The answer to this question is not simply black and white. Different students learn in different ways. Some students find they learn best by listening, others by reading, and still others by doing. As teachers, we must be aware of the learning styles and preferences of our students so that we know in what ways we can best facilitate their learning.

In a broader sense, learning music is all about experiences. Regardless of whether we are teaching kindergarten or twelfth grade, our students come to us with some kind of background or experience with music. Even if they have had no formal music instruction, they have experienced music through what they or their parents listen to on the radio or on their iPods and the music they hear on television and in movies.

Students’ experiences with music shape their definition of what music is and how they connect with it on a personal level. For some children, maybe music is something they see belonging in the background that enhances the mood of a particular event or task, like upbeat music for a road trip, music to help you relax and focus while doing homework, or intense action movie music. For others, music might be an escape to help them cope with a difficult home life. Others still might view it as a representation of their family’s culture.

As music teachers, we must meet our students where they are at in regards to music and their experiences with music and provide them with as many new musical experiences as we can. We should be to provide these experiences through different means such as listening, performing, critiquing, reading, writing, and many others of music from a variety of styles, cultures, and time periods. Our objective should be to expand their current “known” to a new “known,” which will hopefully create a lifelong love and curiosity about music through whatever form and type of experience suits them.