"Rather than focusing exclusively on musical skills, Finnish music education aims to consider

students holistically as human beings, from their very first steps. (-) Music education is not
about the subject; it is about the people," writes Petri Aarnio in his column.

Petri Aarnio Published 02 Jun 2017 in Columns

(https://fmq.fi/columns)

Music education from Finland: Experiences, exploration and excitement Finnish schoolchildren
have repeatedly ranked at the top of the global PISA survey, and the Finnish comprehensive
school system is currently being cloned in Dubai, for instance.

The Finnish music institute system has also enjoyed high worldwide appreciation for quite
some time: after all, it is thanks to this system that Finland has produced a disproportionately
high number of internationally distinguished conductors, composers and instrumentalists. Our
goal of social equality manifests itself in how teaching is provided at music institutes. In a small
nation such as ours, it makes sense to leverage everyone’s potential. Accordingly, the aim is to
give children of all social classes and backgrounds the opportunity to learn music.

The content of the teaching is rooted in the tradition of Western classical music, albeit
extended to include a variety of genres and updated to embrace modern, student-oriented
pedagogics. The range of instrument tuition available is broad: instruments of the symphony
orchestra and pop band instruments, and of course the staples – piano, accordion, voice,
recorder and Finland’s national instrument, the kantele (http://www.fmq.dev/2017/05/the-
kantele-not-exclusively-finnish/).

In order to level the playing field financially, music institutes covered by the Act on Basic
Education in the Arts are subsidised by both the central government and local authorities.
There are about 100 such music institutes, distributed evenly throughout the country. Almost
all of their teachers are appropriately qualified, with a university degree. The teaching is
governed by a national core curriculum. An interesting feature in this field of teaching is a
model of ensemble playing based on Finnish folk music, known as ‘Näppärit’
(http://www.kansanmusiikki-instituutti.fi/napparit/en/the-nappari-method/ ). It is a scheme
where musicians of all ages and skill levels can come together in a relaxed and encouraging
atmosphere.

A new national core curriculum is in preparation for Finnish music institutes, focusing on
musical creativity and improvisation. It will also allow theory of music, ensemble playing and
instrument tuition to be brought closer to one another. Also, government guidance will be
reduced, as music institutes and by extension their students can be given more leeway in how
to evaluate learning and progress.

The ground-breaking pedagogical work done by Géza and Csaba Szilvay at the East Helsinki
Music Institute since back in the 1960s is an important chapter in the history of Finnish music
education. They created the simple and easily taught Colourstrings method, originally for
string instruments but since extended to other instrument families. The method also led to the
establishment of the International Minifiddlers (http://www.fmq.dev/2015/04/broader-
perspectives-in-teaching-music/)project, involving music schools in Australia, Austria, France,
Germany and the UK.

Yet even though music is traditionally the strong suit in Finnish arts education, its export
efforts are currently not doing quite as well as those of some others.
A case in point is the Arkki project (School of Architecture for Children and Youth), which is
leading to the establishment of a string of schools worldwide. Its curricula are licensed and
localised as needed, and Arkki trains all teachers. There are currently four such schools in
Greece, an agreement is about to be signed in the Czech Republic, and there are two dozen
interested potential partners in China.

This model could easily be transposed (!) to music education. I also believe that recognition of
the wellbeing and health impacts of music and recent findings in brain research and genetic
studies (see also the FMQ article (http://www.fmq.dev/2016/10/music-in-our-nature/ ) have
the potential for opening up unprecedented opportunities in the nursing and health care
sectors.

One of the pioneers in this area is the Well-being Know-how Center of Eastern Finland or
VOIMALA, where operators in the social welfare, health care, education and culture sectors
have come together for a low-threshold exchange of services. Could the forthcoming health
and social services reform enable a unique opportunity for Finland to launch an internationally
available range of musical wellbeing services? :: In the ideal scenario, the education of future
musicians will begin before birth, with prenatal training provided for mothers. Children under
school age attend music playschool before they even take up an instrument. Children who are
learning an instrument have face-to-face contact with their teachers and progress at a rate
that is just right for them. Students have responsibility for their own learning, which thus
becomes both creative and fun. Learning also includes making friends, improving self-
confidence and getting to know oneself better.

Music education is not about the subject; it is about the people. Global markets value critical
thinking, problem-solving skills, cooperation, creativity, initiative, goal-oriented thinking,
responsibility for self and others, media literacy and learning skills. All these can be improved
through music education. Indeed, the instrumental (!) values of music education may soon
come to be very highly valued indeed, as individual personalities are being increasingly
appreciated for instance in Asia as societies grow wealthier.

Quality is the most important single factor in individual-oriented teaching: after all, learning an
instrument provides instrumental skills for managing other areas of life, and these two
competences are different aspects of the same overall quality goal. Given all of the above,
‘music lesson’ is quite an uninteresting term for what is actually a learning moment of
experiences, exploration and excitement for children and adolescents. And the only limit is
your imagination! Translation: Jaakko Mäntyjärvi