Six Fallacies Regarding the Question of Whether We Conceive of Practices as “Musical”

Abstract:What forms of practices can we observe in music education settings? Is it always music just because there are instruments in the room and some sounds are produced or because we can identify some pieces of a musical work now and then? Or is it because the children are engaged in self-determined activities? Or does the verbalization of behavior in musical terms prove this to be musical practice? This and other thoughts that guided the initial interpretations in a teaching research project based on video materials have shown to be fallacies during deeper analyses. Since the indicators that this paper argues to be fallacies seem to be quite common–some in participatory observation of music practice (reflective practice of music educators) and others in theoretical and research work on music education–the identification and reflection of these fallacies could be of general value for music education discourse and practice. Various examples demonstrate how undifferentiated or even fallacious interpretations of practices in music education settings can undermine possibilities for aesthetic experience and musical practice. The paper argues that the necessary differentiation in observation depends on a reconsideration of philosophical questions and concepts from the past.