Shapes: A Music Method for the Expert Beginner

Abstract

Shapes is a music learning method that shifts the notion of musical basics from music-theoretical objects, like notes, scales, chords, keys, and even particular musical works, to the contexts that underlie these ideas. It begins by using the keyboard as a mnemonic device to leverage a learner’s implicit musical knowledge, enabling the learner to play along with any song they hear. From this foundation, it develops instrumental, analytical, and note reading skill, progressing gradually to an internal model of the instrument, and the ability to imagine sounds clearly in the mind's ear. Shapes exemplifies an alternative to beginner methods that present music as a whole built up from parts. It suggests, instead, that a learner begins with the whole, and uses musical tools to explore inexhaustible and particular aspects of that whole. The approach establishes a relationship with music-theoretical concepts more generally as playful, designed environments within which to have a particular experience of music.