Concepts of world music and their integration within western secondary music education

Other than simply gaining the ability to disseminate a selection of interesting musical facts or combat the growth of one-sided, stereotypical views of different musical cultures, a primary benefit of acquiring familiarity with aspects of non-western musics is that doing so can lead us to see aspects of our own music, whether pop, traditional or classical, with new eyes or, perhaps more appropriately, to listen with new ears. Musical concepts and habits that we have acquired through the enculturation process, through being born and bred within a particular culture, are sometimes overlooked; they become so ʼnatural’ that we may no longer be able to perceive them. Studying a different musical culture brings these issues back to our attention, and thereby encourages a deeper understanding of our own music. Studying musical activity from the perspective of concepts employed, in varying fashions, all over the world assists the western music teacher to teach music, rather than western music alone.