The Hidden Curriculum: Four Essential Musical Skills You Might Not Know You Need to Practice

In school, there are a whole bunch things you' are explicitly taught- what fractions mean, how volcanos erupt, how to tell time. And then there a whole bunch of things about which you never receive explicit instruction, but which, nevertheless, you absorb: how to follow the teacher’s instructions, how to know what to listen for in class, how to care for your things and navigate the school environment.

In the field of education, these silent lessons are called “the hidden curriculum,” and for better or for worse, your level of mastery of the the hidden curriculum can determine your educational fate.

Music is no different. Just as in school, there are musical skills that aren’t often explicitly taught, but that, nevertheless, you must learn. I think of this as music’s hidden curriculum: skills you might not even know you need to practice. Sometimes these skills evolve instinctually, especially in young players, but the more years I teach, the more I’ve found value in spelling them out.

Here are some examples:

1) Flexible subdivision. One of the shifts many players from more traditional classical music backgrounds face when moving into early repertoire is a change of pulse- I have a colleague who jokes that everything in early music is either in one or two, and he’s not far off. But feeling a more infrequent tactus (beat) can present difficulty in rhythmically intricate music. This is where flexible subdivision comes in. You might start out feeling the piece in whole notes, then swap to feeling a quarter note pulse when the going gets tough- then swap back. Flexibly subdividing (changing the pulse you feel midstream) is an essential skill, but if you don't practice it, you won’t be able to use it in the moment.

2) Counting rests. As I discovered far, far, far too late in my musical life, you actually do need to practice counting rests. You can’t just skip them in practice and expect to be able count effectively in performance.

3) Getting back in. Leaping back onto the musical train after getting thrown off is one of the most vital skills any musician can master, and yet we often waste our opportunities to practice by throwing silent (or not-so-silent) mini-tantrums. And it’s true, getting back is no joke, but rather, a complex skill made up of many subskills. First, you need to identify that you are off. Then, you need to quiet your emotional and physical response. Next, you need to listen and look, matching what you hear in the other parts to what’s on the page. Finally, you need to forecast ahead, identifying the place where you will make your re-entry. Getting back in is a far, far more useful skill than the mythical musical skill of “never getting lost in the first place,” and yet we don’t often talk about what it takes to make it happen, let alone deliberately practice it.

4) Relaxing during mistakes. Similarly, we don’t often explicitly teach, or practice, how to make mistakes with ease and grace, and yet it is of vital importance that when we make a mistake (which, yes, we will!), we do it with skill. Mistakes often cause us to tense up, flooding us with adrenaline, and stiffening our fingers and minds. This is not conducive to accurate or musical playing. So the next time you make a mistake, consider taking it as an opportunity to practice relaxing into the error- and keep on playing.

What other examples of music’s hidden curriculum can you think of?