Why is Music and Storytelling an Effective way to Relate Historical Information? - April 20, 2010
History, written by well-meaning, but often meticulous, detailed oriented, individuals is about the presentation of facts (presumed to be true), usually in the form of textbooks, that most of us are exposed to in a school/educational environment. We are required to read and memorize this information. Very few people enjoy that process, but some do! For me, History was my most dreaded subject. Dry, torturous reading that was little more than frustrating attempts to remember lists of dates, places and names. This proved to be a near impossibility for me as I was dealing with an undiscovered reading disability that made this kind of learning slow, painful, and embarrassing (compared to most of my classmates ability to process the text).
It would another decade before I was able to find a way to read (circumventing the disorder) and became a voracious seeker of information.
Then, as an adult, at age 28, I was asked to sing American Colonial Songs at a Thanksgiving Banquet. I was fortunate to find a songbook in the main library in Bethlehem, PA, that not only had the music that I was looking for, but it contained explanations of the origin of the songs - who wrote them, where they came from, what inspired the writers, etc. For the first time in my life, I realized that history had been written into the songs of the times, and that history is about people, not just the dates, places and names listed in a book! I discovered that when I told the story of the song, before I sang it, that, not only did the song have more meaning for the listeners, they remembered not only the song, but the story that went with it!! Here was an interesting and fun way for me to explore history in a way that was far more interactive (making it personal!) than handing a book to someone! Now there was meaning and dimension to the 'facts', bringing the history to 'life'!
Storytelling, through drawing, was the original forms of teaching, especially, for historical subjects, before written language was developed. Today, our human histories exist in our art, music, and literature. I work to combine them in an intimate way so that they come alive from the inside - from the heart - to 'put a face' on the facts, so that the listener can connect to those 'facts' on a . The facts don't exist without the people who did the things that made the facts reality. I've found that music (a universal language!) and storytelling combine easily to 'bring history to life' in the minds of the listener.
It would another decade before I was able to find a way to read (circumventing the disorder) and became a voracious seeker of information.
Then, as an adult, at age 28, I was asked to sing American Colonial Songs at a Thanksgiving Banquet. I was fortunate to find a songbook in the main library in Bethlehem, PA, that not only had the music that I was looking for, but it contained explanations of the origin of the songs - who wrote them, where they came from, what inspired the writers, etc. For the first time in my life, I realized that history had been written into the songs of the times, and that history is about people, not just the dates, places and names listed in a book! I discovered that when I told the story of the song, before I sang it, that, not only did the song have more meaning for the listeners, they remembered not only the song, but the story that went with it!! Here was an interesting and fun way for me to explore history in a way that was far more interactive (making it personal!) than handing a book to someone! Now there was meaning and dimension to the 'facts', bringing the history to 'life'!
Storytelling, through drawing, was the original forms of teaching, especially, for historical subjects, before written language was developed. Today, our human histories exist in our art, music, and literature. I work to combine them in an intimate way so that they come alive from the inside - from the heart - to 'put a face' on the facts, so that the listener can connect to those 'facts' on a . The facts don't exist without the people who did the things that made the facts reality. I've found that music (a universal language!) and storytelling combine easily to 'bring history to life' in the minds of the listener.