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Captain Beefheart's piano: Confessions of an unrepentant illiterate
Citation
Corbett, M, Captain Beefheart's piano: Confessions of an unrepentant illiterate, International journal of critical pedagogy, 1, (2) pp. 148-159. ISSN 2157-1074 (2008) [Refereed Article]
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Copyright Statement
Copyright 2008 International Journal of Critical Pedagogy
Official URL: http://libjournal.uncg.edu/ijcp/issue/archive
Abstract
I want to make a confession. I am illiterate. I cannot read … music. Yet, I have passed
myself off as a musician. I have earned money playing music on the pretext that I knew
what I was doing. But here and now I admit that I am a fraud. I’ve tried to learn to read
musical notation. I guess I’m not totally illiterate when it comes to musical symbols. I
can find the notes on one of those charts and name them. I know there are 8 notes. And
there are spaces between some of these notes and they’re called sharps and flats. I’m not
sure what this means. I know that the way the note is written on the lines, with a tail or
without, hollow or filled in has something to do with time and how long the note should
be sustained. But I have no idea how this actually works out in a piece of music. I am not
alone either, indeed the world is full of informally educated people doing all sorts of
things they do not understand structurally and for which they lack credentials. In the rural
community where I work for instance many vehicles are maintained and repaired by
people who are not mechanics, plumbing is done by people who are not plumbers,
wounds are treated by people who are not doctors, trees are felled by people who are not
loggers and the list goes on. In spite of credentialism and professionalization, in my rural
community the idea that only the formally certified can do complex work is known by the
term: bullshit
Item Details
Item Type: | Refereed Article |
---|---|
Keywords: | literacies, OECD, standardization, globalization, culture |
Research Division: | Education |
Research Group: | Education Systems |
Research Field: | Continuing and Community Education |
Objective Division: | Expanding Knowledge |
Objective Group: | Expanding Knowledge |
Objective Field: | Expanding Knowledge in Education |
Author: | Corbett, M (Professor Michael Corbett) |
ID Code: | 100562 |
Year Published: | 2008 |
Deposited By: | Education |
Deposited On: | 2015-05-20 |
Last Modified: | 2015-09-02 |
Downloads: | 329 View Download Statistics |
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