Ensemble Music Performance as a Fulcrum in an Effectice Curriculum: Learning Through Band Playing

Abstract

An ensemble is a group of players or musical parts playing together. The main purpose of such a collaboration is to bring together different players, of varied musical backgrounds, to make up one harmonized performance. The lessons learnt from the challenges that ensemble playing poses, we argue, extend beyond the music making and can generate numerous life lessons that can be of help to advice concerns that are proving problematic to many Kenyan youths as they purpose to join the job market. We aim, through this paper, to showcase some of the lessons that students at Kabarak and throughout Kenya are learning from participating in such a group, consequently informing an effective school curriculum. We intend to use demonstrations from the Kabarak SMPA band groups to showcase these particular lessons. We feel inadequate research has been undertaken in student ensemble groups in Kenya, therefore, failing to realize, to whatever extent, how to manage some of the issues that the Kenyan youth of today face after finishing a University program. This paper is informed by the latest guidelines for developing an effective University curriculum: We feel therefore that through music ensemble playing, we can provide informative and creative solutions that will assist in nurturing responsible and proactive youths, as well as providing solutions that we feel the youth can relate to, after undergoing a program guided by a well-informed curriculum. In addition, we feel through the mentioned approach, we can inform the University music curriculum on how to use ensemble class to achieve the objectives of achieving International and National Development goals. This may in turn aid the policy makers in the country to create such forums and extend the debate beyond this paper.