ABSTRACT
Systematic instruction in music education is central to the pedagogy that results in the incubation of ideas with reference to singing (melody), clapping (rhythm) and ensemble performance (emerging harmony). Through music – in most cases, song – children are sensitised to and infused with elementary ideas that are fundamental to knowledge. Music has unique objectives and philosophy that shape and guide practice in both the Western and indigenous African educational institutions and environments. The realisation of these objectives and philosophy is based on both the functionality of the intended goal of teaching, and the focus of the practitioners under development. The reason for the training determines how these objectives are met and what aspects of these philosophies are applied. When music education is for professional training, for example, pertinent procedural and contextual issues gravitate around the creation of a professional musician, be it from a Western classical or indigenous African perspective. This article presents the context of the clause ‘musical arts education’ as that which is not limited to formal instruction alone. The subtle features of informality, as portrayed by the apprenticeship system of education in some (African) communities, are equally worthy of note. The article focusses on the different possibilities of musical arts exposure in both formal classroom and indigenous African settings.
