Music Education Differences

One of the hallmarks of a solid education system is the humility to adopt systems that are working well in other countries. In the Philippines, singing and singing well is quite common. Percentage wise, the Philippines produces far more quality singers than the USA does. This is partially due to culture but heavily weighted to their approach to music.

Here in the USA back during the 2006-2007 school year, our daughter entered into public school and the music program offered here. She went into it singing pretty well for a 5 year old having been taught by her Filipino mom (my wife). Her musical skills steadily declined as a result. The program had the standard kid songs that largely are not sung in tune so her skills went down to match.

Having pulled her out of going to public schools, we turned to an online academy but the music program was largely the same. Hence we skim that music curriculum to see if there is anything worthwhile but mainly have shifted back to the music curriculum style of the Philippines and the results have been wonderful.

So what is the music curriculum style of the Philippines? In a general sense, they throw down the gauntlet immediately. They begin with some of the most challenging songs to sing. The majority of the country tries their utmost to sing like the best from the beginning. No, they do not focus on the feelings of the students. No, they do not focus on the social aspect in school. It is known in their culture that you suck it up and do it as that is life. Life is hard, deal with it.

Nearly every household has a karaoke machine as do most places of business for the staff to use. People sing there. Either you find out quickly if you have the skills or don’t but you never stop trying to improve. So what songs do they start with? Not Old MacDonald or That Old Gray Horse. The girls are expected to tackle Whitney Houston, Celine Dion, Mariah Carey, Disney movie songs, Regine Velasquez, or Sarah Geronimo. The boys are to tackle Englebert Humperdink, Tom Jones, Kenny Rogers, Luther Vandross or Jon Bon Jovi. Easy? Heck, no. But it works.

You do find some who are tone deaf and should put down that microphone. Some guys start out well as a kid but puberty is unkind and grants them a voice best not broadcasted over an amped up karaoke machine. But the results by far and large are quite amazing. The average Filipino would be a candidate to making the cut on American Idol here. But they could not begin to try to compete in the Philippines. A prime example is Charice Pempengco who was brought from the Philippines to be on the Ellen DeGeneres show. She would have faded into the background of the country as she placed THIRD on their version of American Idol at the age of then 14!

And she placed THIRD in a contest she had to BEG to get into in the Philippines. We could stand to learn a lot from the Philippines on how to better structure our music curriculum.