Erinne Phillips

Dr. Lisa Maynard

Music Education: A Professional Choice

In this chapter entitled “Transfer” in Robert Duke’s book Intelligent Music Teaching, the

concept of applying what we know into our teaching is very thoroughly discussed. He states

“[t]he application of acquired knowledge and skills in situations other than those in which the

knowledge and skills were originally learned is called transfer of learning or transfer of training

in the education jargon.” (Duke, 139). He also discusses the development of mental and physical

skills. Duke discusses how a more developed mind is more useful and flexible after your mind is

put to work. Transfer isn’t necessarily a natural thing, and most learners don’t automatically

transfer information from one aspect of their life/learning to another.

Duke also discusses that there are negative instances of transfer. These are instances

where occurrences or experiences actually interfere with their current learning. Duke provides

the example: “many wind players who learned in a strict tradition of common practice Western

music may find it difficult to learn to play in a jazz style, precisely because they apply previously

learned information and skills that make the learning of jazz more difficult.” (Duke, 153 - 154).