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MUSIC AND GAME ASPECTS IN THE LIFELONG LEARNING PROCESS
L. A. Timoshenko
Games are one of the key concepts in modern education. Due to their functional characteristics, games have gained enormous popularity in professional musical education thanks to historical, axiological, cultural, and other circumstances. Games and music, as historical and cultural heritage, as elements of education and the educational process, have stood at the origins of civilization, and are understood by humankind as a universal and priority means of public education. In his scientific theory of culture, B. Malinovsky stated the indisputable idea that all cultural phenomena stand the test of time and are gradually institutionalized, “gaining a place in the sun” [1]. The fact that games and music have long been present in human life is undeniable; they are not utilitarian human activities and do not depend on the feasibility and reality of life, and this is their kind of value for humanity [2].
Among the first who discovered the essence of music and game was Immanuel Kant, focusing his attention on the transcendent potential of these phenomena, on creating their own reality, different from the reality of everyday life. The conditional character of a game and music contributes to the development of artistic, creative abilities, the ability to reincarnate and imagine, and the ability for abstract thinking. In the history of the Russian cultural tradition, music and games with their improvisational and festive form drew the attention of researchers. After all, no festivities could do without games, dancing and songs. Acting as a special value in the history of civilization, these two components of culture have acquired social conditionality in the implementation of the higher demands of a creative personality.
In modern pedagogy, with its focus on the enhancement and intensification of the training process, education of spiritual and moral thinking, and raising a creative personality, games and musical activities have taken priority areas. Due to the variety of functions and types of actions, these components of the educational process have a wide range of effects on the student performing developmental, cognitive, communicative, and other functions, carrying out the task of selfrealization, socialization, communication and ethnic identity, developing creative skills, and contributing to spiritual and aesthetic enrichment. While involved in games and performing music, a person can master a lot of knowledge and skills. Furthermore, games and music don’t know the limit of perfection, and have no age limits, they are multidimensional and multifaceted, extensive and multifunctional. Multi-level educational institutions, with specific continuity, regularity, and consistency of training programs are typical of the continuous process of musical education in Russia. The aspect of the game has long occupied a niche in this system, and it serves as an organizing, unifying, systematizing, and developing factor. Diversity in musical activities (playing a musical instrument, singing, improvisation, ensemble, theoretical and research activities, etc.) uses a variety of gaming techniques. As practice shows, with the help of learning techniques, the development of musical abilities of students is more fruitful and more interesting
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while playing. Music classes have a more creative atmosphere, and are the most interesting and attractive classes. Each stage has its own chain of educational goals and objectives in this regard, so the game is modified, transformed, and acquires a new direction, creating the necessary knowledge and skills.
At the initial stage of training it is advisable to introduce a group of games to explore the variety of music and auditory representations for the differentiation of imaginative and sensual spheres, to express them in words, images, drawings and poems. It is experimentally proven that a creative teacher can use a large number of musical and didactic games, knowing the goals and objectives of an individual lesson and the holistic learning process. For example, the rhythmic variety of music dictates the need for inclusion into music classes of clapping, dancing, noise and other gaming activities. For comparison of the upper and lower registers, determining their imagery, there are a number of cognitive and creative games with elements of writing. When playing it is easy to form a child’s idea of the nature of registers: the upper one is fragile, lightweight and translucent, whereas the bottom one is heavy, gloomy and forbidding. It should be pointed out that the lessons should include examples of popular classical music that are easily understood but which move the soul of young listeners. The development of the knowledge approach which is so essential for an understanding of musical language and the laws of performance takes place in the period of study at a music school. Game activities in this period are quite relevant, and students can easily become involved in the process of playing, but the nature of the game takes on new directions, form and content. It is preferable that the games are integrative in nature, aimed at uniting disparate parts and elements of the educational process, linking the living representation of musical imagery and theoretical knowledge with the practical. Interdisciplinary communication is particularly important at this stage of training, combining the properties of music with literature, painting, sculpture, theater, etc. The nature of games forming a musical and auditory idea is being replaced by cognitive, developmental, educational, and training games.
The next step in music education is secondary educational institutions: professional schools and colleges. This is the first level of professional musical education, which is characterized as a system of training of professionals in the field of musical art. This level of education tends to solve big issues on the development of the professional competence of future teachers, including knowledge of educational technologies to mobilize future students for acquiring knowledge and perception of musical images. The cognitive approach to the selection of games in the middle step receives proper professional development. During this period of training the flow of knowledge of theoretical subjects increases, the complexity of the program increases as well, and it requires a certain amount of memory, analytical thinking, and the ability to compare and analyze. The logical thinking required for a musician is gradually formed, enriched by the experience of knowledge about the means of musical expression, styles and genres, about the directions in music, and on the composers’ work, which subsequently determines the essence of a musician, teacher, and performer. The learning process includes games in which students reproduce the information known to them, compare, analyze, recognize a familiar phenomenon, or create or make crossword puzzles, riddles. The game can stimulate the activity of the
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student in independent and cognitive search activities. The teacher who knows how to improvise and create game situations in the classroom will accelerate the learning process of his or her students, and will teach them by his/her own example.
An important place in the interaction between “school - college - graduate education - post-graduate education” is taken by the joint work of teaching staff associated with the organization of a unified object-meaningful space, including the game experience. In the course of research and teaching experiments we have revealed that this training period is characterized by carrying out search, organizational, social, managerial, business, role-playing, and creative games. Each of them provides for the development of new knowledge and practical skills, as well as a valuable attitude to the future profession. Making a game requires from its participants some experience in organizing and managing a team, game skills and some experience in a game. There is reason to believe that high-level games help to identify abstract, modeling, simulation, and creative abilities of an individual. Workshops, art workshops, and master classes, which constitute the content of postgraduate education and training courses, can also be used as a model of leading game technology. The output of such games is varied, and there are no ready answers and definitive solutions, but the process of training teaching skills is taking place, and their range of application is expanding.
Bibliography
1. Малиновский, Б. Основы межкультурной коммуникации. [Электронный ресурс]. - Режим доступа: countries.ru>library/intercult/mkt.htm
2. Хейзинга, Й. Homo ludens [Электронный ресурс]. - Режим доступа: http://krotov.info/library/22_h/hey/zinga_03.html
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