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"Learning is concerned with a teacher understanding needs of each student, whereas teaching is concerned with all students understanding a teacher....Teaching is from the outside in. Learning is from the inside out" (Gordonian Knots, p. 21).
This site is dedicated to my mentor, Dr. Edwin Gordon, whom I learned music learning theory from and had the privilege to work alongside in our preschool music classes at Temple University Music Development Classes.
Selective & Commemorative sites below about his prolific contribution to Music Education:
Gordon, E. E. (n.d.). Discovering music from the inside out: An autobiography. Chicago, IL: G.I. A. Publishers.
Gordon, E. E. (1991, Spring & Summer). Gordon onGordon. The Quarterly, 2(1-2), pp. 6-9. (Reprinted with permission in Visions of Research in Music Education, 16(2), Autumn, 2010). Retrieved from http://www-usr.rider.edu/~vrme
Gordon, E. E. (2012). Learning sequences in music. G.I.A Publishers.
Gordon Institute for Musical Learning
Gordon Music Learning Theory
Gordon Music Learning Theory Application
In Memoriam: Edwin E. Gordon, Creator of Gordon Music Learning Theory (2015)
*Tribute to Edwin Gordon (1927-2015)
MLT, according to Gordon:
Edwin Gordon (GIML) (excerpts)
Children learn music in much the same way they learn a language. After listening to the sounds of her native language for some months, a child goes through a stage of language babble, in which she experiments with speech sounds that do not make sense to adult listeners. Soon afterward, she “breaks the code” of her language and is able to first imitate words, and then use them meaningfully in phrases and sentences of her own.
Children also go through stages of music babble, in which they make sounds that typically do not make musical sense to adults. In tonal babble the child sings in a speaking voice quality. In rhythm babble she moves erratically, without consistent tempo or discernible meter.
Children who have not yet emerged from music babble do not benefit from formal music instruction. They should not be taught as if they are young adults or kindergarten children. Parents and teachers should instead informally guide them to an understanding of music just as they informally guide them to an understanding of their spoken language before they receive formal schooling.
Generally, we have learned that children from birth to approximately age six do not express music like adults. Early childhood, a period of rapid change and development, is the most critical period in a child's musical growth and has been identified in the literature as the "music babble" stage (Moog, 1976; Gordon, 1988) or primary music development (Levinowitz and Guilmartin, 1989, 1992, 1996). Even the youngest infant is wired to receive music and discriminate among differences in frequency, melody, and stimuli (Bridger, 1961; Trehub et al, 1990; Standley and Madsen, 1990; Zentner and Kagan, 1996).
The years from birth through age six are critical for learning how to unscramble the aural images of music and to develop mental representations for organizing the music of the culture (Holahan, 1987; Davidson, 1985). This process is similar to that which unfolds for language during the "language babble" stage. The body of knowledge acquired through research thus far supports the notion that, like language development, young children develop musically through a predictable sequence to basic music competence, which includes singing in tune and marching to a beat (Levinowitz and Guilmartin, 1989, 1992, 1996).
Just as all children are born with the potential to learn to speak and understand their native language, all children are born with the potential to learn to perform and understand their culture's music. When a child has developed a mental representation of his or her culture's music, the inner reality (audiation) should enable the outer performance to be more accurate. By first grade, many children develop the ability to perform the music of their culture with accuracy. However, many children do not.
Both contemporary research and the traditions of many cultures have demonstrated a profound connection between rhythm and movement. The study of rhythm can be thought of as the study of all aspects of flow of music through time. We experience rhythm as the flow of our movement through space. From the developmental perspective, children must experience rhythm in their bodies before they can successfully audiate rhythm in their minds. The early childhood years are crucial for using the body to respond as a musical instrument in many ways to many different kinds of music. Real musical instruments, like tools, can then become simply extensions or amplifications of the body's ability to be musically expressive.
Phyliss Weikart, a pioneer in movement pedagogy, has noted that many school-age children cannot walk to the beat of music, perform simple motor patterns, or label how their bodies have moved (1987).
Excerpts below from Gordian Knots
p. 32
p. 21
"Time, space, weight and flow interact with one another to create rhythm" (p. 7)
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