Figure 1.--This looks like the music room in a small Japanese primary school. The only thing we know about it is that the photograph was taken in 1976. The children are palying instruments above the difficulty level of a recorder, presumably reflecting the resukts iof their music lessons. The group here looks smaller than a class. We are not sure if these are the more gifted children and what the rest of the class was doing.

We note a range of music activities in Japanese schools. There are both classroom and extra-curricular music activities in Japanese schools. Music is a compulsory subject. Japanese children receiveb 10 years of mandatory music studies. This has created a population which can read music and appreciate it. The children study history, theory, conducting, instrumental, and choral performance, as wll as reading and writing music. We are not sure how the differing musical abilities are accomodated in the classroom instruction. Some Japanese educators criticize the approach as emphasizing the intellectual rather than the creative aspect of music. These are also extra-curicular activities allowing the children to make us of their extensive classroom work. We note both choruses and different kinds of bands and orchestras. The music program is centralized. The size of the school, however, is a factor in what a school can offer in terms of a music program. We note a range of instrumental music making at Japanese schools. We note activity at both primary and secondary schools. Actually we note younger children performing in bands than we have noted in most other countries. We note both marching bands and other smaller groups.

Classroom Work

Music is a compulsory subject in Japanese schools. Japanese children receive 10 years of mandatory music studies. This has created a population which can read music and appreciate it. The children study history, theory, conducting, instrumental, and choral performance, as wll as reading and writing music. We are not sure how the differing musical abilities are accomodated in the classroom instruction. Some Japanese educators criticize the approach as emphasizing the intellectual rather than the creative aspect of music. These are also extra-curicular activities allowing the children to make us of their extensive classroom work. We note both choruses and different kinds of bands and orchestras. The music program is centralized. The size of the school, however, is a factor in what a school can offer in terms of a music program. The class on the previous page is a music class in a primary school. Younger children might work with singing and rythmn and innstruments like recorders and symbols.

Choral Music

Quite a number of schools have choirs. This includes both primary and secondary schools. There are a number of children's choirs in Japan. Many Japanese children's choirs are school choirs. Not all are school choirs, but many are. Theybare not as well kmown as European choirs, but perform regularly throughout Japan.

Instrumental Music

We note a range of instrumental music making at Japanese schools. We note activity at both primary and secondary schools. Actually we note younger children performing in bands than we have noted in most other countries. We note both marching bands and other smaller groups. We also note other marching bands, although their uniforms are commonly basic. We believe that that most of the marching bands are school bands. They are not as cloesly associated with the athletic program as is the case in the United States. We see them performing at both school activities as well as what looks like municipal feativals of various kinds. We also note orchestras, although this is usually most common in secondary schhools. Here we see what look like a school band (figure 1). I'm not sure just when the photograph was taken. It may have been about 1950.

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Created: 6:46 AM 9/30/2019
Last updated: 6:46 AM 9/30/2019