintings we quite often find a note with an asterisk: "girl So-and-so, and beautiful, and smart, and of a decent kind, and also plays the lute / flute / harp." An additional bonus: the future happy spouse will not suffer from boredom in the evenings, but will be able to have a cultural rest. (Here we will put the first checkbox on our mental list: a musically educated girl has advantages in the marriage market.)

The boys were given a purely applied, practical education. The first conservatories in Europe were established with the same purpose as canned food: keeping something for a long time, in this case, preserving the lives of soldiers' orphans. Little boys were taken into musical companies, taught the simple wisdom of drumming or playing the screeching flute and sent to war, of which there were then in abundance. Here is the second flag: music as a source of a piece of bread for an orphaned child.

In our time, this has been practiced for quite a long time in the form of musical platoons in the army, therefore, it is still not the last motivation for the boy - “in the army you will play the button accordion warm while the rest of the parade ground are sweeping with a crowbar”.

In the absence of radio, television and the Internet, the need for musicians of all stripes was overwhelming. A violinist will not be left without a piece of bread and a roof over his head under any circumstances, my Jewish ancestors knew this very well. The violin really fed. Therefore, as soon as a sensitive ear caught the first shrill, zapoloshny chords of the incipient pogrom, the Book was grabbed in one hand, a violin in the other hand, children to the backs - and run to the next place where we are also not welcome. But after a week the mayor marries off his daughter, and who better to play a merry dance than Yitzhak the violinist? And his children are so fine, well-mannered, they also play along on the pipes, and the daughters sing with such clear voices, okay, let them live, we will always have time to interrupt.

This is where the idea “with a grand piano will be welcome at any party”, but what did you think?

With the prehistoric context sorted out, now let's move on to our time: Soviet and post-Soviet.

Music for general development

If before the war only a few children, from families that “could afford it,” were involved in music, then by the seventies of the last century attending a music school had become almost mandatory, at least for girls. For boys, sports sections were such an obligation. The fact that the child attends music school, and does not hang out idle down the street, elevated and brought closer to the privileged class.

Again, the echo of the "rich life", familiar only from books and films, from pictures in the anthology on literature: "Evening tea in an intelligent family." The girl plays the piano, her parents look at her with affection, a servant looks curiously from the open double-leaf door, a pot-bellied little girl in a cap froze in the arms of the nanny. On the table is a samovar, pies in a heap, portraits of ancestors on the walls, papa in a three-piece suit, mama with a high hairdo. Whisper! Not what we have: dumplings in the kitchen with a screaming TV. So let at least the kid play something on the piano, "Turkish March" or something …

When a preschool child is asked (rhetorically, no one expects an answer from him): "Do you want to learn music?" - usually get a happy "Yes!" But what do the parents mean and what does the baby mean? Children dream that they will beat the keys brightly and loudly, sing, dance, and everyone will applaud and praise them. We see something similar when young children imitate the game: they take an instrument, blow, knock, pull the strings. They really like the sounds they get.

What do parents mean? “For seven to eight years, you will decorously go to classes five times a week for two or three hours, obediently rehearse at home, two or three times a year we will go to reporting concerts, dad will film it all, and mom wipe your tears with a handkerchief."

As you can see, the goals and objectives do not coincide in any way. Children want to play and enjoy the process. They don't know anything about the narcissistic aspirations of their parents. If the teacher comes across kind and cheerful - it will make sense, if the grimza is a sadist - there will be tears, resistance, repulsed interest

It is believed that music lessons develop … Well, about everything develops: memory, mathematical abilities, perseverance, concentration, public speaking skills and even language hearing. Therefore, children should attend a music school - period.

Who would argue, I definitely not. Develops. Just like any other activities between a child and an adult. Didn't you know?

Here is a quote from the most valuable book of my colleague, a defectologist from Israel, Lara Shpilberg, author of the child development manual "Do children grow like grass?", In which she describes a very interesting experiment.

“In a particular case, in a group of ordinary children, Instrumental Enrichment - Reuven’s technique - gave excellent results. The difference was obvious. Until one very cunning one came … but in fact, just a competent … experimenter. And I haven't done a theoretically grounded trick long ago.

He divided the subjects into not two, but three groups. One, as before, did not teach anything extra. The second, as before, taught the non-contextual Instrumental Enrichment program. And the third, at the same hours, is the Old French language. Just. Could macrame, for example.

The results at the end of the year were simple and straightforward. Both the last groups differed markedly for the better from the control. They were equally different."

The conclusion of the group of researchers was offensively simple: it is necessary to deal with children. It doesn't matter what exactly. We now know that in order to develop successfully, a child first and foremost needs a deep and secure attachment to a significant adult. And if this caring guardian gradually, with love, gradually teaches the child what he owns and burns, which is the main value of his adult life, the child will be imbued with this enthusiasm, saturated with it like a sponge.

“Sewing forever is my most important rest, resource, and pleasure, there I catch a delightful state of flow and freedom. Why? Because this was the only activity where I was with my mother, just the two of us. From the age of four I stood at her right elbow, carefully observing every movement: at first I was allowed to take out the pins, then the basting, then outline the details, transfer the patterns to the shiny creaky tracing paper … At the age of 12 I was already quite professionally sewing, I earned a little with this the main thing was an incredible feeling of closeness and warmth.

Now I can get up very early, while everyone is asleep, and by lunchtime there will be a ready-made dress for my granddaughter, a sundress for my next niece, an outfit for the theater in the evening. And a bonus that my mother hardly knew when she showed me how to sharpen a collar cleanly: A's in geometry and physics. I didn't have to argue or prove theorems for a long time, I just saw how the section would go or where the triangle of forces was directed."

Why is nothing like this happening among that huge, boundless mass of music school graduates all over the country? Why, instead of very pleasant, filling and inspiring sensations in the body that accompany truly creative processes - calm deep breathing, relaxation throughout the body, concentration of attention, a feeling of complete awareness - people talk about exactly opposite experiences: stiffness and tightness of all muscles, painful sensations in the back and arms, palpitations, sometimes nausea, semi-fainting - as soon as you have to approach the instrument?

All these symptoms clearly signal to us: I am under severe stress, I am very scared, it hurts, I am "bombed", as in an attack. The body remembers the long-term violence with which the training was associated. The experience of humiliation, very often physical punishment, exhausting rehearsals, more like collective executions … And all this is under the banner of "beautiful, soul-elevating and mind-developing art."

It seems to me that in the system of music education in our country, as in a distorting mirror, all the main features of domestic life are reflected: violence under the guise of care, tolerance to violence in the name of a speculative high idea, intimidation and humiliation as the only pedagogical method

Some are still incredibly lucky to meet their teacher. Interested in you, kind, attentive, creative. Most often these were private lessons, when both the teacher and the student felt much freer, not burdened by the obligation of the curriculum and the reporting concert. Then there was pleasure, flight, and love for music. And it is these adults who now play at home, on vacation, and at parties. For them, music became what was promised to everyone: an act of creation and inspiration.

So what is the neurosis? The fact that the occupation, which previously served to survive and increase social status, has turned over time into an empty and unnecessary ritual action.

Yes, there have always been and will be children raving about music. Believe me, they do not need to be stimulated to practice, on the contrary, you have to drive away from the instrument with a stick. But to force and drive everyone through this traumatic experience just because it is "so accepted"?

It seems to me that we should all think about the meaning and purpose of this undoubtedly noble occupation