Teaching music is more than just teaching people to read music, keep the beat, and play a musical instrument. Music also has an enormous value beyond utilitarian goals: improving cognitive and academic performance, improving the brain, strengthening physical dexterity, etc.. Teaching music is not for the purpose of improving other areas of life (although it does indeed do that). Music is its own reward. 

 

As an art form, music has the ability to communicate ideas and feelings that sometimes words fail to accurately express. Music, like all other art forms, seeks to point us beyond the struggles, pain, and monotony of everyday life. 

 

Music is a language. Language is both technical and beautiful. The technical: learning to read music, keep the beat, and play a musical instrument should be accompanied by the beautiful: understanding the ideas, form, and feelings expressed in music. 

 

Understanding the beauty of music also involves developing the ability to make critical judgements. An important aspect of teaching music is to deconstruct music in order to discover its form and variety. This is accomplished by analyzing the structure, melody, harmony, and rhythm of any given piece of music. 

 

In the end, music is to be shared. A musician, having learned the technical apparatus of their chosen instrument, then applying their knowledge to discern the structures in a piece of music, prepares and performs for an audience. In this whole process, the composer, performer, and listener all share the experience of the beautiful.