Emily Wood - Folk & Science [S.1, EP.5]

On the Rhythm Changes Podcast, Emily Wood talks about her research with the Auditory Development Lab at McMaster University and contrasts learning folk music traditions with music education.

We talked about

• Being a grad student in a non-musician field with a musical culture
• Growing up in fiddle groups like the Coast String Fiddlers and going to the Aberdeen International Youth Festival
• Fiddle music instruction compared with other music instruction, like a high school band
• The brain’s role in musicianship in conjunction with the body
• How music activates your motor system
• A case for teaching music much earlier to young children
• A stronger benefit-based argument for music education (better than, “it increases students’ grades”)
• A digression on my own learning timeline and how it had almost no music until high school
• Refusing to worry about nature vs. nurture
• Emily’s takes on some North Shore Celtic Ensemble observations I’ve had about teaching new tunes to students
• What to look for in a well-prepared and comfortable performing youth group (looking at each other, moving around, & more)
• How a good fiddle teacher always takes a particular amount of time between call-and-response teaching melodies by ear
• Why teachers need to watch how much information they give at a time, looking to not overload students’ working memory
• The lack Emily perceives of academic research on folk music teaching
• Body sway: how musicians communicate by moving
• Mental practice: without your instrument or when you’re injured
• Why almost everybody can carry a tune
• Emily’s own music and jazz school experience
• The threat of falling out of love with music when you have high personal standards of perfection
• Coming home to jam with Kirin Lamb, Jennifer Mauel, Jocelyn Pettit, and other folk music friends
• Emily’s next steps as a musician