I believe that all people, without exception, are able to make music. Confidence in music making does not come down to musical ‘ability’ or whether one is ‘tone deaf’. A person is able to be musical if their innate musicality is able to flow, unhindered by the many obstacles that can make music-making more difficult.
Music-making with others is much like conversation. A satisfying experience is dependant upon listening skills, patience, care, empathy, sensitivity and leaving space for others. For positive and meaningful dialogue, these skills are more important than having an extensive and diverse vocabulary. A person can know a lot of words yet be a poor communicator.
Given that we all have, to one degree or another, learnt these communication skills, we all have the potential to make music in a way that feels satisfying and enjoyable, if only we were given the opportunity to make music in a way that prioritised these skills, rather than in a manner that depended upon us first overcoming various physical and intellectual barriers and obstacles.
It is not only in the music-making domain that these obstacles to creativity exist. I have seen in some schools that young people are led to believe that writing skills are required in order to make up stories, and that the fine motor skills, co-ordination and conceptual understanding of spelling syntax and grammar can then become physical and intellectual obstacles to story making. Young people (and older folk) can, of course, imagine stories without the need to write any of it down, as is evidenced by the fact that the most well known traditional storytellers have been illiterate (eg Duncan Williamson the famous Scottish traveller).
The barriers to music-making that are inherent to an activity offered by a facilitator can be:
Physical - requires a level of dexterity that is beyond the capacity of the participant
Competency - requires a level of understanding that is beyond the capacity of the participant
Musical - the music inherent to the activity does not motivate the participant
Facilitation - the way the activity is offered is not dynamic enough to respond to the participant
The next part of this series will explore the Physical obstacles to music making.