Whole Music Learning
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Why Whole Music Learning?
Rob Zollman

Whole Music Learning is the name I've given my version of music learning using a logical whole-part-whole sequence. Whole-part-whole simply means we learn a song as a whole first, break it down into the parts necessary to understand and play it with understanding, then put back together again into a whole song that we can express in a musically meaningful way. I didn't come up with this idea. Rather, Whole Music Learning emerged from my many experiences, influences -- and most significantly -- studying with music learning theorist Dr. Edwin Gordon.

Four vocabularies; context vs content
Music learning and language learning share four vocabularies: listening, speaking, reading and writing. In language we listen and speak before we learn to read and write. In music, too, we learn best when we engage in listening and speaking activities first. Examples of speaking activities in music are singing, moving, playing by ear, chanting rhythm patterns, singing tonal patterns and improvising.

Listening and speaking activities provide the context, or the whole in the whole-part-whole process. Contextual activities include listening to and engaging in singing or playing entire songs, meaningful sections and fragments, or tonal and rhythm patterns that come from a song. 

Reading and writing are content activities, the parts of the whole-part-whole process. Content also includes execution skills required to play an instrument, theoretical analysis, and other activities required to understand the song from the inside out.    What is a song? (related essay)

Whole Music Learning vs traditional music education
For many years my experiences as a performer and teacher led me to question how I was taught and, in turn, how I was teaching. Considered a successful performer by my peers, I knew I could play drums but I didn't really understand on a deeper level the music which I was playing. Yet I had a degree in music performance and had played dozens of styles from classical to rock. Where was the missing link?

Similarly, as a private teacher, my students would come to me wanting to learn drumming, but most showed little musical awareness. At first I addressed their needs by teaching hand technique, drum set beats and reading. Most of my students could achieve these skills, but only the talented ones played musically. Why did some drummers become musicians, while others were just drummers?

I intuitively felt intuitively that nearly anyone could be taught to play in a musical manner. It was much later, however, that I realized a priority shift was necessary in order for drummers to become musicians. That shift involved thinking musically first and "drumistically" second. In other words, if you came to me wanting to be a drummer you could probably become a drummer. But if you came wanting to be a musician, you'd end up being both.

It took me many years, however, to fully understand this. In 1979, in order to organize my teaching materials, I began a drum book. Over the next 14 years it evolved into a reflection of the grooves and techniques I had used in my playing career. Then, in 1993, I studied with Edwin Gordon, leading me to question nearly everything. My work with Professor Gordon was so mind and ear opening that I knew I would never again teach in the same way. In fact, I would never think of music itself in the same way. I renewed my work on my book, changed most of it, gave the name Whole Music Drumming, finally completing it in 2002. Aside of including more on movement and improvisation, it's held up pretty well for me. I continue to use it every day as the go-to source for written materials in my teaching.

Through all this, my underlying realization is that traditional music education is deeply flawed. Traditional music education is all about content, less about context. It emphasizes reading and writing and largely assumes students' listening and speaking vocabularies have been somehow acquired previously. Even when students are given listening activities, these activities seem to emphasize appreciation over participation.

Whole Music Learning is about creating context first, then teaching content activities with this context. Listening activities relate, involve or lead directly to music participation.  

Throughout traditional music education and popular culture, the message -- especially for adults -- is leave it to the professionals. Only the talented few are qualified to be "real" musicians. The line between the "haves" and the "have-nots" is more defined in music than in any other social or artistic activity.

It is within this environment that I labor for musical inclusion, in my work with babies and pre-schoolers, grade school students and for adults as well. Everyone can be included. Music is as accessible as language, as long as we present it in the same way. If we listen and speak music and movement throughout our society, the division will go away and people will be happier. And, if you take into account all the recent research on music and the brain, people will be smarter, too.

Rob Zollman

Like to read more? I continue discussing this issue and other related subjects in my other writings, which you can access through this website. I also recommend reading works by Edwin Gordon and the increasing collection of materials by members of the Gordon Institute for Music Learning.