“The practice that neutralizes the common sense intuition of the most privileged members of society as objective knowledge.”

 

The glorification of Western Music Theory has always been a pet peeve of mine during the years I’ve embraced and loved music. Up until the start of high school, I didn’t realize that many other cultures in the world didn’t follow the “traditional” rules of music theory that is explained, leading me to be narrow minded about other types of music. Even as I expanded my knowledge of other types of music and the art of how different the building blocks were, such as the aforementioned Japanese Music Theory, which relies on the pentatonic scale as its “primary” scale, I noticed that it’s never talked about at all in schools. It was always about the “Greats”, such as JS Bach, Beethoven, or Stravinsky, the standard stuff.

In today’s world of music education, I believe there should be less of a push on old music theory such as Figured Bass, because I feel like it is being taught just to be taught and never gets utilized and is often thrown away. There should be more of an expansive focus on modern music theory that can be consistently be used, such as harmony, melody and such, as well as a more broader look at music theory from different cultures around the world to understand the differences and specialties they have. On top of all these, there should also be a focus on the deeply rooted White Supremacy that lives within the Western Music Theory. Although it is not the greatest nor proudest thing to learn about, it is absolutely important to understand that aspect of history, and to use this knowledge to appreciate other musical icons such who are female or People of Color.

Hopefully in the next few years, music schools will teach more about “Music”, instead of “Western Music”. There is already a slow shift towards this kind of teaching, but I hope that this push keeps on moving forward so that we can appreciate Music as a whole.