This week's talking point derives from a lesson in The New York Times Learning Network, Rocking It Out: Exploring Music Teaching Methods. Get together with the members of your conversation group and answer the questions below. Try to go over the answers in advance so that the conversation is more fluent and you are not at a loss for ideas when you meet your friends.
What types of music do you like?
When do you usually listen to music?
Do you prefer listening to recorded or live music?
Who is your favourite composer or musician? Why?
How did you discover their music?
How do you think the musicians you admire started out learning music?
Does it make a difference to you whether artists you like compose their own songs?
Have you ever had music instruction of any sort? If so, why? If not, why not?
At what age, if any, did you start learning to sing or play a musical instrument?
What instrument(s) do you, or did you, play? (Voice counts as an instrument.)
What genre of music have you learned?
If you don’t play anymore, at what age did you stop? Why?
What, if any, instruments would you like to learn to play?
What, if any, genre of music would you like to learn to perform?
In preparation for your conversation session you can read David Bornstein's article in The New York Times Beyond Baby Mozart, Students Who Rock. The article deals with the way music is taught at schools and specifically focuses on a music programme called Little Kids Rock in which students play their favorite songs, perform in bands, and compose their own music.
You can also watch David Wish's talk in TED We are all Musicians, about the relationship between language acquisition and music.
