A "school of self learning"? The teaching of popular music and the formal learning theory

Une partition non musicale

“…From this perspective, and since-despite the aims of those n o 3 / 2018 318-395). Dans la perspective de ces réflexions et parce que, malgré l'ambition des acteurs de son institutionnalisation, l'enseignement des « musiques actuelles » relève bien de la forme scolaire (Deslyper 2013), on peut faire l'hypothèse que l'univers des pratiques musicales « populaires » contemporaines est bel et bien traversé par une division selon le mode de transmission, scolaire versus non scolaire, formel vs informel. La pratique des musiciens formés au sein d'une institution d'enseignement se caractériserait alors, sous certaines conditions sociales, par un rapport formel à l'activité musicale, où celle-ci constitue sa propre finalité, en rupture avec le rapport fonctionnel à la pratique, caractéristique de l'apprentissage informel, dans lequel l'activité répond essentiellement à des finalités immédiates et extra-musicales (sociabilité, détente…).…”

“…responsible for its institutionalization-musiques actuelles teaching is certainly part of school form (Deslyper 2013), we can surmise that the world of contemporary popular music playing is greatly affected by a division along transmission method lines-academic versus non-academic, or formal versus informal. The practice of musicians trained within a teaching establishment is therefore characterized, under certain social conditions, by a formal relationship to musical activity, whereby the latter constitutes its own aim, unlike the functional relationship to playing music that is characteristic of informal learning in which the activity essentially responds to immediate and extra-musical aims (sociability, relaxation, etc.…”

Historicising the question of socialisation into “popular music”

“…50 In this context, where there was little mediation, people spent much time listening and played "by ear," developing a nonacademic relationship with the instrument. 51 16 In the 1970s, more and more young people wanted to "play music" and the guitar in particular. From 1975 onwards, in the Rock'n'Folk magazine, guitarist Marcel Dadi began publishing "tablatures" (graphic representations of the guitar strings and the squares on the neck on which to place the left-hand fingers) for his compositions in the country and finger-picking style, at a time when the continuum between listening to music and playing were becoming more widespread.…”